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The prescribed fire operations planned for today will not be taking place in Rocky Mountain National Park due to forecasted high winds. At 6 a.m., fire managers took onsite observations, and the wind speeds measured exceeded our prescription for the burn. Burn operations only occur when weather and conditions allow. Fire managers carefully observe conditions in the days preceding and the morning of any planned burn operation. 

Prescribed fire is the planned ignition of a fire by firefighters within a predetermined set of conditions intended to achieve desired effects on a landscape. Prescribed fire is one of the most important tools used by land managers to achieve specific results on a landscape, including the reduction of fuels that could sustain an unwanted wildfire.

A range of conditions, or prescription, for each fire determines the precise environmental conditions under which it will burn to achieve specific objectives. If conditions vary outside of that prescription, ignitions may be stopped.

The primary goal of the Headquarters Unit of RMNP's Front Country Prescribed Burn is to reduce the threat of wildland fire to adjacent communities and to NPS infrastructure by reducing the amount of fuels available on the landscape.