The Southeast Regional Partnership for Planning and Sustainability (SERPPAS) works across geographic and organizational boundaries to promote collaboration in making resource-use decisions supporting national defense, conservation of natural resources, sustainable working lands and communities, and coordination among states, communities, and military services in the Southeast U.S.
Since a majority of forestland in the Southern region is privately held, an important goal of the Strategy was to minimize landowners’ risk of liability.
Liability is an important consideration for private landowners and others who conduct prescribed burning, and liability concerns often are cited as a primary reason that landowners are reluctant to use prescribed fire. This Report summarizes laws, associated regulations, and known court cases for each Southern state in order to help increase understanding and minimize landowners’ risk of liability associated with prescribed fire.
