These strategically placed fuel treatments are not intended to exclude fire from the landscape, but rather to change the character and ultimate effects of an unplanned fire. Treatments on a fraction of the landscape may or may not be sufficient to restore ecosystems, but they may effectively disrupt or reduce large wildfire growth as well as serving as a step in the right direction toward the long-term goal of restoring desired conditions at a lanscape scale.

Restoration is rarely fully realized in the first entry and will likely be achieved through multiple fuel treatments over many years. The initial strategic round of treatments, if successful, can reduce the probability of a large, uncharacteristically severe fire and can serve to buy more time for mangers in terms of working toward the long-term restoration goal.

Here, a Landsat image captures a 1999 prescribed fire fuel treatment area diverting head-fire spread on the Rodeo fire in 2001.