Fishlake National Forest Stand Replacement Prescribed Fire Strategy 2025

Click here to explore the entire Storymap: Reducing Risk through Large-Scale, Stand-Replacement Rx Fire. 

Since 2015, the Fishlake National Forest and partners have been restoring pre-colonial disturbance cycles on a large-landscape scale. Between 2020-2025, the Fishlake NF's fuels program led the USFS Intermountain West region in acres treated. A key element of their approach was the use of stand-replacement prescribed fires using slash lines, a tactic they pioneered. The effectiveness of their approach was vividly demonstrated in 2025, during the 73,000-acre Monroe Canyon Fire. Despite record Energy Release Components, and fourteen straight days of "Red Flag" fire weather conditions, fuel treatment units slowed and herded the fire. This spared many communities, buying firefighters time to protect homes, reduced the ultimate perimeter of the wildfire, and limited severe fire effects in fully-treated areas.