ALBANY COUNTY — With wildfires still raging in Canada — Québec reports 85 active fires on June 21 — the fire-management plan for the Albany Pine Bush Preserve takes on added meaning.

The plan, which has to be regularly updated, explains that prescribed fires, undertaken since 1991 in the pine bush, reduce the risk of wildfires as well as controlling invasive species in the preserve.

A draft of the updated plan will be discussed at a public information meeting on July 18, from 7 to 9 p.m., at the Pine Bush Discovery Center at 195 New Karner Road; the public has until July 28 to comment on the plan at managementplan@albanypinebush.org.

“The risks posed by wildland fire in the preserve are greatly mitigated by 30+ years of fuel treatments, a robust training program and sound investments in wildland fire resources,” says the report, prepared by Conservation Director Neil Gifford and Fire Manager Tyler Briggs.

The commission has applied prescribed fire to more than 3,407 acres with 2,251 acres burned since 2010 and has learned much in the process, the report says, giving this example: “Using mechanical and fire treatments to convert pitch pine oak forest and pitch pine-scrub oak thickets to pitch pine-scrub oak barrens, has dramatically reduced woody fuel loads, nearly eliminated litter and duff, exposed mineral soil and increased fine fuels (grasses and wildflowers).”

However, challenges persist.

One of them is, as the preserve has grown, meeting “a minimum maintenance threshold of applying prescribed fire to 10 percent of the inland pine barrens ecological communities annually.”

When the preserve was 2,000 acres, 200 were to be burned each year; now that it is more than 3,000 acres, more than 300 have to be burned. Since the vision is to preserve over 5,000, over 500 acres will need to be burned annually.

“The growth of rare wildlife populations also present unique challenges to achieving desired fire effects,” the report says, “since fire management activities increasingly need to navigate the complex life histories of more rare species across more preserve area.”

Finally, the report says, climate change presents a challenge “not only because of increasing temperatures, but more importantly due to increasingly frequent extreme (high and low) temperature and precipitation events.”

Gifford and Briggs consulted with various agencies in New York state and outside of the state to come up with solutions to the challenges and also attended workshops put on by the North Atlantic Fire Science Exchange.

The draft makes detailed recommendations on five subjects: windspeed, fuel moisture, relative humidity, drought index, and not prescribing burns if the National Fire Danger Rating System level for the Albany area is at or above a “Very High.”

“The consensus of our peers,” the report says, “suggests that 30 years of preserve management has reduced hazardous wildland fuels, litter, and duff while increasing fine fuels, mitigating risks of uncontrollable wildfire, while improving smoke management, and expanding prescribed fire opportunities across the preserve.”