The economic impact of fire management on timber production in the boreal forest region of Quebec, Canada

2018 ◽  
Vol 27 (12) ◽  
pp. 831 ◽  
Author(s):  
Baburam Rijal ◽  
Frédéric Raulier ◽  
David L. Martell ◽  
Sylvie Gauthier
Keyword(s):  
Boreal Forest ◽  
Fire Management ◽  
Fire Suppression ◽  
Value Added ◽  
Cost Benefit ◽  
Fire Risk ◽  
Timber Harvest ◽  
Forest Resources ◽  
Wood Processing ◽  
Forest Region

Wildfire is an important component of the dynamics of boreal-forest ecosystems, but it can also contribute to the loss of forest resources, especially when fires escape initial attack and become large. Annual fire management costs in the province of Quebec are substantial (annual average of C$69 million for 1994–2014). The main objective of this study was to evaluate the financial impact of fire management on forest resources in Quebec. Our study includes cost–benefit analyses of nine fire management presuppression expenditure scenarios using forest and fire data for three commercially managed forest management units in the province of Quebec that experience varying mean annual burn rates (0.06–0.56%year−1). The reduction in the burn rate attributed to fire management increased the revenue from the sale of primary-processed wood product and reduced fire suppression expenditure. The combined effects of reduced suppression expenditure and increased revenue from value-added timber harvest and wood processing with a lower fire risk compensated for increased fire presuppression expenditure.

scholarly journals Valutazione del rischio di incendi boschivi a livello locale: una proposta metodologica | Fire risk assessment on a local scale: a methodological approach

2005 ◽  
Vol 156 (9) ◽  
pp. 331-337
Author(s):  
Marco Conedera ◽  
Patrick Roth ◽  
Gabriele Corti ◽  
Daniele Ryser
Keyword(s):  
Fire Management ◽  
Landscape Planning ◽  
Fire Suppression ◽  
Fire Hazard ◽  
Methodological Approach ◽  
Fire Risk ◽  
Fire Control ◽  
Fire Risk Analysis ◽  
Planning Processes ◽  
In Fire

Fire-services are often unable to obtain a rapid overview of problems connected with wildfire fighting. In the last few decades the ideology for fire fighting has shifted from fire control(basically fire suppression) to fire management (including prevention,planning, and simulating). As a result, fire management is now included in landscape planning processes. The preliminary step in fire management is fire risk analysis, which takes into account fire hazard (probability and expected severity of a fire) and the outcome (total impact on the affected environment). In this contribution we present an approach for assessing fire risk on local levels in southern Switzerland.

scholarly journals Weight Calculation of Risk Factors of Aircraft Hangar Fire Suppression System using AHP

2021 ◽  
Vol 21 (1) ◽  
pp. 127-138
Author(s):  
Jong Guk Lee ◽  
Hak Joong Kim
Keyword(s):  
Risk Factors ◽  
Risk Assessment ◽  
Fire Management ◽  
Fire Suppression ◽  
Fire Risk ◽  
Hierarchical Analysis ◽  
Suppression Factor ◽  
Physical Damage ◽  
Weight Calculation ◽  
Suppression System

Aircraft hangars are used to store and maintain aircraft. Although the frequency of fires in such hangars is low, the physical damage caused by a fire can be extremely large, and thus it is important to verify the reliability of an automatic fire suppression system. For intensive fire management, it is necessary to identify the risk factors of an automatic fire suppression system and calculate the weights for each factor. In this study, through a hierarchical analysis, fire risk factors of an automatic fire suppression system used in aircraft hangars were identified and the weights for each risk factor were calculated. As the analysis results indicate, the risk of failing in the initial fire suppression factor of foamhead fire suppression system was the highest among the 26 items considered and the calculated weight can be used as basic data necessary for a future quantitative fire risk assessment of an aircraft hangar fire suppression system.

Recent Changes in Annual Area Burned in Interior Alaska: The Impact of Fire Management

2015 ◽  
Vol 19 (5) ◽  
pp. 1-17 ◽  
Author(s):  
M. P. Calef ◽  
A. Varvak ◽  
A. D. McGuire ◽  
F. S. Chapin ◽  
K. B. Reinhold
Keyword(s):  
Boreal Forest ◽  
Large Scale ◽  
Fire Management ◽  
Fire Suppression ◽  
Regional Climate ◽  
Temporal Analysis ◽  
Fire Service ◽  
Area Burned ◽  
The Pacific ◽  
The Impact

Abstract The Alaskan boreal forest is characterized by frequent extensive wildfires whose spatial extent has been mapped for the past 70 years. Simple predictions based on this record indicate that area burned will increase as a response to climate warming in Alaska. However, two additional factors have affected the area burned in this time record: the Pacific decadal oscillation (PDO) switched from cool and moist to warm and dry in the late 1970s and the Alaska Fire Service instituted a fire suppression policy in the late 1980s. In this paper a geographic information system (GIS) is used in combination with statistical analyses to reevaluate the changes in area burned through time in Alaska considering both the influence of the PDO and fire management. The authors found that the area burned has increased since the PDO switch and that fire management drastically decreased the area burned in highly suppressed zones. However, the temporal analysis of this study shows that the area burned is increasing more rapidly in suppressed zones than in the unsuppressed zone since the late 1980s. These results indicate that fire policies as well as regional climate patterns are important as large-scale controls on fires over time and across the Alaskan boreal forest.

Comment—A re-examination of the effects of fire suppression in the boreal forest

2001 ◽  
Vol 31 (8) ◽  
pp. 1462-1466 ◽  
Author(s):  
K Miyanishi ◽  
E A Johnson
Keyword(s):  
Boreal Forest ◽  
Fire Management ◽  
Fire Suppression ◽  
Fire Frequency ◽  
Stand Age ◽  
Reliable Estimate ◽  
Fire Size ◽  
Fire Cycle ◽  
Large Fires ◽  
In Fire

A report by Ward and Tithecott (P.C. Ward and A.G. Tithecott. 1993. Ontario Ministry of Natural Resources, Aviation, Flood and Fire Management Branch, Publ. 305.) is frequently cited in the literature as providing evidence of the effects of fire suppression on the boreal forest. The study is based on 15 years of fire data and stand age data from Ontario, Canada. A re-examination of this report reveals serious flaws that invalidate the conclusions regarding effects of fire suppression on fire size and fire frequency. The fire-size data from the unprotected zone are censored in the small size classes because of detection resolution, invalidating comparisons of shapes of the distributions between the protected and unprotected zones. Use of different plotting scales gives the false appearance of large differences in the number of large fires between the two zones. Stand age data are used to show a change in fire frequency in the 20th century, and this change is attributed to fire suppression. However, no evidence is presented to conclude that this change in fire frequency is attributable to fire suppression and not to climate change. The estimate of the current fire cycle is based on too short a record to give a reliable estimate given the variation in annual area burned. Therefore, this report does not present sound evidence of fire suppression effects and should not be cited as such.

The adaptive capacity of forest management to changing fire regimes in the boreal forest of Quebec

2005 ◽  
Vol 81 (4) ◽  
pp. 582-592 ◽  
Author(s):  
Héloïse Le Goff ◽  
Alain Leduc ◽  
Yves Bergeron ◽  
Mike Flannigan
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Forest Management ◽  
Boreal Forest ◽  
Sustainable Forest Management ◽  
Fire Suppression ◽  
Management Strategies ◽  
Fire Risk ◽  
Fire Regimes ◽  
Fuel Management ◽  
Adaptation Options

Climate influences natural processes at multiple spatial and temporal scales. Consequently, climate change raises many challenges for sustainable forest management; among them, the integration of fire and forest management is increasingly discussed. We propose here an evaluation of the adaptive capacity of forest management under changing forest fire regimes under climate change in the boreal forest of Quebec. Adaptation begins by reinterpreting current practices dealing with climatically driven variability. Among them, fire suppression, and regeneration enhancement can contribute to coping with some impacts of climate change. However, there is an increasing need to develop more integrative and spatially explicit management strategies to decrease the vulnerability of forest management to changing fire risk. Some developing management strategies, such as fuel management or the triad approach (zoning system for conservation, intensive, and extensive forest management), present an interesting potential for integrating the fire risk in management plans. While fuel management and fire suppression are indicated for particularly severe fire regimes, protection against insects, and maintaining a shorter disturbance cycle using forest management represent the preferred adaptation options where the fire cycle is lengthening under climate change. Key words: forest fire, fire risk, climate change, vulnerability, impacts, adaptation strategy, adaptation options, sustainable forest management, fire management

scholarly journals Breathing Fire into Landscapes that Burn: Wildfire Management in a Time of Alterlife

2020 ◽  
Vol 6 ◽  
pp. 555
Author(s):  
Alex Zahara
Keyword(s):  
Large Scale ◽  
Management Practices ◽  
Fire Management ◽  
Fire Suppression ◽  
Human Life ◽  
Settler Colonialism ◽  
Wildfire Management ◽  
Nation States ◽  
Forest Region ◽  
Forested Areas

Across the globe, settler nation-states are being forced to contend with the large-scale ecological and social disruptions caused by settler colonialism. Wildfires are a charismatic example of this: when anthropogenic climate change combines with colonial forest management practices, wildfires act in ever changing ways with often violent and uneven impacts to human and nonhuman life. In a context of environmental change, managers, fire ecologists, and politicians alike are increasingly looking to reintroduce fire as a way of restoring “natural” forest landscapes while reducing fire suppression costs. In this paper, I examine one such policy of fire re-integration, in what is currently the Canadian province of Saskatchewan, the homelands of more than 50,000 Indigenous people (Cree, Dakota, Dene, Métis) who live in the province’s Boreal Forest region. In 2004, the Province implemented a controversial policy that locals colloquially refer to as “Let-it-Burn,” where fires are allowed to burn until they encroach upon something designated of “value” (typically human life, community structures, public infrastructure, and commercial timber). While wildfire managers, scientists, and politicians alike consistently advocate for policies of fire-reintegration as ecologically-sound and financially responsible ways forward with fire management, many locals have argued that “Let-it-Burn” is a direct affront to Indigenous sovereignty, destroying contemporary forest landscapes and rebuilding them through state-sanctioned settler values. Breathing fire back into landscapes that burn is a peculiar solution that at once acknowledges and erases the effects of fire’s removal through policies of restoration that risk ignoring the ongoingness of life in forested areas. Through interviews and archival and ethnographic fieldwork, this paper traces the history of the province’s “Let-it-Burn” policy, asking the question, “how to burn well in compromised lands?”  As a way forward with fire reintegration (or not), I highlight the necessity of Indigenous partnership, leadership, and direction within fire management practices on Indigenous territory, which may include fire suppression. This paper adds to STS scholarship on ecological ruination and alterlife, arguing that wildfire management practices are likely to cause harm so long as the effects of settler colonialism are placed in the past and Indigenous rebuilding is erased.

scholarly journals Effect of Furfurylation on Hierarchical Porous Structure of Poplar Wood

Polymers ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 13 (1) ◽  
pp. 32
Author(s):  
Xiaoshuang Shen ◽  
Pan Jiang ◽  
Dengkang Guo ◽  
Gaiyun Li ◽  
Fuxiang Chu ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Porous Structure ◽  
Value Added ◽  
Untreated Wood ◽  
Weight Percent Gain ◽  
Wood Properties ◽  
Weight Percent ◽  
Acoustic Properties ◽  
Hierarchical Porous Structure ◽  
Wood Processing ◽  
Hierarchical Porous

Some wood properties (such as permeability and acoustic properties) are closely related to its hierarchical porous structure, which is responsible for its potential applications. In this study, the effect of wood impregnation with furfuryl alcohol on its hierarchical porous structure was investigated by microscopy, mercury intrusion porosimetry and nuclear magnetic resonance cryoporometry. Results indicated decreasing lumina diameters and increasing cell wall thickness of various cells after modification. These alterations became serious with enhancing weight percent gain (WPG). Some perforations and pits were also occluded. Compared with those of untreated wood, the porosity and pore volume of two furfurylated woods decreased at most of the pore diameters, which became more remarkable with raising WPG. The majority of pore sizes (diameters of 1000~100,000 nm and 10~80 nm) of macrospores and micro-mesopores of two furfurylated woods were the same as those of untreated wood. This work could offer thorough knowledge of the hierarchical porous structure of impregnatedly modified wood and pore-related properties, thereby providing guidance for subsequent wood processing and value-added applications.

scholarly journals Using the Landsat Burned Area Products to Derive Fire History Relevant for Fire Management and Conservation in the State of Florida, Southeastern USA

Fire ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 4 (2) ◽  
pp. 26
Author(s):  
Casey Teske ◽  
Melanie K. Vanderhoof ◽  
Todd J. Hawbaker ◽  
Joe Noble ◽  
John Kevin Hiers
Keyword(s):  
Prescribed Fire ◽  
Spatial Data ◽  
Fire History ◽  
Fire Management ◽  
Fire Behavior ◽  
Fire Risk ◽  
Behavior Modeling ◽  
Burned Area ◽  
Burned Areas ◽  
Burn Probability

Development of comprehensive spatially explicit fire occurrence data remains one of the most critical needs for fire managers globally, and especially for conservation across the southeastern United States. Not only are many endangered species and ecosystems in that region reliant on frequent fire, but fire risk analysis, prescribed fire planning, and fire behavior modeling are sensitive to fire history due to the long growing season and high vegetation productivity. Spatial data that map burned areas over time provide critical information for evaluating management successes. However, existing fire data have undocumented shortcomings that limit their use when detailing the effectiveness of fire management at state and regional scales. Here, we assessed information in existing fire datasets for Florida and the Landsat Burned Area products based on input from the fire management community. We considered the potential of different datasets to track the spatial extents of fires and derive fire history metrics (e.g., time since last burn, fire frequency, and seasonality). We found that burned areas generated by applying a 90% threshold to the Landsat burn probability product matched patterns recorded and observed by fire managers at three pilot areas. We then created fire history metrics for the entire state from the modified Landsat Burned Area product. Finally, to show their potential application for conservation management, we compared fire history metrics across ownerships for natural pinelands, where prescribed fire is frequently applied. Implications of this effort include increased awareness around conservation and fire management planning efforts and an extension of derivative products regionally or globally.

Fungi of the Canadian boreal forest region: Catulus aquilonius gen. et sp.nov., a hyperparasite on Seuratia millardetii

1978 ◽  
Vol 56 (19) ◽  
pp. 2344-2347 ◽  
Author(s):  
D. Malloch ◽  
C. T. Rogerson
Keyword(s):  
Boreal Forest ◽  
New Genus ◽  
New Genus And Species ◽  
Forest Region ◽  
Canadian Boreal Forest ◽  
Boreal Forest Region

A new genus and species of ascomycetes, Catulus aquilonius, is described, illustrated, and tentatively assigned to the Mycosphaerellaceae. It grows as a parasite on stromata of Seuratia millardetii (Raciborski) Meeker and is characterized by two-celled, setulose ascospores.

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