M.I.S.T. - Minimum Impact Suppression Tactics

With the ZACA running into the Wilderness and other Forest Fires around the state this term M.I.S.T. will be showing up on the ICP daily briefing, incident 209's etc.
Here are the basics of using MIST “light hand on the land” fire suppression tactics

M.I.S.T.

Minimum Impact Suppression Tactics

MIST tactics are a “light hand on the land” approach emphasizing suppression techniques followed by rehabilitation options that have the least impact on the environment and reduce adverse impacts to natural, archaeological and historical resources.

Suppression

Depending upon the burning conditions and what kind of vegetation, the firefighters have many options on how to fight the fire.

• MIST tactics discourage hand scratched fireline and emphasizes the use of water and dirt in line construction and trying to tie natural geographic features together to create fireline, i.e. a stream, a rock outcropping, a road or a rocky ridge.
• Firefighters using MIST try to

· Reduce the amount of trees that are cut

· Dig fireline around large logs

· Use cold trailing techniques (feeling with the back of their hand to sense cold line That doesn’t need to be cut)

· Allowing standing dead trees to remain if they are not a safety hazard

Mop Up

• Firefighters do minimal spading and scraping
• Try to roll logs out of the way instead of stacking them or cutting them
• Try to leave as many standing burned trees as possible.

Fire conditions and good judgment dictate the actions taken.

Rehabilitation

• Waterbars are being put in to channel excess water away from the line
• Dug-out soil and/or duff is being replaced
• Where trees needed to be cut to help stop the fire, the stumps are being camouflaged with soil or duff or on very large stumps they are chopped with an axe to make it look jagged and rough.
• Helispots within the wilderness are being rehabilitated to bring them back to as near pristine as they were before the fire.
• Where soil has been exposed and compacted, crews are raking the top two inches and then scattering needle, twigs, rocks and dead branches.
• Where trees were cut, stumps are being blasted to attempt to have the area appear to be in a near natural state.
• Limbs, sawdust and shavings are scattered, returning the area to a natural undisturbed condition.
• Special attention is being paid to rehabilitate fireline-trail junctions to discourage the use of constructed lines as trails.
• Firelines are being covered with brush limbs and small diameter logs in a natural appearing arrangement.
• All flagging, trash and equipment is being picked up and disposed of properly.
• Any protective structure wrap is being removed and any archeological structures or objects that were moved are being placed back in their original location.
• Finally the incident command post, helibase, water draft sites and roads that were used for fire fighting are being repaired, restored and rehabilitated.