Wildland Fuel Treatments

2020 ◽  
pp. 1159-1166
Author(s):  
Chad M. Hoffman ◽  
Brandon Collins ◽  
Mike Battaglia
Keyword(s):  
Fuel Treatments

scholarly journals Short- and long-term effects of ponderosa pine fuel treatments intersected by the Egley Fire Complex, Oregon, USA

Fire Ecology ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 15 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Jessie M. Dodge ◽  
Eva K. Strand ◽  
Andrew T. Hudak ◽  
Benjamin C. Bright ◽  
Darcy H. Hammond ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Prescribed Fire ◽  
Vegetation Cover ◽  
Tree Density ◽  
Tree Canopy ◽  
Fuel Treatments ◽  
Dead Tree ◽  
High Severity ◽  
Short And Long Term ◽  
One Year

Abstract Background Fuel treatments are widely used to alter fuels in forested ecosystems to mitigate wildfire behavior and effects. However, few studies have examined long-term ecological effects of interacting fuel treatments (commercial harvests, pre-commercial thinnings, pile and burning, and prescribed fire) and wildfire. Using annually fitted Landsat satellite-derived Normalized Burn Ratio (NBR) curves and paired pre-fire treated and untreated field sites, we tested changes in the differenced NBR (dNBR) and years since treatment as predictors of biophysical attributes one and nine years after the 2007 Egley Fire Complex in Oregon, USA. We also assessed short- and long-term fuel treatment impacts on field-measured attributes one and nine years post fire. Results One-year post-fire burn severity (dNBR) was lower in treated than in untreated sites across the Egley Fire Complex. Annual NBR trends showed that treated sites nearly recovered to pre-fire values four years post fire, while untreated sites had a slower recovery rate. Time since treatment and dNBR significantly predicted tree canopy and understory green vegetation cover in 2008, suggesting that tree canopy and understory vegetation cover increased in areas that were treated recently pre fire. Live tree density was more affected by severity than by pre-fire treatment in either year, as was dead tree density one year post fire. In 2008, neither treatment nor severity affected percent cover of functional groups (shrub, graminoid, forb, invasive, and moss–lichen–fungi); however, by 2016, shrub, graminoid, forb, and invasive cover were higher in high-severity burn sites than in low-severity burn sites. Total fuel loads nine years post fire were higher in untreated, high-severity burn sites than any other sites. Tree canopy cover and density of trees, saplings, and seedlings were lower nine years post fire than one year post fire across treatments and severity, whereas live and dead tree basal area, understory surface cover, and fuel loads increased. Conclusions Pre-fire fuel treatments effectively lowered the occurrence of high-severity wildfire, likely due to successful pre-fire tree and sapling density and surface fuels reduction. This study also quantified the changes in vegetation and fuels from one to nine years post fire. We suggest that low-severity wildfire can meet prescribed fire management objectives of lowering surface fuel accumulations while not increasing overstory tree mortality.

scholarly journals Comparing Modeled Emissions from Wildfire and Prescribed Burning of Post-Thinning Fuel: A Case Study of the 2016 Pioneer Fire

Fire ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 2 (2) ◽  
pp. 22
Author(s):  
Josh Hyde ◽  
Eva K. Strand
Keyword(s):  
Air Quality ◽  
Prescribed Fire ◽  
Prescribed Burning ◽  
Effective Means ◽  
National Forest ◽  
Conifer Forest ◽  
Mixed Conifer ◽  
Fuel Treatments ◽  
Mixed Conifer Forest

Prescribed fire is often used by land managers as an effective means of implementing fuel treatments to achieve a variety of goals. Smoke generated from these activities can put them at odds with air quality regulations. We set out to characterize the emission tradeoff between wildfire and prescribed fire in activity fuels from thinning in a case study of mixed conifer forest within the Boise National Forest in central Idaho. Custom fuelbeds were developed using information from the forest and emissions were modeled and compared for four scenarios, as follows: Untreated fuels burned in wildfire (UNW), prescribed fire in activity fuels left from thinning (TRX), a wildfire ignited on the post-treatment landscape (PTW), and the combined emissions from TRX followed by PTW (COM). The modeled mean total emissions from TRX were approximately 5% lower, compared to UNW, and between 2–46% lower for individual pollutants. The modeled emissions from PTW were approximately 70% lower than UNW. For the COM scenario, emissions were not significantly different from the UNW scenario for any pollutants, but for CO2. However, for the COM scenario, cumulative emissions would have been comprised of two events occurring at separate times, each with lower emissions than if they occurred at once.

Evaluating and monitoring forest fuel treatments using remote sensing applications in Arizona, U.S.A.

2018 ◽  
Vol 413 ◽  
pp. 48-61 ◽  
Author(s):  
Roy E. Petrakis ◽  
Miguel L. Villarreal ◽  
Zhuoting Wu ◽  
Robert Hetzler ◽  
Barry R. Middleton ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Remote Sensing ◽  
Fuel Treatments ◽  
Sensing Applications ◽  
Forest Fuel ◽  
Remote Sensing Applications

Corrigendum to: Prioritising fuels reduction for water supply protection

2020 ◽  
Vol 29 (11) ◽  
pp. 1054
Author(s):  
Benjamin M. Gannon ◽  
Yu Wei ◽  
Lee H. MacDonald ◽  
Stephanie K. Kampf ◽  
Kelly W. Jones ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Water Supply ◽  
Risk Mitigation ◽  
Cost Savings ◽  
Cost Effective ◽  
Fuel Treatments ◽  
Water Supplies ◽  
Fuel Treatment ◽  
Fuels Reduction ◽  
Forest Fuels ◽  
Multiple Resources

Concerns over wildfire impacts to water supplies have motivated efforts to mitigate risk by reducing forest fuels. Methods to assess fuel treatment effects and prioritise their placement are needed to guide risk mitigation efforts. We present a fuel treatment optimisation model to minimise risk to multiple water supplies based on constraints for treatment feasibility and cost. Risk is quantified as the expected sediment impact costs to water supplies by combining measures of fire likelihood and behaviour, erosion, sediment transport and water supply vulnerability. We demonstrate the model's utility for prioritising fuel treatments in two large watersheds in Colorado, USA, that are critical for municipal water supply. Our results indicate that wildfire risk to water supplies can be substantially reduced by treating a small portion of the watersheds that have dense, fire-prone forests on steep slopes that drain to water supply infrastructure. Our results also show that the cost of fuel treatments outweighs the expected cost savings from reduced sediment inputs owing to the low probability of fuel treatments encountering wildfire and the high cost of thinning forests. This highlights the need to expand use of more cost-effective treatments, like prescribed fire, and to identify fuel treatment projects that benefit multiple resources.

Comparing landscape-based decision rules for placement of fuel treatments in the boreal mixedwood of western Canada

2007 ◽  
Vol 16 (6) ◽  
pp. 664 ◽  
Author(s):  
Marc-André Parisien ◽  
David R. Junor ◽  
Victor G. Kafka
Keyword(s):  
Large Scale ◽  
Decision Rules ◽  
Limited Area ◽  
Western Canada ◽  
Fuel Treatments ◽  
Fuel Treatment ◽  
Landscape Features ◽  
Burn Probability ◽  
Rule Sets ◽  
Rule Based Approach

The present study used a rule-based approach to prioritise locations of fuel treatments in the boreal mixedwood forest of western Canada. The analysis, which was conducted in and around Prince Albert National Park, Saskatchewan, was based on burn probability (BP) mapping using the Burn-P3 (Probability, Prediction, and Planning) model. Fuel treatment locations were determined according to three rule-sets and five fuel treatment intensities. Fuel treatments were located according to BP only; jurisdictional boundaries and BP; and non-flammable landscape features, BP, and fuel treatment orientation. First, a baseline BP map was created from the original (i.e. unmodified) fuels grid. Fuel treatments were then added to the selected areas and BP maps produced for each combination of rule-set and treatment intensity. BP values for the treated landscapes were compared with those of the baseline BP map. Results varied substantially among scenarios. Locating fuel treatments as a function of the jurisdictional boundaries and BP yielded the lowest reduction in BP. Results suggest that clumping fuel treatments within a limited area or using landscape features to maximise the large-scale spatial benefits of the fuel treatments can significantly reduce landscape-level BP. Although these two strategies may produce similar overall reductions in BP, their appropriateness and utility depend on management objectives.

Calculation of fire spread rates across random landscapes

2003 ◽  
Vol 12 (2) ◽  
pp. 167 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mark A. Finney
Keyword(s):  
Travel Time ◽  
Growth Rates ◽  
Fire Spread ◽  
Harmonic Mean ◽  
Fire Growth ◽  
Fire Size ◽  
Spread Rate ◽  
Fuel Treatments ◽  
Fuel Mixtures

An approach is presented for approximating the expected spread rate of fires that burn across 2-dimensional landscapes with random fuel patterns. The method calculates a harmonic mean spread rate across a small 2-dimensional grid that allows the fire to move forward and laterally. Within this sample grid, all possible spatial fuel arrangements are enumerated and the spread rate of an elliptical fire moving through the cells is found by searching for the minimum travel time. More columns in the sample grid are required for accurately calculating expected spread rates where very slow-burning fuels are present, because the fire must be allowed to move farther laterally around slow patches. This calculation can be used to estimate fire spread rates across spatial fuel mixtures provided that the fire shape was determined from wind and slope. Results suggest that fire spread rates on random landscapes should increase with fire size and that random locations of fuel treatments would be inefficient in changing overall fire growth rates.

Effect of thinning and prescribed burning on crown fire severity in ponderosa pine forests

2002 ◽  
Vol 11 (1) ◽  
pp. 1 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jolie Pollet ◽  
Philip N. Omi
Keyword(s):  
Prescribed Fire ◽  
Ponderosa Pine ◽  
Stand Structure ◽  
Fire Severity ◽  
Fire Effects ◽  
Pine Forests ◽  
Crown Fire ◽  
Fuel Treatments ◽  
Ponderosa Pine Forests ◽  
Wildfire Hazard

Fire exclusion policies have affected stand structure and wildfire hazard in north American ponderosa pine forests. Wildfires are becoming more severe in stands where trees are densely stocked with shade-tolerant understory trees. Although forest managers have been employing fuel treatment techniques to reduce wildfire hazard for decades, little scientific evidence documents the success of treatments in reducing fire severity. Our research quantitatively examined fire effects in treated and untreated stands in western United States national forests. Four ponderosa pine sites in Montana, Washington, California and Arizona were selected for study. Fuel treatments studied include: prescribed fire only, whole-tree thinning, and thinning followed by prescribed fire. On-the-ground fire effects were measured in adjacent treated and untreated forests. We developed post facto fire severity and stand structure measurement techniques to complete field data collection. We found that crown fire severity was mitigated in stands that had some type of fuel treatment compared to stands without any treatment. At all four of the sites, the fire severity and crown scorch were significantly lower at the treated sites. Results from this research indicate that fuel treatments, which remove small diameter trees, may be beneficial for reducing crown fire hazard in ponderosa pine sites.

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