A few years ago, U.S. conservation groups could buy insurance policies to conduct controlled burns to cut wildfire risk - or for other ecological purposes - for about $10,000 per year.
"In many cases, the premium is zero,” said Dave Lasky, a longtime fire management expert. “There are all kinds of non-profits trying to get these policies and no one will write them."
Around the world, such proactive fire-setting is seen as one of the cheapest and most effective ways to limit catastrophic fire risk, which is swiftly rising as climate change brings hotter temperatures and harsher droughts. That is leaving many more families, organizations and governments at growing financial risk, they say.Major problems accessing affordable controlled fire insurance have been percolating for at least several years, if not longer, according to Daniel Godwin, a fire management planning specialist with the U.S. Forest Service.
But most prescribed fire in the United States happens on private land, Godwin said, and the nonprofits and trusts crucial to carrying it out are being squeezed out of the market. "The government can't do all this work – there's not enough burn windows, people, money, any of it," he said.Wildland fires blazed through 7.6 million acres in the United States in 2022, according to the National Interagency Fire Center, a level above average compared to the last decade.
In May 2022, the U.S. Forest Service announced a 90-day moratorium on prescribed fire operations after the massive Calf Canyon/Hermits Peak fire.In 2020, 9.4 million acres of forest and rangeland were managed with prescribed fires, down from a high of more than 10 million acres in 2019, according to a report released in January by the National Association of State Foresters and the Coalition of Prescribed Fire Councils .
On a bright, cool morning in March, Dave Slack and his Virginia Department of Forestry crew carefully set fire to about 16 acres of private land in the eastern U.S. state." prefer not to have excitement," he continued with a laugh as he surveyed the burn's progress in a wooded area about a 40-minute drive northeast of the state capital of Richmond.
Lawmakers stepped in last year to create a new $20 million pilot fund, using state money, to allow certified prescribed fire practitioners to apply for liability coverage of up to $2 million. The fund is set to launch this spring.
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