How prescribed fire is restoring Washington’s forests, shrubsteppe, and prairies
Long before firefighting helicopters carried 300-gallon water buckets and tanker planes dropped bright orange fire retardant, wildfire shaped the Pacific Northwest that we know today. Frequent, low-intensity burns — sparked by lightning or as part of indigenous land practices — cleared brush, recycled nutrients, and created a mosaic of habitats that supported abundant biodiversity.
Prescribed fire, which mimics natural fire cycles under controlled conditions, is reshaping how the Pacific Northwest confronts the intertwined challenges of large-scale wildfires, climate change, forest health, and biodiversity loss. Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife (WDFW) uses carefully planned and coordinated prescribed burns to restore ecosystem health, improve wildlife habitat, and reduce the risk of future large-scale wildfires.
“We can’t afford to simply wait for the next severe wildfire to sweep through and eliminate more habitat from an already fragmented landscape,” said Matt Eberlein, WDFW’s prescribed fire program manager.
Wildfires are typically considered large-scale when they reach 100,000 acres and exhibit unpredictable behavior, often burning extremely hot and fast. While large-scale, intense fires can leave landscapes completely scorched, charred, and largely uninhabitable for years to come, smaller scale wildfires, including prescribed burns, don’t burn as hot or deep.
That means the ecosystem can bounce back, oftentimes even more vibrant than before. The benefits of smaller-scale wildfire are particularly evident in the dry forests, shrubsteppe, and Palouse prairie east of the Cascade Crest and in the south Puget Sound.
Wildfires used to burn throughout the dry season in the Pacific Northwest, for thousands of years, Eberlein added. But those fires typically burned more frequently, with lower intensity, keeping them on a smaller scale. While large fires did happen, most were far smaller than the wildfires we face today.
Wildfire is not always a catastrophic event — smaller scale fires rejuvenate important native grasses, wildflowers, and brush habitat for wildlife while improving ecosystem health and resiliency. Many plants, including common buckbrush, depend on wildfire to flourish and are important winter food sources for deer.
Low-intensity fire can also spur growth of native bunchgrasses and bitterbrush. Helping to recreate those less severe and more consistent fire impacts, Eberlein says, “is about investing in the long-term health of these landscapes for wildlife and people.”
Much of Washington’s ecosystems evolved with fire as a natural balancing presence. But more than a century of fire suppression policies by European settlers interrupted that balance.
As a result, dense stands of small trees now crowd many forests, and heavy accumulations of dry fuels, including invasive plants such as cheatgrass, set the stage for the kind of high-intensity wildfires that have grown increasingly common — and destructive — in a warming climate.
“Many of today’s wildfires burn hotter, faster, and more unpredictably than the fires these landscapes evolved with,” said Justin Haug, WDFW’s North Central Washington regional wildlife program manager. “We saw that firsthand in 2020 with the Pearl Hill Fire, which was devastating to our communities and our wildlife.”
On Sept. 7, 2020, a brush fire near Bridgeport in Douglas County quickly grew from 8,000 acres to 174,000 acres in 24 hours, destroying homes, infrastructure, and wildlife habitat. Within days, it jumped the Columbia River and merged with the Cold Springs Fire, forming the Pearl Hill–Cold Springs complex.
The fires burned 413,653 acres before containment on Sept. 17 — nearly twice the size of Mount Rainier National Park and larger than the 2015 Okanogan Complex, which burned just under 305,000 acres. Fires of this scale can erase years of habitat restoration in hours. But prescribed fire remains one of the best tools to rebuild resilient landscapes and avoid the magnitude and severity of such large-scale fires.
Since 2014, WDFW has treated more than 30,000 acres of forest through thinning, prescribed fire, and fuel reduction — removing over 211,000 tons of brush, small trees, and other excess fuel from WDFW-managed wildlife areas across the state. These treatments are about more than reducing fire risk. They are essential for restoring biodiversity and ecological function.
Prescribed burns clear invasive grasses, stimulate native plant growth, and create a patchwork of habitats that support a wide range of wildlife from pollinators and songbirds to deer, elk, and Canada lynx. In places like the Sinlahekin Wildlife Area in north-central Washington, native vegetation often begins sprouting within days of a burn, providing nutritious forage for wildlife and stabilizing soils before winter rains arrive.
The ecological benefits go beyond plants and animals. Healthy, fire-adapted forests filter more water and are more resilient to drought, pests, and disease. By reintroducing fire under controlled conditions, typically in the spring and fall, managers are not only restoring ecosystems — they are strengthening them against the accelerating pressures of climate change.
But forest health treatments have faced substantial funding setbacks in Washington since the most recent state budget cuts. Given the critical role of these treatments, which include prescribed burning, WDFW is pursuing a budget request that would reinstate funding for its forest health and resilience work. The Department hopes to treat 100,000 acres of the state’s forests by 2037 but won’t be able to achieve that goal under current funding levels.
Evidence of fire’s natural role is visible across the state. At Sherman Creek Wildlife Area, a prescribed burn conducted in spring 2018 altered the course of the Boyds Fire just months later. As flames raced across the landscape, they hit the previously treated area and slowed, dropping from the tree canopy to the forest floor. Flame lengths and intensity decreased, giving firefighting crews a safer foothold and preventing widespread tree mortality.
“That burn area acted like a speed bump,” Eberlein said. “It made it more manageable and far less destructive. That’s exactly the outcome we want — landscapes that can absorb fire without catastrophic losses.”
In 2025, WDFW and partners conducted a variety of prescribed burns across Washington during cooler weather windows and favorable humidity conditions. These burns helped to reduce hazardous fuels, restore native vegetation, and improve habitat for a variety of wildlife species.
For Indigenous peoples of the Northwest, the relationship with fire is far older than any modern management plan. Tribal nations have traditionally practiced cultural burning, using low-intensity fires to shape the land, encourage growth of food and medicine plants, improve hunting grounds, and maintain healthy ecosystems. These traditional burning practices were deeply rooted in stewardship and reciprocity: living with fire, not fighting against it.
Honoring and integrating traditional ecological knowledge into prescribed fire practices is central to WDFW’s evolving management approach. As agencies work to restore natural fire cycles, collaborating with indigenous peoples, who bring millennia of knowledge and experience to the table, is a critical component of land stewardship. Together, agencies and tribal governments are shaping strategies that honor traditional practices while applying modern science — a partnership that benefits both people and the landscapes they share.
Beyond the dry ponderosa pine forests and shrubsteppe of Eastern Washington, prescribed fire is quietly regaining its place in South Puget Sound prairies and savannahs, a rare and imperiled ecosystem west of the Cascades.
One key front in this work is Scatter Creek Wildlife Area, where carefully managed burns help restore native prairies, suppress invasive species, and support pollinators and other native wildlife.
Scatter Creek, located just a few minutes south of Olympia in Thurston County, includes several prairie and garry oak-woodland units that harbor species largely absent elsewhere on the west side. These prairies — once kept open through centuries of low-intensity burning by Indigenous peoples — have shrunk to just a few percent of their original extent. In 2025, WDFW scheduled prescribed burns spanning 110 acres and three sites within Scatter Creek.
“Prescribed fire is a key tool to maintain native grassland habitats — to control invasive weeds, reduce fuel loads, and prepare the ground for native species regeneration,” says Bill Kronland, Scatter Creek Wildlife Area manager. “We’re careful to post signs in advance, limit public access during burns, and minimize smoke impacts when possible. People might see smoke for an hour or two afterward, but the ecological benefit is lasting.”
These fires do more than remove fuel; they open a window for prairie wildflowers, grasses, and pollinators that cannot compete in dense or shaded conditions. Species such as the mardon skipper butterfly, Taylor’s checkerspot butterfly, Mazama pocket gopher, and streaked horned lark benefit from fresh sunlight, nutrient cycling, and improved habitat from native plant growth.
The burns also help suppress non-native, invasive species like Scotch broom that have gained a foothold in prairies in the absence of fire. Once the ground is cleared, land managers seed or plant native species, letting them take advantage of the open space. In this way, fire restores native prairie conditions.
Though the parcels burned are much smaller than prescribed fire units in Eastern Washington, their impact can ripple outward — creating stepping stones of restored habitat and enhancing connectivity between prairie fragments. Over time, these strategic burns can help rebuild and protect biodiversity across south Puget Sound.
By tailoring prescribed fire to different ecosystems — from shrubsteppe and ponderosa pine forests to oak woodlands, prairies, and wetlands — WDFW is helping landscapes statewide adapt to changing conditions and recover their natural resilience.
Prescribed fire is just one piece of a broader strategy. WDFW’s forest health work also includes forest thinning and fuel break creation, both of which complement the benefits of controlled burning.
Thinning removes small, overcrowded trees that compete for water and nutrients, improving forest health and reducing the risk of crown fires. Commercial thinning also provides wood to local mills, supporting rural economies, while non-commercial thinning — though labor-intensive — focuses on ecological outcomes.
Fuel breaks, meanwhile, act as strategic buffers. By clearing vegetation and removing low-hanging branches along roads and ridgelines, these zones slow wildfire spread and give firefighters critical time and space to act. Together, these tools create a layered defense against catastrophic fire while supporting healthier, more diverse ecosystems.
Despite significant progress, challenges remain. Nearly 15% of WDFW-managed forests have burned in wildfires since 2014, including areas slated for prescribed fire treatment. Major wildfires disrupted projects at Burch Mountain, Ramsey Creek, and Asotin Creek before planned work could begin.
The COVID-19 pandemic also slowed progress, forcing cancellations or delays on several projects in 2020 and 2021. But momentum is building again, with expanded prescribed fire capacity and growing public awareness of its importance.
“We’ve seen firsthand how much healthier and more resilient treated areas are when wildfire does occur,” Haug said. “Those lessons are pushing us to keep expanding this work, even as conditions change and challenges arise.”
Still, there is much more to do. Only about 6.5% of WDFW-managed forests have been treated to date, and the Department estimates it must revisit 6,000 to 7,000 acres annually to maintain progress. Scaling up this work will require continued investment, collaboration, and public support.
While agencies like WDFW play a key role in restoring fire-adapted ecosystems, individuals also have a part to play. According to the National Interagency Fire Center, 91% of North American wildfires are human-caused — often from unattended campfires, fireworks, discarded cigarettes, or sparks from vehicles and equipment.
By practicing responsible recreation, adhering to burn bans, and following Leave No Trace principles, residents and visitors can help prevent the next devastating wildfire and protect the progress being made toward healthier landscapes. Recreationists can learn more about current wildfire information, including restrictions, each wildfire season on WDFW’s website.
The goal isn’t to eliminate fire. It’s to live with it — and in doing so, protect the biodiversity and communities that depend on these lands.
“Fire is part of the story of these landscapes,” Eberlein said. “By bringing it back under the right conditions, we’re helping write a better next chapter of climate resilience, biodiversity restoration, and safer communities.”
