Residential encroachment into wildland areas places an additional burden on fire management activities. Prevention programs, fuel management efforts, and suppression strategies, previously employed in wildland areas, require modification for protection of increased values at risk in this interface area. Knowledge-based computer systems are being investigated as knowledge management tools for the organization, synthesis, and application of information pertinent to fire science utilization. Many such systems contain expertise which has been captured from human experts and symbolically encoded for automatic manipulation by computer. Two systems, fire characteristics prediction and initial-attack force dispatch, have been developed elsewhere using this approach. This paper describes a third project, which is currently being developed for wildfire prevention planning. Initial efforts in elicitation of knowledge from experts have produced several benefits prior to system implementation. Results to date in fire management are encouraging, and provide support for the future potential of these methods for the management of knowledge gained from fire research.