Hazardous Fuels Management

The Red Lake DNR fuels program, funded under the National Fire Plan since 2001, uses prescribed fire and mechanical methods to reduce hazardous fuels and help meet tribal objectives in the restoration and maintenance of a healthy forest ecosystem on the Reservation. The goals of the fuels program are: to reduce hazardous fuel loading in areas around housing projects, to protect pine plantations, to restore beneficial prescribed fire into the ecosystem where appropriate and to remove fuels along roadsides where human-caused wildfire has historically been a problem. Two DNR employees manage the fuels program, with the assistance of the fire crew and local (Red Lake) contractors.