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Fire management can help maintain natural habitats, increase forage for wildlife, reduce fuel loads that might otherwise lead to catastrophic wildfire, and maintain natural succession. Today, there is an emerging challenge that fire managers need to be aware of: invasive plants. Fire management activities can create ideal opportunities for invasions by nonnative plants, potentially undermining the benefits of fire management actions. This manual provides practical guidelines that fire managers should consider with respect to invasive plants.

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Cattle grazing on a nearly half mile wide targeted strip of cheatgrass near Beowawe, Nevada, created a firebreak that helped limit a rangeland fire to just 54 acres this past August compared to rangeland fires that more commonly race across thousands of acres of the Great Basin. This "targeted grazing" firebreak and eight others are part of an evaluation project being managed by the Agricultural Research Service (ARS), partnering with other federal, state and local agencies and local cattle ranchers in Idaho, Nevada and Oregon. These demonstration sites are being studied so the concept's efficacy and environmental impacts can be uniformly evaluated and compared.

Cheatgrass, also known as downy brome, is an invasive annual that dominates more than 100 million acres of the Great Basin in the western U.S. Germinating each winter, cheatgrass grows furiously in spring and dies in early summer, leaving the range carpeted in golden dry tinder. The Great Basin now has the nation's highest wildfire risk, and rangeland fires are outpacing forest fires when it comes to acreage destroyed.

Firewood is widely recognized as a major source of non-native forest insect and disease infestations. A rule governing the importation of untreated firewood into Vermont went into effect on May 1, 2016. Visitors to Vermont State Parks, Vermont State Forests, and the Green Mountain National Forest may only bring firewood originating from Vermont or that is heat treated and in its original, labeled package. To help slow the spread of emerald ash borer within Vermont, ash firewood that has not been heat treated should not be moved outside of the Emerald Ash Borer Infested Area in Vermont.

October is Firewood Month! Learn about firewood rules and how moving firewood hurts our environment and economy by spreading invasive species. Provides specific state information on their firewood regulations and recommendations (includes Canada and Mexico).

As of Jul 2011, New Hampshire has banned the importation of untreated firewood without a commercial or home heating compliance agreement. Firewood is a major source of damaging insects and diseases. This quarantine will help protect the health on New Hampshire's forests.

Invasive insect pests and diseases are threatening the future forests of Virginia. The transport of firewood is one of the primary means by which these harmful insects and diseases spread. Quarantines have been issued by the Virginia Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services to restrict the movement of firewood from counties where the pests have been found to counties without them.

This site was initially created by the Southeast Michigan Resource Conservation and Development Council through funding from the USDA Forest Service Wood Education and Resource Center. In 2019, Firewood Scout's management and operations were transferred to the Sustainable Resources Institute, a non profit corporation specializing in natural resource research, education, training and certification. Today, Firewood Scout continues to add new partnering states and to spread the message of "Buy your firewood where you plan to burn it!"