Fuels management impacts on the Monroe Canyon fire

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Nearly two decades ago, Utah state officials and the Fishlake National Forest began one of the nation’s most progressive investments in fuels management to improve the ecological health of Central Utah’s forests and rangelands and lessen impacts to communities from wildfire. The 2025 Monroe Canyon Fire is proof of concept of these investments. The Monroe Canyon Fire started on July 13th on a mountain between the communities of Richfield, Monroe, and Koosharem, Utah. Initial fire activity included extreme surface spread with tree torching, rapid perimeter advancement, and very high heat intensity due to
the hot, dry weather patterns, steep slopes, and heavy fuel accumulations.

Initial attack forces immediately requested air support and a Type III Incident Management Team. The Central Utah Type III Incident Management Team took command of the fire the evening of July 13 and Great Basin Complex Incident Management Team 3 took command of the fire on July 16th. An aggressive, full-suppression response to the fire was initiated at the fire’s first report.

Over the course of the next 28 days, the fire grew to over 70,000-acres as weather conditions deteriorated. Extreme fire behavior forced evacuations and threatened communities in all directions surrounding the mountain. Convection columns formed pyro cumulous clouds so large they collapsed on two separate occasions. Weather analysts issued an unprecedented 14 consecutive Red Flag Warnings during one period of the fire and Fire Behavior Analysts recorded and confirmed a relative humidity reading of 2 percent at 9,000 feet elevation, which is thought to be among the lowest readings ever recorded in North
America. Fire activity and growth substantially decreased by August 10th, but it took four more weeks for Complex Incident Management Teams (CIMTs) to achieve 100 percent containment on September 4th.

Throughout the fire’s duration, investments in fuels treatments gave firefighters an advantage as strategically placed treatments guided the fire away from population centers and minimized property loss. Treatments reduced fire intensity, created areas where firefighters could safely engage the fire, slowed or stopped perimeter growth in several areas, and resulted in improved forest and rangeland health in many areas within the fire perimeter. To a large degree, the intensity of the Monroe Canyon fire and the extreme resistance to control is tied to the untreated portions of the mountain and creates a stark
contrast with the portions of the mountain which had been treated. Taken together, the Monroe Canyon Fire is a successful outcome of the investment in fuels management.