Prescribed fire, also known as controlled burning, is a strategically planned and carefully managed fire used to achieve specific conservation and land management goals. When applied under the right conditions by trained personnel, prescribed fire is one of the most effective and economical tools for maintaining healthy forests and grasslands.
Prescribed burns provide a range of benefits including:
- Reducing hazardous fuel loads to lower wildfire risk
- Improving wildlife habitat by promoting native plant growth
- Controlling invasive vegetation
- Restoring ecosystems that depend on periodic fire to thrive
Report Prescribed Burns
To help ensure public safety and coordination with wildfire suppression efforts, all prescribed burns should be reported in advance. Report a prescribed burn online here or by calling our dispatch center at 1-800-830-8015.
Resources
- Arkansas Game and Fish Commission: Prescribed Burn Associations
- Arkansas Game and Fish Commission: Prescribed Fire
- Arkansas Prescribed Burning Act
- Benefits of Prescribed Burning
- Central Arkansas Water: Prescribed Fire
- National Weather Service Little Rock, AR – Fire Weather
- Prescribed Burn Plan Template
- Safe Burning Tips for Landowners
- Southern Group of State Foresters: Prescribed Fire in the South
- Southern Regional Extension Forestry: Guidebook for Prescribed Burning in the Southern Region
- The Nature Conservancy: Why We Work With Fire
- U.S. Forest Service: Prescribed Fire
- U.S. Forest Service: Southern Region Prescribed Burn Tracker
- University of Arkansas System Division of Agriculture: Smoke Management & Prescribed Fire in Arkansas
- VSmoke