Severe fire weather and intensive forest management increase fire severity in a multi-ownership landscape

2018 ◽  
Vol 28 (4) ◽  
pp. 1068-1080 ◽  
Author(s):  
Harold S. J. Zald ◽  
Christopher J. Dunn
Keyword(s):  
Forest Management ◽  
Fire Severity ◽  
Fire Weather ◽  
Severe Fire ◽  
Intensive Forest Management

Five-year growth, biomass, and nitrogen pools of Douglas-fir following intensive forest management treatments

2021 ◽  
Vol 494 ◽  
pp. 119276
Author(s):  
K.M. Littke ◽  
S.M. Holub ◽  
R.A. Slesak ◽  
W.R. Littke ◽  
E.C. Turnblom
Keyword(s):  
Forest Management ◽  
Douglas Fir ◽  
Nitrogen Pools ◽  
Intensive Forest Management

Effects of Intensive Forest Management on Stand and Landscape Characteristics in Northern New Brunswick, Canada (1945–2027)

2006 ◽  
Vol 21 (4) ◽  
pp. 509-524 ◽  
Author(s):  
David A. Etheridge ◽  
David A. MacLean ◽  
Robert G. Wagner ◽  
Jeremy S. Wilson
Keyword(s):  
Forest Management ◽  
New Brunswick ◽  
Landscape Characteristics ◽  
Intensive Forest Management

scholarly journals Evolution of a pyrocumulonimbus event associated with an extreme wildfire in Tasmania, Australia

2020 ◽  
Vol 20 (5) ◽  
pp. 1497-1511 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mercy N. Ndalila ◽  
Grant J. Williamson ◽  
Paul Fox-Hughes ◽  
Jason Sharples ◽  
David M. J. S. Bowman
Keyword(s):  
Weather Forecasting ◽  
Fire Severity ◽  
Atmospheric Stability ◽  
Lower Atmosphere ◽  
Fire Weather ◽  
Natural Ecosystems ◽  
Near Surface ◽  
South Eastern ◽  
Crown Defoliation ◽  
Extreme Fire

Abstract. Extreme fires have substantial adverse effects on society and natural ecosystems. Such events can be associated with the intense coupling of fire behaviour with the atmosphere, resulting in extreme fire characteristics such as pyrocumulonimbus cloud (pyroCb) development. Concern that anthropogenic climate change is increasing the occurrence of pyroCbs globally is driving more focused research into these meteorological phenomena. Using 6 min scans from a nearby weather radar, we describe the development of a pyroCb during the afternoon of 4 January 2013 above the Forcett–Dunalley fire in south-eastern Tasmania. We relate storm development to (1) near-surface weather using the McArthur forest fire danger index (FFDI) and the C-Haines index, the latter of which is a measure of the vertical atmospheric stability and dryness, both derived from gridded weather reanalysis for Tasmania (BARRA-TA); and (2) a chronosequence of fire severity derived from remote sensing. We show that the pyroCb rapidly developed over a 24 min period on the afternoon of 4 January, with the cloud top reaching a height of 15 km. The pyroCb was associated with a highly unstable lower atmosphere (C-Haines value of 10–11) and severe–marginally extreme (FFDI 60–75) near-surface fire weather, and it formed over an area of forest that was severely burned (total crown defoliation). We use spatial patterns of elevated fire weather in Tasmania and fire weather during major runs of large wildfires in Tasmania for the period from 2007 to 2016 to geographically and historically contextualise this pyroCb event. Although the Forcett–Dunalley fire is the only known record of a pyroCb in Tasmania, our results show that eastern and south-eastern Tasmania are prone to the conjunction of high FFDI and C-Haines values that have been associated with pyroCb development. Our findings have implications for fire weather forecasting and wildfire management, and they highlight the vulnerability of south-east Tasmania to extreme fire events.

Opportunities and costs of intensification and clustering of forest management activities

2008 ◽  
Vol 38 (4) ◽  
pp. 711-720 ◽  
Author(s):  
Anne-Hélène Mathey ◽  
Emina Krcmar ◽  
John Innes ◽  
Ilan Vertinsky
Keyword(s):  
Forest Management ◽  
Boreal Forest ◽  
Timber Harvesting ◽  
Conservation Areas ◽  
Intensive Forest Management ◽  
Trade Offs ◽  
Planning Approach ◽  
Increasing Demand ◽  
Canadian Boreal Forest ◽  
The Cost

The intensification of forest management in Canada has been advocated as a possible solution to the conundrum that increasing demand for conservation areas and increasing pressure for timber production have created. The benefits and disadvantages of intensive forest management in the context of the Canadian boreal forest are unclear and reaching conclusions about its general value from stand analyses may be difficult. In this study, a boreal forest in Ontario has been used to investigate the potential of intensive management to generate financial revenues and meet management constraints on volume flow and old-growth retention. Two aspects of intensive forest management are considered: intensive silviculture and concentrated harvest activities. The plans are generated with a decentralized planning approach based on cellular automata. The results for the case study show that increasing silviculture intensity can help fulfill high timber flow requirements under strict conservation requirements. This comes at the cost of reduced net revenues but from a smaller timber harvesting landbase. The main trade-offs found were those between harvest flow and financial benefits. Clustering both protected areas and harvest operations could help achieve the conservation and timber-related objectives simultaneously by improving the habitat value of conserved areas and decreasing the operational costs in harvested areas.

scholarly journals Avian Species Richness in Relation to Intensive Forest Management Practices in Early Seral Tree Plantations

PLoS ONE ◽  
2012 ◽  
Vol 7 (8) ◽  
pp. e43290 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jay E. Jones ◽  
Andrew J. Kroll ◽  
Jack Giovanini ◽  
Steven D. Duke ◽  
Tana M. Ellis ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Species Richness ◽  
Forest Management ◽  
Management Practices ◽  
Avian Species ◽  
Tree Plantations ◽  
Forest Management Practices ◽  
Intensive Forest Management

scholarly journals Calibration and evaluation of the Canadian Forest Fire Weather Index (FWI) System for improved wildland fire danger rating in the United Kingdom

2016 ◽  
Vol 16 (5) ◽  
pp. 1217-1237 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mark C. de Jong ◽  
Martin J. Wooster ◽  
Karl Kitchen ◽  
Cathy Manley ◽  
Rob Gazzard ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
United Kingdom ◽  
Fire Severity ◽  
Weather Prediction ◽  
Fire Danger ◽  
Fire Weather ◽  
Rating Systems ◽  
Weather Index ◽  
Fire Weather Index ◽  
The United Kingdom ◽  
The Uk

Abstract. Wildfires in the United Kingdom (UK) pose a threat to people, infrastructure and the natural environment. During periods of particularly fire-prone weather, wildfires can occur simultaneously across large areas, placing considerable stress upon the resources of fire and rescue services. Fire danger rating systems (FDRSs) attempt to anticipate periods of heightened fire risk, primarily for early-warning and preparedness purposes. The UK FDRS, termed the Met Office Fire Severity Index (MOFSI), is based on the Fire Weather Index (FWI) component of the Canadian Forest FWI System. The MOFSI currently provides daily operational mapping of landscape fire danger across England and Wales using a simple thresholding of the final FWI component of the Canadian FWI System. However, it is known that the system has scope for improvement. Here we explore a climatology of the six FWI System components across the UK (i.e. extending to Scotland and Northern Ireland), calculated from daily 2km × 2km gridded numerical weather prediction data and supplemented by long-term meteorological station observations. We used this climatology to develop a percentile-based calibration of the FWI System, optimised for UK conditions. We find this approach to be well justified, as the values of the "raw" uncalibrated FWI components corresponding to a very "extreme" (99th percentile) fire danger situation vary by more than an order of magnitude across the country. Therefore, a simple thresholding of the uncalibrated component values (as is currently applied in the MOFSI) may incur large errors of omission and commission with respect to the identification of periods of significantly elevated fire danger. We evaluate our approach to enhancing UK fire danger rating using records of wildfire occurrence and find that the Fine Fuel Moisture Code (FFMC), Initial Spread Index (ISI) and FWI components of the FWI System generally have the greatest predictive skill for landscape fire activity across Great Britain, with performance varying seasonally and by land cover type. At the height of the most recent severe wildfire period in the UK (2 May 2011), 50 % of all wildfires occurred in areas where the FWI component exceeded the 99th percentile. When all wildfire events during the 2010–2012 period are considered, the 75th, 90th and 99th percentiles of at least one FWI component were exceeded during 85, 61 and 18 % of all wildfires respectively. Overall, we demonstrate the significant advantages of using a percentile-based calibration approach for classifying UK fire danger, and believe that our findings provide useful insights for future development of the current operational MOFSI UK FDRS.

Intensive forest management: Its relationship to AAC and ACE

2002 ◽  
Vol 78 (2) ◽  
pp. 255-259 ◽  
Author(s):  
Gordon Weetman
Keyword(s):  
British Columbia ◽  
Forest Management ◽  
Sustainable Forest Management ◽  
Good News ◽  
Public Confidence ◽  
Intensive Forest Management ◽  
Stable Operating ◽  
Reliable Performance ◽  
Negative Impacts ◽  
The Cost

Forest companies in British Columbia and Alberta have requested increases in allowable cuts on their public land tenures. The present regulatory framework about allowable cut effects is briefly outlined for each province. Seven requirements are proposed for granting an ACE, including consistent and reliable performance, risk assessments, stable operating and market conditions, robust age class distribution, government and public confidence, adequate benefits, and no unacceptable negative impacts on non-timber values. Some of the important "bad" and "good" news about allowable cuts is itemized, together with the drivers for change in sustainable forest management (SFM). It is concluded that professional and technical rigour is required in requests for an ACE. The cost of access to Crown timber has been increased by SFM and foresters and the industry are challenged to produce credible scenarios using new computer technologies, and then to carry them out. Key words: annual allowable cut, allowable cut effect, sustainable forest management, British Columbia,Alberta, forest regulation

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