I'm looking for the total number of controlled burns performed in the
U.S. each year, as conducted by fire departments or the US Forest
Service.

Hello Innolab, 


According to Fire Marshal Peter Brierty there are 7000 controlled
burns in the US each year.


Excerpt:

?There are about 7000 controlled burns across the US the vast majority
are successful so you don?t hear about them. They are necessary and
the consequence of not doing them would be unacceptable.?

The San Bernardino Sun: Unnatural Disasters
http://lang.sbsun.com/projects/fireflood/chatwithpete.asp


Search terms:
?Controlled burns?  fire departments
?Controlled burns?   forest service
?Controlled burns? united States

I hope the information provided is helpful!

Best regards,
Bobbie7

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Request for Answer Clarification by innolab-ga on 03 Oct 2006 09:50 PDT

Dear Bobbie07,

Thank you for your response, would you have the official statistic
source that this Fire Marshal is referring to? I really need the hard
data with source more than a professional approximation.

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Clarification of Answer by bobbie7-ga on 03 Oct 2006 10:00 PDT

Dear Innolab,

Unfortunatley I do not have the official statistic source that this
Fire Marshal is referring to; however I will resume my search and try
to locate it for you.

Sincerely, 
Bobbie7

---

Clarification of Answer by bobbie7-ga on 03 Oct 2006 10:16 PDT

Controlled burns are also called prescribed burns

I located the acre amounts of prescribed burns in the U.S.

1999        2,240,105 acres of prescribed burns 
2000        1,077,314 acres of prescribed burns 

"The traditional tactic for preventing wildfires is prescribed burns.
Before Columbus arrived in America, the Native American Indians were
setting smaller fires to avoid big wildfires. The government has
learned from the Indians in this respect, setting 2,240,105 acres of
prescribed burns in 1999, and 1,077,314 acres in 2000."

http://library.thinkquest.org/C0119184/english/preventing_fires_fuel_management_prescribed_burns.shtml


Graph: Acres of prescribed burns per year
http://library.thinkquest.org/C0119184/media/images/pictures/prescribed_burns_year.gif


I will continue to search for more information.

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Clarification of Answer by bobbie7-ga on 03 Oct 2006 10:57 PDT

Most projects are 50 to 1,000 acres in size 

?The USDA Forest Service and Department of Interior are slowly chipping
away at the task of treating hazardous fuels. However, they face
enormous challenges in gearing up to conduct enough thinning and
prescribed burning to meet the goals of the National Fire Plan. The
agencies report that they reduced hazardous fuels on 2.25 million acres
in 2001 and that most of the projects were 50 to 1,000 acres in size.
The Fire Modeling Institute of the USDA Forest Service estimates that
126 million acres of federal forest ecosystems that are adapted to
frequent low- and mixed-severity fire are now at high risk of losing key
ecosystem components to wildfire. Thus, the 2.25 million acres treated
by the agencies in 2001 is less than one percent of the total acreage
needing restoration.?
FIRE CHRONICLE:
http://www.foreststewardsguild.org/firechronicle/FC9.pdf

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Clarification of Answer by bobbie7-ga on 03 Oct 2006 11:01 PDT

According to the Center for Forest Disturbance Science, 6 million
acres of prescribed burning performed every year .

?Dense human populations adjacent to wildlands, through and adjacent
road networks, and up to 6 million acres of prescribed burning
performed every year makes smoke a potential forestry-related air
quality problem. The risk of smoke movement from forest related
projects into increasing numbers of sensitive areas, such as,
airports, highways, and human communities, threatens the continued use
of prescribed fire. Prescribed fire, as a very effective forest
management tool in maintaining fire-dependent ecosystems and reducing
the level of wildland fire threat to both wildland and human
communities, has no equal.?

http://www.srs.fs.usda.gov/disturbance/rt_mfe.htm

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Clarification of Answer by bobbie7-ga on 03 Oct 2006 11:10 PDT

"Under President Bush?s Healthy Forests Initiative, the federal land
management agencies plan to reduce hazardous fuels on almost 4 million
acres of forests and rangelands in 2004 compared to 2.8 million acres
in 2003."

Source: 
NEWS RELEASE
USDA Forest Service
Washington, D.C.
http://www.fs.fed.us/r6/colville/hfi/news/news-release/fuels_news_release.htm

Outstanding and very thorough, thank you very much for you efforts.

This is a little dated but:

"...At about 364,225 hectares accomplished each year, it may be the
most common planned disturbance, a distinction formerly held by timber
harvesting."

http://www.fire.uni-freiburg.de/iffn/country/us/us_9.htm



There is also an interesting chart of Prescribed Burns at this website:

http://www.fire.uni-freiburg.de/current/archive/us/2000/02/us_02032000.htm 
(3/4 of the way down the page)

Thank you very much for the kind words, five stars and generous tip!
--Bobbie7