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Type: Conference Proceedings
Author(s): James D. Brenner; Dale D. Wade
Editor(s): Krista E. M. Galley; Robert C. Klinger; Neil G. Sugihara
Publication Date: 2003

In Florida, natural communities require periodic fires for maintenance of their ecological integrity. Because of public concerns, wildfires can no longer be allowed to perform this mandatory function so prescribed burning is essential to manage these plant and animal communities. We discuss the importance of prescribed fire in Florida, outline a history of the state's interest and involvement in promoting the judicious use of prescribed fire, describe the situation that led to Florida's fire management statutes, and provide an overview of the 1977 and 1990 statutes and the 1999 changes to the 1990 Prescribed Burning Act that significantly strengthen the law. The State of Florida passed landmark legislation in 1990 to protect responsible burners from civil liability with one goal in mind: to increase the number of acres treated with prescribed fire. The reason for introducing this bill was the clear message coming from the land management community that 'burning the land was too risky,' not because of potential fire control problems, but because of potential smoke management problems that were beyond the control of the burner. During a Florida land manager's conference on prescribed burning issues held January 1999, the four most common reasons cited by land managers for not using prescribed fire pertained to liability. The 1990 Prescribed Burning Act has been nationally recognized as landmark legislation protecting a landowner's right to use fire as a management tool. In the wake of the disastrous 1998 fire season in Florida, which was partially blamed on abnormal fuel accumulations, the Florida legislature modified this law so that a prescribed burner cannot be found civilly liable unless a court demonstrates that the burner was 'grossly negligent.' This unprecedented modification is a huge step in protecting the right to prescription burn in Florida.

Online Links
Citation: Brenner, J.D.; Wade, Dale D. 2003. Florida's revised prescribed fire law: protection for responsible burners. Proceedings of Fire 2000: The First National Congress on Fire Ecology, Prevention and Management. Miscellaneous Publication. 13. Tallahassee, FL: Tall Timbers Research Station. pp. 132-136.

Cataloging Information

Regions:
Keywords:
  • aesthetics
  • allelopathy
  • biogeography
  • burning permits
  • carbon
  • catastrophic fires
  • climatology
  • community ecology
  • ecosystem dynamics
  • education
  • environmental impact analysis
  • escaped prescribed fires
  • European settlement
  • fire control
  • fire damage (property)
  • fire danger rating
  • fire dependent species
  • fire exclusion
  • fire injuries (animals)
  • fire injuries (humans)
  • fire injuries (plants)
  • fire intensity
  • fire management
  • fire management planning
  • fire protection
  • fire suppression
  • firing techniques
  • flame length
  • flatwoods
  • Florida
  • fuel accumulation
  • fuel moisture
  • fuel types
  • herbaceous vegetation
  • humidity
  • ignition
  • incendiary fires
  • insects
  • land management
  • landscape ecology
  • liability
  • Native Americans
  • natural areas management
  • natural resource legislation
  • nutrient cycling
  • pine forests
  • Pinus palustris
  • plant communities
  • plant diseases
  • population density
  • post-fire recovery
  • private lands
  • public information
  • rate of spread
  • reforestation
  • scrub
  • season of fire
  • smoke effects
  • smoke management
  • state forests
  • state parks
  • temperature
  • US Forest Service
  • vegetation surveys
  • wilderness fire management
  • wildfires
  • wind
Tall Timbers Record Number: 16842Location Status: Not in fileAbstract Status: Fair use, Okay, Reproduced by permission
Record Last Modified:
Record Maintained By: FRAMES Staff (https://www.frames.gov/contact)
FRAMES Record Number: 2072

This bibliographic record was either created or modified by Tall Timbers and is provided without charge to promote research and education in Fire Ecology. The E.V. Komarek Fire Ecology Database is the intellectual property of Tall Timbers.