A fuel treatment reduces fire severity and increases suppression efficiency in a mixed conifer forest

2007 ◽  
Vol 16 (6) ◽  
pp. 673 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jason J. Moghaddas ◽  
Larry Craggs
Keyword(s):  
Fire Severity ◽  
Private Land ◽  
Limited Information ◽  
Conifer Forest ◽  
Mixed Conifer ◽  
Fuel Treatments ◽  
Private Lands ◽  
Fuel Treatment ◽  
Public And Private ◽  
Spot Fires

Fuel treatments are being implemented on public and private lands across the western United States. Although scientists and managers have an understanding of how fuel treatments can modify potential fire behaviour under modelled conditions, there is limited information on how treatments perform under real wildfire conditions in Sierran mixed conifer forests. The Bell Fire started on 22 September 2005 on the Plumas National Forest, CA. This fire burned upslope into a 1-year old, 158-ha mechanical fuel treatment on private land. Prior to coming into contact with the fuel treatment, the main fire ignited spot fires 400 feet (122 metres) into the treated area. Overall, this fuel treatment resulted in: (1) increased penetration of retardant to surface fuels; (2) improved visual contact between fire crews and the Incident Commander; (3) safe access to the main fire; and (4) quick suppression of spot fires. This treatment was relatively small and isolated from other fuel treatments but resulted in decreased severity, suppression costs and post-fire rehabilitation needs, leading to cost savings for local public and private land managers.

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

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

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

scholarly journals Plant community dynamics following hazardous fuel treatments and mega-wildfire in a warm-dry mixed-conifer forest of the USA

2018 ◽  
Vol 429 ◽  
pp. 278-286 ◽  
Author(s):  
Judith D. Springer ◽  
David W. Huffman ◽  
Michael T. Stoddard ◽  
Andrew J. Sánchez Meador ◽  
Amy E.M. Waltz
Keyword(s):  
Plant Community ◽  
Community Dynamics ◽  
Conifer Forest ◽  
Mixed Conifer ◽  
Fuel Treatments ◽  
Plant Community Dynamics ◽  
Mixed Conifer Forest ◽  
The Usa

Fuel treatments change forest structure and spatial patterns of fire severity, Arizona, U.S.A.

2019 ◽  
Vol 49 (11) ◽  
pp. 1357-1370
Author(s):  
Morris C. Johnson ◽  
Maureen C. Kennedy ◽  
Sarah Harrison
Keyword(s):  
Forest Structure ◽  
Fire Severity ◽  
Fire Effects ◽  
Wildlife Habitat ◽  
Fuel Treatments ◽  
Treatment Unit ◽  
Fuel Treatment ◽  
Treated Area ◽  
High Severity ◽  
Management Objectives

Fuel reduction treatments are often designed to achieve multiple resource management objectives in addition to reducing potential fire hazard. In the White Mountains of Arizona State (U.S.A.), the 2014 San Juan Fire burned through several thinning prescriptions designed to achieve wildlife habitat objectives. Many studies have documented reduced fire severity for a standard set of fuel treatments, but the range of variability in fuel treatment effectiveness for alternative treatment designs is poorly understood. We used nonlinear mixed-effects modeling to estimate the distance into the treated area at which fire severity decreases and randomization tests to compare forest structure. High-severity fire effects were estimated to be reduced between 114 m and 345 m into the treated area. The range of variability in observed-distance high-severity fire effects persist into the treated area and, in conjunction with estimated relationships between posttreatment forest structure and severity, can inform the design of alternative fuel treatment prescriptions with various target prescriptions. We found that as cover was maintained in a treatment unit for wildlife habitat, the size of the fuel treatment necessary to observe a reduction in severity needs to be larger. Our study will inform decision makers on the size of treatments required to accomplish management objectives.

Policies for establishing hybrid poplar plantations on private and public lands in western Canada for bioethanol feedstock: A forest-level financial analysis

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ashan Shooshtarian ◽  
Jay Anthony Anderson ◽  
Glen W. Armstrong ◽  
Martin K. Luckert
Keyword(s):  
Financial Analysis ◽  
Hybrid Poplar ◽  
Pulp Mill ◽  
Public Land ◽  
Private Land ◽  
Private Lands ◽  
Public And Private ◽  
Private And Public ◽  
Level Model ◽  
Poplar Plantations

A forest-level model is developed that estimates how policies towards hybrid poplar plantations on private and public land impact harvest levels and values for producing biofuel feedstock. We simulate three policy changes: 1) permitting an increase in harvest levels on public land as a result of establishing hybrid poplar plantations on private land; 2) permitting the establishment of hybrid poplar plantations on public land; and 3) including forest carbon emission offsets in the net benefits realized by the forest operator. We are interested in whether the increase in harvest created by the policies might be enough to supply a biorefinery, and how the value of the operation changes. Our results suggest that jointly managing public and private lands under sustained yield can increase harvest by between 7% and 93%, and increase the value of the operation by between 39% and 263%. Results also suggest that hybrid poplar plantations could enable a leaseholder of one million hectares of public forestland to initiate an allowable cut effect and thereby increase harvest enough to supply a new biorefinery, in addition to its existing pulp mill. Carbon offsets further increase the value of the forest, although harvest begins to decline at high carbon prices.

scholarly journals Understanding How Fuel Treatments Interact With Climate and Biophysical Setting to Affect Fire, Water, and Forest Health: A Process-Based Modeling Approach

2021 ◽  
Vol 3 ◽  
Author(s):  
William D. Burke ◽  
Christina Tague ◽  
Maureen C. Kennedy ◽  
Max A. Moritz
Keyword(s):  
Sierra Nevada ◽  
Treatment Effects ◽  
Fire Severity ◽  
Forest Health ◽  
Water Yield ◽  
Severe Drought ◽  
Fuel Treatments ◽  
Fuel Treatment ◽  
Response Variable ◽  
Treatment Type

Fuel treatments are a key forest management practice used to reduce fire severity, increase water yield, and mitigate drought vulnerability. Climate change exacerbates the need for fuel treatments, with larger and more frequent wildfires, increasing water demand, and more severe drought. The effects of fuel treatments can be inconsistent and uncertain and can be altered by a variety of factors including the type of treatment, the biophysical features of the landscape, and climate. Variation in fuel treatment effects can occur even within forest stands and small watershed management units. Quantifying the likely magnitude of variation in treatment effects and identifying the dominant controls on those effects is needed to support fuel treatment planning directed at achieving specific fire, water, and forest health goals. This research aims to quantify and better understand how local differences in treatment, landscape features, and climate alter those fuel treatment effects. We address these questions using a mechanistic coupled ecohydrologic model—the Regional Hydro-Ecological Simulation System (RHESSys). We ran 13,500 scenarios covering a range of fuel treatment, biophysical, and climate conditions, for the Southern Sierra Nevada of California. Across fuel treatment type, biophysical, and climate parameters, we find nontrivial variation in fuel treatment effects on stand carbon, net primary productivity, evapotranspiration, and fire-related canopy structure variables. Response variable estimates range substantially, from increases (1–48%) to decreases (−13 to −175%) compared to untreated scenarios. The relative importance of parameters differs by response variable; however, fuel treatment method and intensity, plant accessible water storage capacity (PAWSC), and vegetation type consistently demonstrate a large influence across response variables. These parameters interact to produce non-linear effects. Results show that projections of fuel treatment effects based on singular mean parameter values (such as mean PAWSC) provide a limited picture of potential responses. Our findings emphasize the need for a more complete perspective when assessing expected fuel treatment outcomes, both in their effects and in the interacting biophysical and climatic parameters that drive them. This research also serves as a demonstration of methodology to assess the likely variation in potential effects of fuel treatments for a given planning unit.

Fire severity alters the distribution of pyrogenic carbon stocks across ecosystem pools in a Californian mixed-conifer forest

2017 ◽  
Vol 122 (9) ◽  
pp. 2338-2355 ◽  
Author(s):  
Bernardo Maestrini ◽  
Erin C. Alvey ◽  
Matthew D. Hurteau ◽  
Hugh Safford ◽  
Jessica R. Miesel
Keyword(s):  
Fire Severity ◽  
Carbon Stocks ◽  
Conifer Forest ◽  
Mixed Conifer ◽  
Pyrogenic Carbon ◽  
Mixed Conifer Forest
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