JFSP Projects in Progress
You may search JFSP Project Information by the following: Project Number, Title, Principal Investigator, Cooperators or key words contained in a brief description of the project.
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06-3-3-05: Modeling Forest Change and Management Alternatives on a Restored Landscape |
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Peter Z. Fulé |
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This project will compare treatment methods and schedules for long-term maintenance of forest restoration treatments in a southwestern landscape, addressing tasks 3 (primarily) and 2 (secondarily) of JFSP AFP-3. We will apply a statistical forest simulation model and a process model to forecast changes to in tree structure, biomass, potential forest products, carbon and nutrients under alternative scenarios of treatments and scheduling. Management scenarios will be developed in collaboration with the BLM management staff to ensure that they are relevant and feasible in terms of costs and other constraints. The Central Rockies/Southwestern Ponderosa Pine variant of FVS with the Fire and Fuels Extension (FFE) will be the statistical model used to simulate stand development for restored and control landscapes for the next 100 years. Ten-year growth increments will be used to scale the diameter increment model, and the site index will be set to values determined from field sampling. The Firesum model, as calibrated for southwestern ponderosa pine forests, will serve as the process model for the same period. Treatment success will be defined in terms of maintaining desired conditions of forest structure and function as outlined in the original project plans and the natural characteristics of the pre-fire-exclusion forest. The ‘confidence envelope’ around alternatives will be assessed in terms of the underlying variability among plots on the landscape (i.e., structural variability in the forest) and the uncertainty or likelihood of success of treatment implementation as estimated from the literature and managers’ experience. Because we will use existing models and sites where the treatments have already been implemented and field data collected, the project will be rapid, cost-effective, and the techniques will be transferable to managers. By explicitly including a process model approach that is sensitive to variation in the environment, we will provide a realistic and reliable assessment of management options, including the degree of uncertainty associated with alternative approaches. This will give a solid information base for managers to evaluate schedules of maintenance treatments and to communicate with stakeholders. |
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05-1-1-09: Pilot Study: Improving BAER Calculation of Values-At-Risk |
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David Calkin, USFS, RMRS |
Other Collaborators: |
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This project will review current BAER valuation procedures and determine the feasibility of developing standard procedures and decision support tools to guide calculation of values-at-risk downstream of burned areas. The objectives of this pilot project will be met through literature review, direct observation and interview of BAER personnel, and on-line research with follow-up interviews to discover and evaluate potentially useful databases. Results from this project may establish foundations to develop standard and clear procedures to calculate values-at-risk using the best data and science available. We envision a process that produces well documented, defendable result and that can be rapidly implemented by BAER personnel without undue complexity or increase in workload. |
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05-1-2-02: Evaluating the Efficacy and Ecological Impacts of BAER Slope Stabilization Treatments on the Pot Peak/Deep Harbor Wildfire Complex |
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David Peterson |
Other Collaborators: |
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This project will study the efficacy and ecological effects of BAER seeding, mulching, and fertilization treatments following mixed and high severity wildfires on forest lands of the interior Pacific Northwest. We propose a field experimental approach to 1) test the efficacy of seeding and fertilization treatments for promoting high plant biomass and litter cover during the first two years following fire and 2) assess the effects of treatments on cover and diversity of native vegetation. Study results and the monitoring plan will be presented through a combination of published reports, web-based resources, and local presentations to managers during the second year of the project. |
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05-1-2-06: Managing Fire With Fire in Alaskan Black Spruce Forests: Impacts of Fire Severity on Successional Trajectory and Future Forest Flammability |
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Jill Johnstone |
Other Collaborators: |
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This project aims to use data from the 2004 fires in Alaska to link pre-fire vegetation composition and soil conditions with patterns of burn severity and post-fire stand rehabilitation. The primary objective is to examine how variations in burn severity can influence patterns of post-fire rehabilitation and thereby direct future patterns of fuel accumulation and stand flammability. The research will make use of existing data on pre-fire vegetation collected across multiple stands and fires in black spruce forests of Interior Alaska. Post-fire data on soils and plant regeneration from field observations and remote sensing will be used to develop predictive relationships linking pre-fire community composition and burn severity to post –fire trajectories of ecosystem rehabilitation. These relationships can then be used by managers to assess, predict, and design fire effects on future stand flammability. This information will contribute to wildland fire management in Alaska, where a key ingredient to long-term fire management is fire itself. |
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05-S-02: Best Management Practices for Hazardous Fuels Management in Sub-tropical Pine Flatwoods and Tropical Pine Rocklands |
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Joseph O’Brien |
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We propose to develop a synthesis of best management practices for hazardous fuels management in Sub-tropical pine flatwoods and Tropical pine rocklands. We will build an expert team of scientists/managers to collect and summarize information regarding best management practices in these ecosystems. We have a two-tiered strategy: to assemble and interview fire management practitioners on what techniques are currently in use, costs associated with these techniques, and the user’s opinions of the effectiveness of treatments. We will also synthesize available literature on the ecological, social and economic impacts of various treatment strategies. The deliverables will be a general technical report (GTR) published in the format of the Joint Fire Science Program template attached as Appendix 1 and a review paper published in a peer reviewed journal. The GTR will provide managers with an easy to use reference on treatment options, benefits and tradeoffs given the ecosystem of interest and the fuel problem at hand. |
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05-S-03: Development of Best Management Practices for Fuels Treatments in Ponderosa Pine Ecosystems in the Black Hills, SD and Southwestern United States |
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Wayne Sheppard |
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We will document specific conditions and practices where management interventions is appropriate to reduce fuels hazards, while attempting to simultaneously restore the forest community to pre-settlement conditions. To achieve these goals, we will synthesize existing knowledge from the peer-reviewed literature, administrative studies, and local knowledge. We will bring together local knowledge at a series of regional workshops and identify fire specialists for follow-up interviews. Deficits in the existing knowledge will be identified. We will use existing models that integrate spatial fuel models into a fire behavior model at scales ranging from sub-stands to landscapes to evaluate fuel treatments. We will describe treatments, which will include the circumstances under which specific techniques can be applied, and expected reductions in fuels hazard. We will provide recommendations related to where, how, and how often fuels treatments may be prescribed to achieve desired outcomes. Desired outcomes will address social, political, economic, and ecological factors. Finally, to insure that managers have access to our results, we will develop and implement a website and develop multi-media guidelines describing management practices for fuels treatments in ponderosa pine forests. |
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05-S-04: Best Management Practices for Fuel Reduction Treatment in Loblolly Pine Forests |
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Michael Wimberly |
Other Collaborators: |
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Loblolly pine forests occupy a significant proportion of the Southeastern United States, covering a region with high densities of people, structures, and roads. Projected human population growth over the next several decades will greatly expand the wildland-urban interface and increase wildfire-related threats to people and property. At the same time, higher population densities and shifting demographics may limit to potential for using prescribed fire as a tool for fuels reduction and forest management. Because of the variability in stand conditions, ownership sizes, and landowner objectives in the loblolly pine region, land managers will need to apply a range of treatment strategies in a variety of different situations. To make effective decisions, managers must be aware of the array of treatment options available to them. They need to know the operational constraints that may limit the applicability of these treatments, and to understand the effects that these treatments will have on timber, wildlife, and soils. We will capture available knowledge on best management practices for fuels reduction through a comprehensive literature review, and through direct contact with experienced fuels management practitioners. This information will be synthesized into a written report and presented in a form that is accessible and useful to land managers. The report will be disseminated as a printed document and as an electronic document that can be downloaded over the internet. |
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05-S-08: A Regional Experiment to Evaluate Effects of Fire and Fire Surrogate Treatments in the Sagebrush Biome |
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James D. McIver |
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The project will evaluate effects of fire and fire surrogate treatments that are designed to reduce fuel and to restore sagebrush communities of the Great Basin. The study has several features that make it an ideal management-research collaboration, because it will: 1) provide managers with improved information to restore ecological communities that is relevant across the 100+ million acres of the sagebrush biome; 2) match the temporal and spatial scales at which managers operate; 3) reduce management risk and uncertainty of catastrophic wildfire to the greatest degree possible; and 4) provide managers with information that would allow them to better understand tradeoffs inherent in the choice of management alternatives. The need for such an experiment is evidenced by the profound changes in fire regime experienced in the Great Basin in the past 150 years, coupled with the lack of information available to managers on the consequences of methods they might use to reduce fire risk or to restore more desirable plant communities and fire regimes. |
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04-1-2-01: Rapid response to the 2003 fires in southern California: Impact of fuel age on fire behavior and recovery |
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Jon Keeley |
Other Collaborators: Max Moritz, |
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This project takes advantage of the unique opportunities provided by the October 2003 fires in southern California to answer two important questions: What was the relative importance of fuel age vs weather in determining the size of these fires and their catastrophic impact, and what role does fuel age play in determining fire severity and how does fire severity affect postfire recovery. Using spatially explicit analyses in GIS, we will examine the spread characteristics of the six largest fires and quantify the total distribution of age classes consumed in these fires, analyzed on a daily basis to isolate how fuel age, topography and fire weather interacted. Fire spread modeling will be used to evaluate the conditions that lead to abrupt changes in fire behavior using actual ignition points and weather conditions during the 2003 fire events. Actual fire spread patterns will be combined with fire spread models to understand combinations of factors that lead to extreme fire behavior and to address hypotheses about the effectiveness of pre-fire fuel manipulations in urban-wildland interface areas and the broader landscape. Through spatial overlay in GIS, area burned in different age classes will be determined and Weibull function parameters estimated to determine how fire hazard changes with age of fuel. Field studies will be conducted to examine the relationships between fuel age, fire severity and postfire vegetation recovery. We will test the hypothesis that as fuel age increases, fire severity increases and leads to reduced vegetative recovery by increased mortality of seed banks and mortality of resprouters. |
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04-1-2-04: Fire Use Over a Southwestern Elevational Gradient: Effects of 2003 Fires |
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Peter Fulé |
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In 2003, a series of 4 lightning-ignited wildland fires were managed to burn over 19,000 acres on the North Rim. These fires burned over approximately 82 permanent plots that had been established within the previous 2-6 years. The burned plots range in elevation from 7,500 to over 8,600 feet, representing all the high-elevation forest types in southwestern forests (ponderosa pine, mixed conifer, aspen, and spruce-fir). A wealth of data already exists about the plot network, including fire regimes, reconstructions of past forest structure, and modeling of changes in canopy fuels and fire hazard over time. Wildland fire behavior and weather were closely monitored. We propose to collect post-fire data and analyze the relationships between pre-fire conditions, observed fire behavior, and fire effects. Rapid response is essential because we have the unique opportunity for post-fire sampling from fires occurring in a single year over plots arrayed across such a large environmental gradient. |
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04-S-02: Supplement to the fire surrogate study: Interdisciplinary and multi-site analysis |
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Jim McIver |
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This project will supplement the Fire and Fire Surrogate (FFS) Study, for the purpose of interdisciplinary and multi-site analyses. With a national database designed to have the capacity to allow any possible query of these data, we are ready for an unprecedented period of analysis, during which time we can answer a wide range of questions on how forest systems across the country respond to alternative fuel reduction treatments. |
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04-S-03: Bringing the Fire Effects Information System Up to Date and Improving Service to Land Managers |
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Jane Kapler Smith |
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The Fire Effects Information System (FEIS) has provided a scientific basis for fire and land management since 1986. The Bureau of Land Management, National Park Service, Fish and Wildlife Service, Forest Service, and National Wildfire Coordinating Group sponsored development of FEIS and completion of its literature reviews (“summaries”) of 1,000 species. FEIS is now included in training for all federal wildland fire managers. All of the federal land management agencies provide links to FEIS from their Web sites, as do many state agencies, universities, and nonprofit conservation organizations. FEIS is becoming increasingly out-of-date and inadequate to answer management questions and unable to support preparation of high-quality Environmental Analyses. Funding of this project will allow the updating of species summaries by a factor of 4 to 10, thereby improving service to land managers. |
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03-1-1-06: Carbon cycling at the landscape scale: the effect of changes in climate and fire frequency on age distribution, stand structure, and net ecosystem production |
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Michael Ryan |
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The interactions among climate, fire frequency and intensity, and forest structure and development appear to be strongly linked but poorly understood. It would be helpful if land managers could link these factors so that predicted climate changes would provide insight into associated changes in age distribution and structure of forests, and how these changes affect the carbon balance of a landscape. This project will address these issues by focusing on the carbon balance of Yellowstone National Park landscapes, how the carbon balance was changed by the 1988 fires, and extrapolates carbon stocks and fluxes into the future. These changes will also be related to changes in climate and fire regimes so that fire planners and managers will be able to anticipate future conditions, especially in Yellowstone lodgepole pine ecosystems. |
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03-1-3-06: Fuel Consumption and Flammability Thresholds in Shrub-dominated Ecosystems |
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Clinton Wright |
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Despite their prevalence, shrub-dominated ecosystems in the western U.S. have not received adequate research attention regarding flammability and fuel consumption during wildland fires. In particular, research is needed to determine fuel consumption for the purposes of aiding the determination of smoke emissions, fire contributions to regional haze, potential soil erosion, plant succession, and related factors. This project will improve existing fuel consumption models for sagebrush (Artemisia sp.) fuel types and develop new models for several additional shrub-dominated fuel types to improve the consumption model, CONSUME. |
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03-1-3-08: Forest Floor Consumption and Smoke Characterization in Boreal Forested Fuelbed Types of Alaska |
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Roger Ottmar |
Other Cooperators: |
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Under the Clean Air Act (as amended), fire and air quality managers are expected to determine and document smoke emissions to determine fires’ contribution to particulates and other criteria pollutants as well as regional haze. Many areas of the boreal forest of Alaska contain deep layers of moss, duff, and peat, resulting in a large pool of biomass that potentially can burn and smolder for long periods. This residual combustion is generally poorly accounted for in existing models. This project will collect fuel consumption data and characterize smoke emissions on Alaska wildland and prescribed fires. The data will be used to develop new and modify existing forest floor fuel consumption models and develop emission rate equations for the boreal forest floor fuel consumption models and develop emission rate equations for the boreal forest fuel type. NOTE: This project was enhanced with additional funding in July 2004 to take advantage of the unique AK fire season (more than 3,000,000 acres burned) to capture additional data. |
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03-1-4-09: Patch Burning on Grasslands: Effects on Fuels, Fire Behavior, and Fire Spread |
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David Engle |
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Little information is available to grassland managers concerning the use of combinations of land management practices to reduce wildland fuel loading and simultaneously increase biological diversity. The Great Plains may have evolved under this scenario, with the combination of bison grazing and frequent burning (for example). Scientists involved with this project are investigating whether ‘patch burning’ can be used in a landscape approach to manage fuels, minimize invasion by eastern red cedar, and improve habitat diversity for large ungulates. If the project is successful, it is anticipated that patch burning can be distributed across the landscape to enhance biological diversity, control invasive plants, and increase diversity by creating patches of different ages. |
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03-1-4-11: The effects of grass seeding and salvage logging on fuel loads, potential fire behavior, and the biological diversity of severely burned how elevation southern Oregon forest |
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Boone Kauffman |
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There is considerable anecdotal information regarding post-fire rehabilitation treatments, but managers lack information from structured, scientific research. This is especially true for salvage logging treatments. Scientists working on this project will determine the short-term effects of salvage logging on fuels, forest structure and animal composition via replicated plots in the 2002 Biscuit and Timbered Rock fires in SW Oregon and evaluate fires that occurred in 1987, 1992, 1995, 2001, and 2002 to determine both short-term and long-term effects of post-fire activities on plant and animal diversity and how fuel loadings may influence the risk of future fires. |
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03-1-4-21: Designing an Experiment to Evaluate Effects of Fire and Fire Surrogate Treatments in the Sagebrush Biome |
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Jim McIver |
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The JFSP-funded Fire and Fire Surrogates Study (F/FS) has been enormously successful in determining ecosystem responses to various fire and mechanical fuel treatments. However, that study focused exclusively on short fire return interval, forested ecosystems. It would be helpful if land managers of shrubland communities had similar information. This project will explore various study options and develop a project similar to the F/FS study for non-forested ecosystems, with a focus on the sagebrush biome. |
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03-2-1-02: Assessing the Causes, Consequences and Spatial Variability of Burn Severity: A Rapid Response Proposal |
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Penelope Morgan |
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Post-fire rehabilitation plans are required by Federal agencies soon after the incident. This requires rapid methods of estimating fire effects and fire ecologists are turning more and more to remotely sensed methods. However, remotely sensed data frequently do not include pre-fire information, and ‘ground truthing’ to validate the remotely sensed data may not occur. This causes some uncertainty in the results and questionable validity of post-fire treatment recommendations. Scientists working on this problem are sampling five wildland fires in 2003 and five in 2004 to determine the interactions and spatial variability in fire effects, fuel loadings, fire behavior, local weather, and topography to assess the accuracy of current and alternative image analyses for remote sensing of burn severity. This project is linked to related projects to share pre- and post-fire data for optimum research efficiency. |
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03-2-2-01: Effects of blowdown, beetle outbreak, and fire history on the behavior and effects of the 2002 fires in western Colorado |
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Thomas Veblen |
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The objectives of the proposed research are to analyze and describe the influences of the pre-fire disturbance history, stand structures, and landscape patterns on the extent and severity of the 2002 fires and ensuing forest recovery in subalpine forests of western Colorado. Regional and landscape analysis of our existing data and recent Forest Service spatial data sets of the 2002 fires will be conducted in a Geographic Information System (GIS). This analysis will focus on the interactions between sites’ disturbance history and the spread and severity of the 2002 fires. In the field, finer scale (intra-stand) analysis will be conducted on disturbance interactions and post-fire recovery (i.e. tree regeneration). Our existing data and the 2002 fires present a unique opportunity to gain an understanding of the effects of large natural disturbances on fire behavior and post-fire recovery. The proposed research will provide results that are directly related to goals of the JFSP and that will provide critical information regarding management following large, severe disturbances in Rocky Mountain sub alpine forests. |
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03-2-3-01: The Effects of Fire on Umpqua Gentian (Frasera umpquaensis), a rare plant species |
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Thomas Kaye |
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Umpqua gentian (Frasera umpquaensis) is a rare plant of gaps and forested habitats in western Oregon and northwestern California . The species occurs on five National Forests and two BLM Districts. Wildfires in 2002 burned several populations of this species on federal lands, including three populations that have been monitored annually since 1995. The presence of long-term pre-fire data on this species and associated forest canopy create the opportunity to detect changes in population of this species associated with the 202 Biscuit fire. The conservation Strategy for Umpqua gentian, which represents an interagency agreement between USDA and USDI, recommends studies of this type to determine the response of this species to disturbance but such studies have not been conducted to date, and no information on the effect of fire on this pant is available. We are requesting funds to collect post-fire data on this species at the study sites that were burned in 2002 to evaluate the effects of fire in general and local fire behavior in particular on Umpqua gentian. The results will be used to inform land managers and biologists of the response of the species to fire and the importance of controlling fire or using burns as a management tool, and to update the Conservation Strategy for the species. |
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03-2-3-05: Ecosystem responses to a high severity wildfire: a serendipitous opportunity to enhance the Fire/ Fire Surrogate study |
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Steven Overby |
Other Cooperators |
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Southwest ponderosa pine ecosystems have garnered great attention due to fuel conditions that increase the likelihood of large-scale wildfires with severe fire behavior. The fire season of 2002 demonstrated these extreme fuel load conditions with the largest fire in Southwest history. National programs to reduce the extreme fuel loads that create the potential reduction programs is lacking. One such program to address these issues is the Fire/Fire Surrogate Program (FFS) currently funded under the Joint Fire Science Program. One location on the Jemez District of the Santa Fe National Forest experienced a wildfire (Lake Fire Complex 08/26/02 to 09/01/02) that consumed one complete replicate block, but provides a unique opportunity to investigate wildfire effects on vegetation, soil, and associated microbial populations. Pre-treatment sampling was completed prior to the wildfire, which allows a return to the exact sites to investigate immediate post-wildfire effects. Previous wildfire investigations do not contain pre-fire data, but typically contrast unburned areas to burned areas to imply fire effects. These contracts come from spatially different sites with little or no preexisting data. This microbial populations as a affected by high-severity wildfire. These data will further extend the ability of the FFS project in Southwestern ponderosa pine ecosystems to predict ecological consequences of fuels reduction programs as contrasted against ecological consequences of large-scale wildfire. |
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03-2-3-08: Pre-fire condition, fire severity, and post-fire effects in the Hayman burn, Colorado |
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Merrill R. Kaufmann |
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Ongoing research within the 2002 Hayman burn provides an excellent framework for comparing effects of the Hayman burn to pre-fire forest conditions. Two pre-fire data sets support the proposed research. One characterizes historical landscape structure and key regulating processes and included plot-level measurements of forest overstory structure, understory species composition, fuels, and fire history. The second dataset is pre-treatment monitoring data collected as part of the Upper South Plate Restoration Project, which includes forest overstory and understory plant data, surface fuels, and habitat monitoring for several species of concern. All of these plots burned with varying intensity. Our primary objectives focus on re-sampling our pre-burn plots near Cheesman Lake and Saloon Gulch to (1) evaluate the effects of burn severity, pre-fire stand characteristics, and topography on tree survivorship; (2) determine the effects of burn severity and pre-fire composition of post –fire understory species composition: (3) examine the effects of pre-fire fuels and vegetation structure on patterns of burn severity, and (4) investigate the effects of burn-severity on habitat for species of concern. The proposed study augments collaborative projects, including validation of relationships in the FFE of the Central Rockies FVS variant, validation of pre-fire fuel reconstructions derived from post-fire surveys, and modeling fire behavior with mesoscale weather data for the study area. |
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03-2-3-09: Ecosystem effects and propagation of the Biscuit fire across the large-scale plots of the long-term ecosystem productivity experiment |
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Bernard Bormann |
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When the Biscuit fire burned through the experimental plots established by the long-term ecosystem productivity (LTEP) program, new opportunities emerged to study the effects of moderate an severe fire on forest ecosystems, the effect of different forest conditions on propagation of the fire through the plots, and the interactions of initial conditions and fire through time. What this proposal offers, that perhaps no one else can, is a wide range of conditions, crated by the experiment, with exacting, georeferenced pre-fire detail on soils, vegetation, and other conditions, and an extensive sample archive. We expect to have strong inference to many parts of the managed areas in the western Siskiyou National Forest because of the pre-fire data, and because we have control blocks spared by the fire. Objectives are to quantify: changes in pre-and post-fire condition, thought to influence biodiversity and productivity, and spatial variation in fire intensity and severity and erosion across the 15-20 acre plots. We will also evaluate: fire intensity and severity as a function of pre-fire vegetation and woody debris conditions created by the LTEP treatments, an associated successional responses including invasive species. Our pre-existing photo archives will allow us to evaluate public perceptions to the fire as well. Many opportunities exist to link this study to the fire surrogates study (see McIvar letter), to administrative studies by the Forest (see McHugh letter), and possibly to the proposed large-scale assessments and remeasurements of inventory plots. |
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03-2-3-11: Quantifications of Runoff and Erosion on Semi-arid Grasslands following a Wildfire |
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Ginger Paige |
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The Ryan Fire burned over 38,000 acres of southwestern semi-arid grassland and oak woodland areas in Southwestern Arizona in April and May 2002. The Audubon Appleton-Whittell Research Ranch, an 8,000 acre refuge, is located in the center of the burned area. In 1997, the USDA-ARS, Southwest Watershed Research Center had established runoff and erosion monitoring research areas on two Ecological Sites on the Audubon Research Ranch. Originally, rainfall simulator experiments to measure runoff and erosion rates were to be conducted in late 2002 or early in 2003. However, with the advent of the Ryan Fire, we had the opportunity to directly measure runoff and erosion under controlled conditions on the two Ecological Sites immediately following the wildfire. Rainfall simulator experiments were conducted on both sides in early June 2002: infiltration, runoff and erosion rates were measured on five (2m by 6m) rainfall simulator plots. This study will address task RFP-2003-2-Task 3. The objectives are to: 1) quantify the changes in runoff and erosion responses immediately after and for a two year period following a wildfire in a semi-arid grassland, and 2) use the data from burned and unburned rainfall simulator plots to develop semi-arid grassland parameters for Disturbed WEPP. To accomplish these objectives, we plan to continue to use rainfall simulation techniques to monitor the post-wildfire runoff and erosion rates on the two Ecological Sites on the Audubon Research. In addition, rainfall simulator experiments will be conducted on the same two Ecological Sites in an unburned condition on the La Cienega Conservation area. The data gained from this project will be used to 1) quantify runoff and erosion processes on semiarid grassland ecosystems for the Disturbed WEPP post fire erosion risk management tool. |
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03-2-3-13: The Effects of Soil Properties, Fuel Characteristics, and Vegetation Recovery on Post-Fire Watershed Hydrology and Sediment Yield in Chaparral Steeplands |
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Peter Wohlgemuth |
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Accelerated post-fire erosion from southern California steeplands threatens life, property, and infrastructure at the wildland/urban interface. The Williams Fire of September 2002 provides a unique opportunity to describe and analyze the impacts of fire and historical vegetation management practices on post-fire hydrologic response and sediment yield in chaparral ecosystems. Objectives include 1) quantifying small watershed runoff and erosion response, 2) analyzing the differences in these response variables from watersheds with radically different management-induced pre-fire fuel characteristics, 3) quantifying the immediate post-fire vegetation response from these watersheds with differing pre-fire vegetation characteristics, 4) describing post-fire soil properties and soil properties and soil water repellency, and 5) describing post-fire soil and bedrock water storage capacities and antecedent moisture conditions. Stream discharge and sediment yield will be measured by refurbishing existing flumes and debris basins. Pre-fire vegetation will be characterized from historical survey and recent aerial photography. Post-fire vegetation will be measured using point transects and fixed area plots. Soil properties will be measured using standard techniques. Water content and depth of soil and bedrock will be determined using TDR, GPR, and GPS technologies. Information from this research will help land managers assess post-fire watershed response at the wildland/urban interface. |
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03-2-3-15: Initial Post-Fire Avian Response to High Fire Severity |
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Marcia Narog |
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One of the goals of prescribed burning is to improve wildlife habitat. Habitat improvement usually requires vegetation to be burned in a mosaic of age classes. However, little research has been done on post-fire use by fauna of large tracts of burned habitat particularly in chaparral. Interestingly, research: radio-tracking large mammals; studying sensitive riparian species; and monitoring bird occurrence and behavior had been established within the perimeter of the Pines Fire located in San Diego , California prior to its ignition. A 5-year bird survey was conducted from 1997 to 2002 to develop a bird atlas of San Diego County . Large sections of these studies were burned in the 61,645 acre fire during July 2002. This project will document post-fire changes in bird density and diversity. Results will determine how the local avi-fauna respond to a large, high severity fire. It will complement the other aforementioned faunal research programs that also will continue to gather post-fire data. This information will be valuable for developing future perimeter size and intensity levels for fire prescriptions used to reduce fuel loading and support wildlife resources, particularly in chaparral. Results will be disseminated through electronic reports, journal articles, and public presentations. |
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03-2-3-20: Effects if altering stand structure on wildfire severity and effects in the Blacks Mountain Experimental Forest, Cascade Range, California |
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Martin Ritchie |
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This project will investigate 1) patterns of severity in a recent wildfire that burned into existing treatment areas of the Blacks Mountain Experimental Forest, 2) immediate post-salvage stand and fuel conditions for severely burned areas of the Cone Fire 3) immediate patterns of beetle and woodpecker use in areas of varying fire severity and in salvaged areas, 4) patterns of soil compaction associated with varying levels of salvage harvesting. |
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03-2-3-22: Post-fire erosion and the effectiveness of Emergency Rehabilitation Treatments over time |
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Pete Robichaud |
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Millions of dollars are being spent on emergency rehabilitation efforts after wildfires, but we still have very limited information on the effectiveness of four techniques applied on the June 2000 Hayman fire- mulching, hydromulching, seeding and scarification, and the application of a polyacylamide soil binding agent. Sediment production will be monitored at the hill slope scale from 18 pairs of swales, allowing 4-6 replicates of each treatment. Given the uncertainty and variability of natural rainfall events, we also will use a rainfall simulator to apply standardized rainfalls on 1 m² plots. Runoff and erosion rates will be related to measured site characteristics in order to better understand the underlying processes. The field data will be used to populate, test, and modify erosion risks and the effectiveness of post-fire emergency rehabilitation treatments in the Rocky Mountain region. |
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01-1-1-02: Development of a computer model for management of fuels, human-fire interactions, and wildland fire in the Boreal Forest of Alaska |
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Scott Rupp |
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Fuel buildup, either in the form of dead, woody debris, or as in interior Alaska, increasing continuity of flammable forest cover—is undesirable for two reasons. First, it can cause catastrophic wildland fires; second, it may cause changes in the natural fire regime that adversely affect animals and plants. Scientists are developing a computer model, called Boreal ALFRESCO, that will incorporate information on fuel buildup, vegetation, climate, and fire management policy with real geography, over a range of time scales from decades to centuries. This model will depict the responses of vegetation to multiple scenarios of fire-management, fuel buildup, and climate change and will assist land managers in designing and implementing fire management plans. |
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01-1-1-05: Can wildland fire use restore historical fire regimes in wilderness and other unroaded lands |
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Carol Miller |
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Wildland fire and fuels managers face unique management challenges and opportunities on unroaded lands that include more than 105 million acres of federally designated wilderness. Reduced access to the interiors of these areas limits the ability to apply prescribed fire, thinning, and other mechanical methods for fuels management. However, federal interagency fire policies facilitate the use of natural ignitions for wildland fire use (WFU). The assumption is that natural ignitions are sufficient for restoring or maintaining historical fire regimes and for solving the fuels problems in these areas. Neither of these assumptions has been tested. Research is focused on assessing the current conditions of fuels and the feasibility and effectiveness of WFU as a strategy for managing fuels and restoring historical fire regimes. |
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01-1-1-06: Historical wildland fire use: Lessons to be learned from twenty-five years of wilderness fire management |
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Mathew Rollins |
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Since the early 1970s, fire management plans (currently known as Wildland Fire Use or WFU) have been in effect in four large Park Service and Forest Service wilderness areas in the west to allow naturally ignited fires to burn under prescribed conditions. The goal of these plans was to mitigate fire hazard resulting from extended fire exclusion and restore wildland fire as a natural disturbance process at broad scales. There is much to be learned from this 25-year experiment in restoring natural fire but the landscape-scale effects have been little studied. Scientists will conduct landscape-scale experimentation and simulation based on existing fire history databases, field inventories, GIS databases, and 25 years of well-documented WFU in these wilderness areas. A main focus is to determine whether fire alone (without mechanical treatment) can restore sustainable forest ecosystems. Results will help answer questions about how WFU affects canopy mortality, fire spread over time, and landscape composition, structure and function. Mechanistic fire-ecosystem models will be used to evaluate landscape change and ecosystem function under a variety of WFU treatments and under different climate scenarios. |
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01-1-3-09: Consequences and correlates of fire in wetlands |
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Dave Brownlie |
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Fire officials are often concerned that fires in wetlands may lead to extensive smoldering in accumulated organic soils that in turn can lead to smoke management problems. To avoid this problem, many agencies spend considerable resources to prevent fires from entering wetlands. However, scientists believe there are instances where the likelihood of smoke management concerns from wetland fires is low, while ecological benefits and opportunities to reduce fire agency resource allocation costs are high. The Nature Conservancy’s 12,000-acre Disney Wilderness Preserve in Central Florida offers a unique opportunity to examine wetland fire effects. Researchers will take advantage of the pre and post fire information at the site to describe conditions likely to lead to significant consumption of organic soil and ecological effects of fire on the wetland. |
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01-1-3-11: Duff Consumption and Southern Pine Mortality |
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Kevin Hiers |
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Decades of fire exclusion in many forests throughout the southeast have led to significant accumulation of organic matter (duff). Reintroduction of fire into these forests has proven problematic for two basic reasons. First, extensive delayed mortality can occur in stands where duff is dry and is consumed during prescribed burns. Burning of deep layers of duff leads to consumption of fine roots or potentially severe cambium damage. Second, burning in these stands can lead to smoldering combustion within the duff layer that increases hazards and nuisance from residual smoke. Research is targeted at identifying both threshold conditions under which duff smolders and the consequences of duff consumption to tree mortality. This information will help southeastern fire managers in conducting successful restoration of long-unburned southern pine stands throughout the South. |
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01-1-3-12: Effects of prescribed and wildland fire on aquatic ecosystems in Western forests |
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David Pilliod |
Other Cooperators: |
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Despite the increased use of fire as a forest restoration tool, there is inadequate information on the effects of prescribed and wildland fires on the numerous plants and animals that occupy the forests being restored, particularly in stream ecosystems. The lack of information on the effects of fire on fish and aquatic wildlife is a major impediment to developing ecologically sound fire management policies. Researchers will conduct a quantitative examination on the effects of fire management practices in headwater streams in the forested West. Results of this study will help managers evaluate the effectiveness of applying fuels reduction treatments and assess the ecological trade-offs associated with various fire conditions. |
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01-1-3-19: Effects of fuels reduction and exotic plant removal on vertebrates, vegetation, and water resources in Southwestern ecosystems |
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Deborah Finch |
Other Cooperators: |
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In southwestern riparian ecosystems, replacement of native vegetation by exotic plant species, particularly those that are highly flammable such as Tamarisk, has increased fire frequency. Native tree species inhabiting these riparian areas of the middle Rio Grande are not fire-adapted and thus cannot resist fire damage or respond by regenerating after fire. Research is targeted at identifying fuels-reduction practices that will simultaneously preserve cottonwoods and other native plants, reduce wild fire risk via fuels removal, control spread of exotic woody shrubs, and have positive or neutral impacts on wildlife species including birds, bats, reptiles and amphibians. The research area where three different fuel treatments are applied is designated as a demonstration site for those seeking fuel reduction solutions. |
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01-1-3-21: Cumulative effects of fuel management on landscape-scale fire behavior and effects |
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Mark Finney |
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Fuel management treatments can reduce the undesirable consequences of wildfires (such as cost, size, ecological damage, threats to developed areas) only if wildfire behavior is modified at the landscape scale. Poor understanding of how individual treatment activities aggregate to larger scales, and affect phenomena like growing fires, hampers planning efforts to achieve landscape-scale treatment effects. Research to date has shown that cumulative spatial effects on fire behavior of individual treatment units depend heavily upon their spatial pattern. Researchers will use mathematical analyses, models, and simulations to examine interactions among multiple landscape objectives and develop tools for analyzing cumulative effects of fuel treatments. |
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01-1-3-25: Prescribed fire strategies to restore wildlife habitat in ponderosa pine forests of the Intermountain West |
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Victoria Saab |
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Over 40 million acres of ponderosa pine forests in the Intermountain West are considered susceptible to severe wildfires as a result of fire suppression, high stand densities, and insect and disease damage. Many birds, especially cavity nesting birds, are often closely tied to fire-prone forests and are responsive to fire and timber management activities. Prescribed burning is one tool used to reduce fuel hazards, but scientific information on the impact of fire management on birds and their habitats is lacking. Researchers will quantify and compare the ecological consequences of three fire conditions (unburned forests, prescribed understory fire, and wildland fire) on birds and their habitats in ponderosa pine forests. Results from this work will help managers to evaluate the trade-offs for wildlife inherent in selecting fuel treatment alternatives. |
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01-1-3-27: Developing statistical wildlife habitat relationships for assessing cumulative effects of fuels treatments |
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Kevin McKelvey |
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Determining the cumulative effects of human activities on landscapes and on native fauna inhabiting these landscapes has been a primary concern for land managers. NEPA requires managers to conduct Cumulative Effects Analysis (CEA) to assess potential impacts of their activities. However, CEA analyses for wildlife tend to be based on indirect inferences and ad-hoc methodologies. This research is directed at using the Forest Inventory and Analysis program’s National Vegetation Pilot as a structure for conducting wildlife sampling to achieve a more standardized and reliable method of assessing impacts on wildlife populations. |
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01-1-3-37: Landscape fragmentation and forest fuel accumulation: effects of fragment size, age, and climate |
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William Gould |
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Landscape fragmentation can affect fuel accumulation, increase the spatial variability of fuel loads, and affect the susceptibility of forests to fire. Developing a landscape-scale picture of spatial variability in fuel loads requires an understanding of fragmentation effects at a variety of scales. Researchers plan to examine the effect of forest fragmentation on fuel loads along gradients of climate, stand age, and fragment size. The work will be conducted in Puerto Rico, Idaho, and Alaska. The goal is to develop methods to better predict and map fuel loads in fragmented forests and aid in management decisions on public forested lands. |
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01-1-3-40: Incorporating spatial heterogeneity into fire restoration plans |
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Dean Urban |
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Fires create spatial heterogeneity across landscapes by generating patches of different ages, soil conditions, and light availability that allow for the establishment of a variety of specifically adapted species. This heterogeneity is important not only for diverse understory communities of herbs and shrubs, but also for successful tree regeneration. However, spatial heterogeneity has not yet been explicitly incorporated into restoration plans. Researchers will search across spatial scales to find the sources of heterogeneity that most affect plants with a particular focus on the importance of fire generated heterogeneity for providing opportunities for tree seedling establishment and maintenance of herbaceous diversity. With this information, managers can develop fire management strategies that incorporate heterogeneity considerations. |
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01-1-3-43: Fires, Management, and land mosaic interactions: A generic spatial model and toolkit from stand to landscape scales |
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Thomas Crow |
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The extreme fire season of 2000 emphasized the urgent need for revisions to current management policies and the development of new guidelines and tools for assessing fire risks and impacts. A synthesis and integration of our knowledge of fire ecology, ecosystem processes, and landscape ecology using computer models will allow the public, land managers, and other decision makers to assess fire risk and predict the influences of fire on a given landscape. Researchers are focused on developing a spatially explicit, PC Windows-based generic model accompanied by visualization systems that land managers can readily access to examine the effects of fire regimes and forestry practices on the landscape mosaic, ecosystem dynamics, fuel load patterns and fire risk in real landscapes. |
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01-1-7-02: Photo Series for Major Natural Fuel Types of the United States – Phase III |
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Roger Ottmar |
Other Cooperators: |
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Information on fuels is the key element for assessing the hazard risk or effects of wildland fire. A sequence of photos called a photo series provides a quick, easy means for quantifying and describing existing fuel properties for selected sites across the landscape and can be used to improve fire management decisions. Although recent efforts have increased photo series coverage of major fuelbed types, some critical types are still un-represented. Researchers will focus attention on compiling photo series for these critical types with special emphasis on northeast fuelbed types including red spruce and balsam fir, northern mixed hardwoods, and pitch pine-scrub |
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01-S-06: Additional work for Quantification of canopy fuels in conifer forests |
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Elizabeth Reinhardt |
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A study on Quantification of Canopy Fuels in Conifer Forests funded in 1999 was focused on developing and verifying a method for measuring crown characteristics that could be used across agency boundaries, provide more accurate assessments of the effects of fuel treatments, and establish a consistent procedure for canopy fuel characterization. Scientists propose to expand the original study to include 11 additional sites that are part of the Fire and Fire Surrogate Study (also funded in 1999). The Fire and Fire Surrogate study was designed to quantify effects of fire and fire surrogate treatments on a variety of ecosystem characteristics. Each site contains four treatments (no-treatment, thin, prescribe fire, thin and prescribed fire) replicated 3 times. Benefits of expanding the canopy fuels study to these additional sites include conducting canopy measurements on additional forest types and providing canopy fuels data to scientists working at Fire and Fire Surrogate sites. |
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00-1-1-03: Changing Fire Regimes, Increased Fuel Loads, and Invasive Species: Effects on Sagebrush Steppe and Pinyon Juniper Ecosystems |
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Jeanne Chambers |
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Since settlement of the Intermountain Region of the U.S. by Europeans 130 years ago, major changes in vegetation have occurred including increases in woody species, exotic annuals, and perennial weeds. Together these changes have resulted in dramatic shifts in fire frequency, severity, and size. Increased risk to human life and property, high fire management costs, and conversions of woodlands and shrublands to exotic weeds have resulted. Research will focus on gathering information on historic fire regimes, fuel load characteristics of major vegetation states, and susceptibility to exotic species invasion. Information resulting from this work will facilitate management of the shrublands and woodlands of the Intermountain region. |
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00-U-01: Cerro Grande post-fire Inventory and analysis |
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Carl Edminster |
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This project capitalizes on the opportunity to conduct immediate post-fire and after the first growing season inventories using a network of previously established permanent ground plots during the 3 years pre-fire and remote imagery to study fine scale effects of wildfire in an area with known pre-fire characteristics. The study area is the 54,000-acre area of the Cerro Grande Fire near and in Los Alamos, New Mexico. The project is composed of 3 interrelated components: 1) developing models based on classification of forest structures and fire hazards from previous local fires and then testing the models against patterns of burn severity in the Cerro Grande Fire; 2) assessment of fire-scar mapping and erosion modeling; 3) surveys of fire effects on vegetation and success of rehabilitation treatments. Information from these efforts will provide managers tools for assessing potential effects of future fires in similar conditions, refining burn scar mapping, estimating potential elevated soil erosion, and assessing the effectiveness of intensive rehabilitation practices. |
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99-1-1-01: Assessing the need, costs, and potential benefits of prescribed fire and mechanical treatments to reduce fire hazard |
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Jamie Barbour |
Additional Cooperators: |
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Forests with high fire hazard dominate the American landscape. Ecologists and public officials have called for broadscale hazard reduction treatments, however efforts to date have mostly been undertaken at a project level. This research is focused on determining the needs, costs, and benefits of hazard reduction treatments in Montana and New Mexico. Outputs from this project will provide managers from different agencies, ownerships, and regions with methods to synthesize and share information to facilitate planning and scheduling fuel treatments. Results from the study suggest that by considering a variety of silvicultural prescriptions managers can find ways to treat many stands to reduce fire hazard and improve ecological conditions without the need for financial subsidies. Projections of stand growth suggest that prescriptions that do not remove sufficient basal area or allow basal area to accumulate on larger trees may put stands on trajectories that could lead to high insect and disease hazard in the coming decades. |
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99-1-1-04: Development and Delivery of the Fire and Fuels Extension to the Forest Vegetation Simulator for use by Stakeholders of the Joint Fire Science Program |
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Nicholas Crookston |
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The Forest Vegetation Simulator (FVS) is a computer program designed to predict how forest stands change over time. Work on the Fire and Fuels Extension (FFE) of FVS beginning in 1993 was directed at representing fuels, fire and fire effects. Project efforts here will continue development of FFE-FVS to cover the spectrum of woodlands and forest lands in the western United States, to provide information on interactions between fire, fuels, insects and disease, to improve user friendliness of the software, and ensure FFE-FVS is compatible with other fire and fuel management tools. |
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99-1-3-02: Using goats to prevent or reduce wildland fire danger in shrub dominated, wildland-urban interface areas |
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Kathy Voth |
Additional Cooperators: |
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The accumulation of wildland fuels over the last fifty years has led to an unprecedented increase in fire intensity and is particularly problematic in shrub dominated vegetation occurring in wildland-urban interface areas. In a few cases fire managers have turned to livestock, and in particular goats as a tool for reducing fire fuels to avoid endangering private property, eliminate smoke concerns, and enhance success in rugged terrains. This project is aimed at providing fire managers with the data they need to determine if using goats as a fuel reduction tool is appropriate for their management purposes, and to give them the information necessary for successful implementation. |
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99-1-3-04: Develop a landscape scale framework for Interagency wildland fuels management planning |
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Pat Lineback |
Additional Cooperators: |
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Due to the widespread and urgent nature of wildland fuel hazard conditions across the United States, optimizing selection of critical areas most in need of fuels treatment is increasingly important. There is also a growing recognition that different agencies have many common issues related to fuels management and all would benefit from a higher level of interagency coordination. Local agencies are spearheading an initiative focused on building a seamless spatial information database, management systems and analysis framework that provides agencies with incentives for partnering and improves collaborative planning. The development of this integrated Geographic Information System framework will provide updated, spatially explicit information for planning and implementing fuels management and fire use programs in a consistent and effective manner. |
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99-1-3-06: Mechanical midstory reduction treatment: an alternative to prescribed fire |
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Robert Rummer |
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In vast acreages of forest lands across the United States where natural fire cycles have been disrupted, a shade tolerant midstory vegetation component has developed resulting in increased fuel loading, disrupted wildlife habitat, and altered nutrient cycling. In the south, forest types that have been affected in this way include loblolly pine, longleaf pine, and pond pine. Mechanical reduction of midstory vegetation (midstory reduction or MSR) is generally prescribed as an initial step in management plans to reintroduce fire and restore ecological health to these forests. However, managers have limited information on the effectiveness, cost and limitations of widespread mechanical reduction treatments. This project is a multi-disciplinary evaluation of various mechanical mid-story reduction treatments. Different types of equipment are being tested which represent a range of size, implement, and prime mover configurations. Production, cost and site impacts of these treatments are being quantified. In addition, a wildlife component is examining herptofaunal populations in treated stands. Vegetation surveys are included to examine treatment effects on species richness, diversity and biomass measures. The mechanical treatments are combined with subsequent prescribed fire in one study installation with re-introduction of fire at intervals ranging from 4 to 16 months. Resulting information will support development of landscape-scale land use and planning processes. |
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99-1-3-08: Spatial and temporal analysis of lightning and fire occurrence in Rocky Mountain wilderness areas |
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Mathew Rollins |
Additional Cooperators: |
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Monument Canyon Research Natural Area (MCRNA) in the Jemez Mountains of the Santa Fe National Forest in New Mexico includes some of the oldest remaining ponderosa pine stands in the southwestern United States. We have collected and analyzed fire history data on a systematic sampling grid across the study area. This approach permits us to evaluate the extent to which descriptions of the surface fire regime are scale dependent. We apply a variety of tools adapted from biogeography to build an analytical framework for understanding scaling properties in the area’s patchy surface fire history. Site level data are being combined with a larger fire history data set for the Jemez Mountains. Variation in the fire regime at different scales can help managers and restoration ecologists determine historic reference conditions for key disturbance processes. |
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99-1-3-11: Multi-century fire modeling over landscape gradients |
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Peter Z. Fulé |
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The FARSITE Fire Area Simulator is a model used to graphically simulate the spread of wildfires and natural prescribed fires across the landscape. Currently FARSITE is being applied to landscape-level modeling of alternative fuel treatments in a variety of settings. This research is directed to calibrating FARSITE to accurately simulate multi-century fire regimes using long-term fire history and forest structure data and applying the model to evaluate future alternative fuel treatments. The pilot study area is an elevational transect covering multiple vegetation types in Grand Canyon National Park. Information gained in this effort will assist managers in selection and scheduling fuel treatment measures and in monitoring and evaluating treatments. |
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99-1-3-11: Multi-century fire modeling over landscape gradients |
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Peter Z. Fulé |
Additional Cooperators: |
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The FARSITE Fire Area Simulator is a model used to graphically simulate the spread of wildfires and natural prescribed fires across the landscape. Currently FARSITE is being applied to landscape-level modeling of alternative fuel treatments in a variety of settings. This research is directed to calibrating FARSITE to accurately simulate multi-century fire regimes using long-term fire history and forest structure data and applying the model to evaluate future alternative fuel treatments. The pilot study area is an elevational transect covering multiple vegetation types in Grand Canyon National Park. Information gained in this effort will assist managers in selection and scheduling fuel treatment measures and in monitoring and evaluating treatments. |
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99-1-3-12: Quantification of canopy fuels in conifer forests |
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Elizabeth Reinhardt |
Additional Cooperators: |
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Crown fires in low elevation conifer forests have become common due to management practices including fire suppression and selective timber harvest. These fires present particular problems for fire managers because they are more difficult to suppress than surface fires, they burn 4-6 times faster than surface fires, and structures are less easily defended against crown fires. Two characteristics that significantly affect the incidence of crown fires are canopy base height and canopy bulk density. Inability to consistently measure canopy fuels in stands of different species composition and structure limits our ability to predict crown fire hazard and behavior. Research is focused on comparing methods for estimating canopy characteristics and developing a consistent method for inventorying canopy fuels that can be used across agency boundaries. Resulting information will aid in mapping fuel, assessing risk, designing fuel treatments, and simulating fire behavior. |
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99-1-3-13: Carbon and nitrogen cycling by microbial decomposers following thinning and burning in a Southwest ponderosa pine ecosystem |
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Daniel Neary |
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Mechanical thinning of vegetation and reintroducing low-intensity fires are two techniques used to reduce fuel buildup in ponderosa pine forests of the Southwest. These treatments have the potential to impact soil microorganisms that play a critical role in breaking down leaf litter and making soil nutrients available to growing forests. This research is focused on investigating changes in soil microorganisms and nutrient levels following prescribed burning and thinning treatments. Results will help managers in selecting treatment conditions that achieve vegetation management goals while minimizing the negative impacts on soil quality and nutrient cycling. |
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99-1-3-29: Southern Utah Fuels Management Demonstration Project |
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Kevin C. Ryan |
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To implement landscape scale fuels management programs, methods are needed to gather information on potential fire behaviors and effects, vegetation history and dynamics, values at risk, and fuel treatment priorities across the landscape. An 8 million acre area of Southern Utah is to serve as a demonstration area for the development of such methods. In addition, existing fire behavior and effects models (e.g. FARSITE, NEXUS, FOFEM, FFE-FVE, LANDSUM) will be adapted for landscape level assessment. This demonstration area will not only improve fuels management in southern Utah but will serve as a framework for developing landscape scale fuel management programs elsewhere in the U.S. |
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99-1-4-01: Effect of fuel treatments on wildfire severity |
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Philip N. Omi |
Additional Cooperators: |
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Recent fuel management initiatives call for increased use of prescribed fire to reduce vegetation levels and restore ecosystem structure and function. However, the effectiveness of fuels treatments in meeting either of these goals has not been established. Researchers will measure the effectiveness of fuel treatments in mitigating subsequent wildfires by comparing the effects of wildfires on vegetation adjacent in treated and untreated stands. |
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99-1-4-02: The value of fuel management in reducing wildfire damage to overstory trees |
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Kenneth W. Outcalt |
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Use of prescribed burning, long practiced in the southern U.S. to reduce risks of damaging wildfire, has been declining due to factors such as adoption of more intensive forestry systems by large landowners, concerns about litigation related to smoke production, and lack of knowledge by small landowners. However, values at risk from fire are increasing as demonstrated by the impacts of Florida’s severe fire season of 1998. This research is targeted at determining the effects of a variety of fuel management treatments, including prescribed fire and herbicide treatment, on reducing damage and mortality of overstory trees from wildfire. Information shared with managers, landowners and the forest industry will help in selection of fuel management treatments. |
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99-S-01: Fire and Fire Surrogate Study |
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Jim McIver |
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Many U.S. forests, especially those with short-interval, low- to moderate severity fire regimes are more dense and have greater quantities of fuels compared to pre-settlement times. Widespread treatments are planned to restore ecological integrity and to reduce the risk of unusually severe fires in these forests. Among possible treatments, however, the appropriate balance among cuttings, mechanical fuel treatments, and prescribed fire is often unclear. For improved decision-making resource managers need better information about the consequences and tradeoffs of alternative management practices involving prescribed fire and mechanical “fire surrogate” treatments. A team of scientists and land managers has designed an integrated national network of 13 long-term study sites in which economics and a wide range of ecological consequences are being measured before and after treatment application. The study is using a common experimental design among sites to facilitate broad applicability of results. |
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98-1-1-05: Photo series for major natural fuel types of the United States -- phase II |
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Roger Ottmar |
Cooperators: |
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A photo series provides a quick and easy way for managers to quantify and describe existing vegetation properties, such as the loading of downed and dead woody fuel. This information is critical in making fuel management decisions and predicting fire behavior and fire effects. Currently, not all vegetation types are represented by existing photo series. Researchers are developing fuels photo series on 13 additional fuelbed types including fuels in Alaska (hardwood-- birch and aspen), in the north central region (jack pine), in Hawaii (grass, shrub, woodland, and forests), in the West (deciduous oak savanna, mixed conifer with shrubs), and in the Southeast (sand hill pine, sand pine scrub, loblolly pine with palmetto, marsh grass, oak hickory with pine) to fill in some of these gaps. These photo series will be printed on rain resistant paper and bound in a spiral ringed, plastic covered notebook for field use. |
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98-1-1-06: Application of a fuel characterization system for major fuel types of the contiguous U.S. and AK |
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Roger Ottmar |
Additional Cooperators: |
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The development of more sophisticated fire behavior and effects models has demonstrated the need for a comprehensive system of fuel classification that more accurately captures the structural complexity and geographic diversity of fuelbeds. A national system of Fuel Characteristic Classification (FCC) for fuel identification and assessment that accurately depicts the structural complexity and geographical diversity of all fuelbeds is being developed. The system is designed to accommodate researchers and managers who operate at a variety of spatial scales with a variety of input data. Users can generate a set of fuel characteristics by accessing existing fuelbed descriptions (fuelbed prototypes) that use generic information such as cover type and vegetation form. The system will incorporate a change-agent feature that enables the user to acquire fuelbed characteristics associated with natural and human disturbance such as wildfire, wind, small-log utilization, thinning, and prescribed fire. Fuelbed prototypes will provide the best available data characterizing the kind, quality, and abundance of fuels. Users can accept these default values or modify some or all of them by using more specific information about vegetation and fuel structure and composition. The FCC system will calculate or infer quantitative fuel characteristics (i.e., physical, chemical, and structural properties). |
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98-1-4-02: Assess values at risk in the United States from wildland fire |
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Douglas Rideout |
Additional Cooperators: |
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Wildland fires not only have impacts on the organisms and physical attributes of an ecosystem but also have social and economic effects. Collectively the bio-physical, social, and economic factors potentially impacted by wildfires are called Values at Risk (VAR). Scientists are synthesizing the available information on VAR and planning a nationwide survey. This information will be incorporated into a VAR Decision Support System (DSS). The VAR-DSS will allow fire managers and planners to better address issues related to public perceptions and managerial efficiency of fuel treatment alternatives. The VAR-DSS is a web enabled software program allowing fuels managers ready access to potential impacts of fuels treatment on VAR. |
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98-1-4-09: Stand replacement prescribed burning for fuel reduction and regeneration of table mountain/pitch pine stands in the southern Appalachian mountains |
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Thomas Waldrop |
Additional Cooperators: |
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Fire suppression in the southern Appalachians over the last 70 to 80 years has reduced the prevalence of fire dependent species, such as Table mountain pine and pitch pine, and led to development of a dense shrub layer of mountain laurel. Current fire management policies call for the increased use of prescribed burning to restore these pine species to southern forests. However, the presence of mountain laurel creates a problem in that conditions needed to burn it often result in fires so intense that they kill adult pine trees and their seeds. Researchers are developing and testing methods for using prescribed burns to effectively reduce fuel loads while regenerating Table mountain/pitch pine stands. Managers will be able to use the information from this project in selecting prescribed burning conditions that foster pine regeneration. |
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98-1-4-10: Fuels management and wildlife habitat: quantity and quality relationships |
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Bruce Bury |
Additional Cooperators: |
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Concerns over large fires are driving policy-level decisions to use fire and other fuel reduction strategies to manage ecosystems across the country. While presenting a fire hazard, fuel buildup such as dead and down wood, also serves as habitat for many wildlife species. Information on how wildlife responds to fuel modifications especially due to fire is lacking. Scientists are working to synthesize available information on wildlife habitat requirements and conducting experiments on the effects of fire on wildlife populations in Oregon and the Southeast. The integration of wildlife habitat requirements into fuels inventories will provide managers with an ecologically based framework for monitoring effects of fuels treatments. |
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98-1-4-12: Risk assessment of fuel management practices on hillslope erosion processes |
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Peter Robichaud |
Additional Cooperators: |
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Over the past century, fire suppression has led to larger and more intense fires that are accompanied by erosion and runoff rates far above natural levels. These escalated erosion and runoff rates pose serious risks to human life and property. Managers are increasingly using prescribed burns and mechanical treatments to reduce fuel loads, but would benefit from easily accessible information to predict the risks of sedimentation and runoff from fuel treatments. Researchers are developing a user-friendly computer program to evaluate erosion hazards following wildfires, prescribed fires and other fuel treatments to address this need. |
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98-1-5-01: Fire regimes and fuel treatments: a synthesis with manager feedback |
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Phil Omi |
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Recent fires in the West, the Rocky Mountain Region, and in Florida clearly illustrate the increasing severity, complexity and cost of the fire problem in the U.S. Addressing this problem requires not only an understanding of the historic role of fire but also knowledge of the extent to which wildfire threats can be reduced through fuel treatments. Researchers are in the process of synthesizing information available on historic fire regimes and wildland fuel conditions. Dissemination of the resulting information through the planned national conference (April 2002) will make it easier for managers to evaluate alternative fuel treatments across fire regimes and fuel types. Proceedings from the conference should help policy makers understand reasonable expectations from expanded fuel treatment programs. |
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98-1-5-02: Fire ecology information for California |
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Neil Sugihara |
Additional Cooperators: |
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Fire plays a major role in California ecosystems, but currently no comprehensive synthesis of fire ecology information for these ecosystems exists. For managers and landowners to make more informed choices about fire and fuel management, a readily available and detailed source of information on California fire ecology is needed. This project is addressing the task of compiling and synthesizing published and unpublished information on fire ecology of all major ecosystems in California and the implications for management. Researchers plan to make this information widely available through four venues, including the Internet, a book and a revision of the Manual of California Vegetation. |
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98-1-5-04: Historic Fire Regimes and changes since European settlement on the northern mixed prairie: Effect on ecosystem function and fire behavior |
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Ron Wakimoto |
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Wildland fire management policies and practices over the past 50 years have led to fuel accumulations on rangelands and forest lands. Congress, federal, and state land management agencies recognize that accumulation of wildland fuels must be reduced to reduce human risks and maintain healthy, more natural ecosystems. Researchers will study historic fire regimes as well as fire regimes since European settlement in the Northern Mixed Prairie of Montana, North Dakota and South Dakota. Effects on ecosystem function and fire behavior will be compared. This information will assist managers in making decisions to achieve fire management objectives throughout the region. |
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98-1-7-01: Developing a standard experimental design and protocol for a national study of the consequences of fire and fire surrogate treatments |
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Jim McIver |
Additional Cooperators: |
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Current forests in many fire-dependent ecosystems of the United States have much greater quantities of forest fuels than did their pre-settlement counterparts. A comprehensive fire management strategy released by the USDA Forest Service in 1995 seeks to reduce fire hazard by increasing area treated by mechanical and prescribed fire treatments (fire and fire surrogate treatments). This effort completes work to develop a standard experimental design and protocol for a national study of the consequences of fire and fire surrogate treatments that if implemented could provide managers with substantially improved information about the trade-offs of alternative fuel treatments. |
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98-1-7-02: Adaption of the Fuels and Fire Extension to the Forest Vegetation Simulator to meet the objectives of the JFSP |
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Nicholas Crookston |
Additional Cooperators: |
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Work began on development of the Fuels and Fire Extension to the Forest Vegetation Simulator (FFE-FVS) as a tool to model fuels, fire, and fire effects in 1993. Over the years, FFE-FVS has proven useful in preparing forest plans and justifying fuel treatment schedules of forested lands in the Forest Service, Bureau of Indian Affairs, and Bureau of Land Management. Research effort here is targeted at adapting FFE-FVS to enhance its usefulness in evaluating and scheduling fuel treatments by providing links to economic assessments, emission evaluations, landscape level assessments, and trade-off analyses. |
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98-1-7-04: Development of a flexible, standard methodology for optimizing fuel treatment programs across space and time |
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Denis Dean |
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While the need for wildland fuel treatment on Federal, state, and local wildlands escalates, availability of funding for such actions is limited. The problem is exacerbated by the increasing number of homes and communities being constructed in the wildland-urban interface making wildfires even more costly in terms of property damage and possibly loss of human life. Research is directed at developing a flexible, interactive, GIS-based decision support system that wildland managers can use to optimize their fuel treatment programs with respect to cost and potential effectiveness. |
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98-1-8-02: Fire Modeling for Fuel and Smoke Assessment |
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Patricia Andrews |
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There is a need for science based decision support systems to aid land managers as they address problems of accumulating fuel, unprecedented fire behavior, and smoke production. Research is aimed at improving models for surface fire spread and heat transfer, crown fire spread, burnout of fuels behind the fire front, and dead fuel moisture. Decision support systems are being improved and expanded to include additional modeling capabilities. The BehavePlus fire modeling system produces tables and graphs. The Farsite fire area simulator models fire growth and behavior as the fire moves across the landscape under varying fuel, moisture, and terrain conditions. Farsite includes post-frontal combustion and smoke production. FlamMap is a fire behavior mapping and analysis system to be used in assessing fire potential across the landscape for local planning activities. These three systems and supporting online help and training material is available through www.fire.org Website: http://www.fire.org/jfsp |
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98-1-8-03: A national fire effect prediction model---re | |