Faced with this daunting task, state and federal agencies have already begun planning how to restore areas damaged by fires. The group of public and private agencies known collectively as the Utah Partners for Conservation and Development has been meeting this past week about where to target restoration efforts.

"This is the first time in history where a partnership effort like this has come together to address wildfire restoration on this kind of a scale," said Reynolds.

At stake are Utah's 736,563 acres burned in wildfires so far this year. That figure puts Utah ahead of all other states as having the most acreage hit by wildland fires, according to the National Interagency Fire Center. Officials are visiting burned areas, where the smoke has cleared and the damage can be surveyed. They're finding that some terrain impacted by the Neola fire and the Milford Flat fire — the largest ever in Utah — may need reseeding with native plants and grasses.

Reynolds said one goal is to avoid landslides in areas where fire has stripped the terrain of vegetation, which would make the soil unstable during a heavy rainfall.

In Nephi, there also may be watershed issues, and officials need to make sure charred sections close to where people live are not affecting culinary water supplies.

"We're looking at all lands," Reynolds said.

Grasses aren't the only tinder out there, however.

Small juniper trees and gamble oak are also keeping wildfires hot.

Wild juniper trees are native. They are considered an invasive species as they encroach on desert land and their roots leave any ground near them devoid of moisture. When ignited, juniper oils and sap cause the trees to burn at extremely high temperatures, creating an extremely hot fire.

Gamble oak, another native scrub species that grows along the Wasatch Front, while difficult to ignite, burns hot due to the density of the large shrub's wood.

Gamble oaks are able to regrow following a fire, providing the root system was not damaged.

There are grasses that are considered "firewise," even though they burn.

Bunch grasses, such as blue bunch wheat grass and crested wheat grass, are what officials believe might be the answer to better wildfire control.

Gov. Jon Huntsman Jr. has made restoration of wildfire areas a priority as he takes part in meetings that have included talks about how to prevent more wildfires, according to Brian Cottam, whom the governor tapped to be the local-government wildfire liaison.