A Survey of Land Managers on Wildland Hazardous Fuels Issues in Florida: A Technical Note

Due to a rapidly expanding human population in Florida, fire management has become hampered by urban encroachment, smoke management issues, and forest fragmentation. For these and other reasons, fire has been excluded from many stands, resulting in the buildup of dangerous fuel loads. These fuel loads have begun to result in recurrent destructive wildfires. Already, different communities are responding to these dangerous fuel loads in various ways. As part of a larger project to synthesize best management practices for hazardous fuel management in pine flatwoods and pine rocklands in Florida, a survey was distributed to a variety of land managers in Florida to investigate fuel management practices already in place. This note summarizes responses to this survey.