What Is HeinOnline?
HeinOnline is a subscription-based resource containing thousands of academic and legal journals from inception; complete coverage of government documents such as U.S. Statutes at Large, U.S. Code, Federal Register, Code of Federal Regulations, U.S. Reports, and much more. Documents are image-based, fully searchable PDFs with the authority of print combined with the accessibility of a user-friendly and powerful database. For more information, request a quote or trial for your organization below.
Already a HeinOnline Subscriber?
Log In
![handle is hein.journals/utahlr2026 and id is 1 raw text is:
PRESCRIBED FIRE LIABILITY AND ADMINISTRATION IN WESTERN
STATES: AN EMPIRICAL ANALYSIS AND CALL FOR REFORM
Stephen R. Miller* & Anastasia Telesetsky**
Abstract
Wildfires have grown exponentially over the lastfew years due tofuel
loads, range- and timber-management policies, and climate change. The
cost offire suppression is also growing in both rural and urban areas. For
instance, the 2016 Pioneer Fire in rural Idaho cost around $100 million
to fight, while the 2025 urban conflagrations in Los Angeles, Calfornia
destroyed over 16,000 structures despite an astonishing array of
suppression resources deployed. Something new, and something big, in
terms of law and policy interventions, is needed to stem the intensity of
wildfires. Increasingly, governments, private citizens, and even corporate
interests like insurance industries are looking to prescribed fire as a
potential landscape-scale solution. Prescribed fires provide the kinds of
fire thatfire-adapted landscapes need toflourish, while wildfires can burn
too intensely, scar the landscape, and provide an entry for invasive
species. Prescribed fire lessens the intensity and prevalence of wildfires
as well, which makes them more manageable. It also has the potential to
reduce riskfor homeowners and, as a result, place less strain onfor-profit
insurers and governmental insurers of last resort. The problem, however,
is that a complex set of laws and antiquated liability standards make the
broad deployment of prescribed fire challenging. This Article succinctly
summarizes the major benefits ofprescribedfire as well as the major legal
problems that prohibit its broader deployment. It presents results from a
first-of-its-kind empirical survey of] ] western states' laws, administrative
regulations, and case law governing prescribed fire with a specific focus
on compliance with requirements of the Clean Air Act. It then 1) evaluates
how each state uses some combination of common law liability standards
to address liability in the prescribed fire context and 2) explores how
states' administrative processes try to encourage, or discourage,
prescribed fire through a mix of certified burner programs, indemnity
funds, and burn facilitation. The Article concludes by offering options for
*© 2026 Stephen R. Miller and Anastasia Telesetsky. Professor of Law, Northern
Illinois University College of Law; Faculty Affiliate, Northern Illinois University Institute
for the Study of the Environment, Sustainability and Energy. J.D. University of California,
San Francisco, College of the Law, M.C.P., University of California, Berkeley, M.F.A.
Boise State University, A.B., Brown University.
** Professor, California Polytechnic State University-San Luis Obispo, LL.M.
University of British Columbia, J.D. University of California-Berkeley, M.A. University of
California-Santa Barbara, B.A. Vanderbilt University.
1](ViewImageLocal?handle=hein.journals/utahlr2026&div=1&collection=&method=preview&ext=.png&size=3)