Guidelines for assessing the adverse impact of wildland fires on the environment and to people through environmental exposure

This document addresses the impact of wildland fires and firefighting activities on the environment (air, water, soil, wildlife and vegetation). It further addresses the impact of wildland fire effluents on exposed human population, including firefighters, as well as food production, land, sea and air traffic, and the built environment. It also describes the environmental impacts of firefighting activities.

This document also provides requirements and recommendations to quantify such impacts of wildland fires and to establish post-fire mitigation measures.

The wildland fires covered include both natural wildland fires and man-initiated fires, including prescribed burning and agricultural fires, but not peat fires nor coal seam fires.

This document is intended to serve as a tool for the development of standard protocols for:

— the assessment of local and remote adverse environmental impacts of wildland fires;

— the assessment of the effects of smoke and gas exposure on firefighters and exposed human populations.

It provides guidance for incident commanders and other responsible or affected parties when decisions regarding firefighting strategies, tactics, and restoration are m