Thinning and Prescribed Fire Effects on Fuels and Potential Fire Behavior in an Eastern Cascades Forest, Washington, USA

Fire Ecology ◽  
2006 ◽  
Vol 2 (2) ◽  
pp. 3-19 ◽  
Author(s):  
James K. Agee ◽  
M. Reese Lolley
Keyword(s):  
Prescribed Fire ◽  
Fire Behavior ◽  
Fire Effects ◽  
Eastern Cascades

scholarly journals Prescribed fire science: the case for a refined research agenda

Fire Ecology ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 16 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
J. Kevin Hiers ◽  
Joseph J. O’Brien ◽  
J. Morgan Varner ◽  
Bret W. Butler ◽  
Matthew Dickinson ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Prescribed Fire ◽  
Research Agenda ◽  
Wildland Fire ◽  
Fire Behavior ◽  
Fire Effects ◽  
Prescribed Fires ◽  
Wildfire Management ◽  
Fire Science ◽  
Useful Knowledge ◽  
Global Challenge

Abstract The realm of wildland fire science encompasses both wild and prescribed fires. Most of the research in the broader field has focused on wildfires, however, despite the prevalence of prescribed fires and demonstrated need for science to guide its application. We argue that prescribed fire science requires a fundamentally different approach to connecting related disciplines of physical, natural, and social sciences. We also posit that research aimed at questions relevant to prescribed fire will improve overall wildland fire science and stimulate the development of useful knowledge about managed wildfires. Because prescribed fires are increasingly promoted and applied for wildfire management and are intentionally ignited to meet policy and land manager objectives, a broader research agenda incorporating the unique features of prescribed fire is needed. We highlight the primary differences between prescribed fire science and wildfire science in the study of fuels, fire behavior, fire weather, fire effects, and fire social science. Wildfires managed for resource benefits (“managed wildfires”) offer a bridge for linking these science frameworks. A recognition of the unique science needs related to prescribed fire will be key to addressing the global challenge of managing wildland fire for long-term sustainability of natural resources.

Effectiveness of prescribed fire as a fuel treatment in Californian coniferous forests

2009 ◽  
Vol 18 (2) ◽  
pp. 165 ◽  
Author(s):  
Nicole M. Vaillant ◽  
Jo Ann Fites-Kaufman ◽  
Scott L. Stephens
Keyword(s):  
Prescribed Fire ◽  
Forest Structure ◽  
Tree Mortality ◽  
Wildland Fire ◽  
Fire Behavior ◽  
Weather Conditions ◽  
Fire Effects ◽  
The United States ◽  
Behavior Modeling ◽  
Fuel Loads

Effective fire suppression and land use practices over the last century have altered forest structure and increased fuel loads in many forests in the United States, increasing the occurrence of catastrophic wildland fires. The most effective methods to change potential fire behavior are to reduce surface fuels, increase the canopy base height and reduce canopy bulk density. This multi-tiered approach breaks up the continuity of surface, ladder and crown fuels. Effectiveness of fuel treatments is often shown indirectly through fire behavior modeling or directly through monitoring wildland fire effects such as tree mortality. The present study investigates how prescribed fire affected fuel loads, forest structure, potential fire behavior, and modeled tree mortality at 90th and 97.5th percentile fire weather conditions on eight National Forests in California. Prescription burning did not significantly change forest structure at most sites. Total fuel loads (litter, duff, 1, 10, 100, and 1000-h) were reduced by 23 to 78% across the sites. The reduction in fuel loads altered potential fire behavior by reducing fireline intensity and increasing torching index and crowning index at most sites. Predicted tree mortality decreased after treatment as an effect of reduced potential fire behavior and fuel loads. To use limited fuel hazard reduction resources efficiently, more effort could be placed on the evaluation of existing fire hazards because several stands in the present study had little potential for adverse fire effects before prescribed fire was applied.

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.

scholarly journals Fire severity and ecosystem resilience – lessons from the Wombat Fire Effects Study (1984-2003)

2012 ◽  
Vol 124 (1) ◽  
pp. 30
Author(s):  
Kevin G. Tolhurst
Keyword(s):  
Prescribed Fire ◽  
Fire Severity ◽  
Fire Effects ◽  
Royal Commission ◽  
Mixed Species ◽  
Terrestrial Mammals ◽  
Low Intensity ◽  
Eucalypt Forest ◽  
Fire Characteristics ◽  
Understorey Plants

The Wombat Fire Effects Study was established to address a number of questions in relation to the effects of repeated low-intensity fires in mixed species eucalypt forest in the foothills of Victoria. This study has now been going for 25 years and has included the study of understorey plants, fuels, bats, terrestrial mammals, reptiles, invertebrates, fungi, birds, soils, tree growth, fire behaviour and weather. This forest system has shown a high resilience to fire that is attributed here to the patchiness and variability in the fire characteristics within a fire and the relatively small proportion of the landscape being affected. A means of comparing the level of “injury” caused by low-intensity prescribed fire with high intensity wildfire is proposed so that the debate about leverage benefits (the reduction in wildfire area compared to the area of planned burning) can be more rational. There are some significant implications for assessing the relative environmental impacts of wildfire compared with the planned burning program being implemented in Victoria since the Victorian Bushfires Royal Commission recommendations (Teague et al. 2010).

scholarly journals Prescribed Fire Effects on Advanced Regeneration in Mixed Hardwood Stands

1998 ◽  
Vol 22 (3) ◽  
pp. 138-142 ◽  
Author(s):  
T.A. Barnes ◽  
D.H. Van Lear
Keyword(s):  
South Carolina ◽  
Prescribed Fire ◽  
Prescribed Burning ◽  
Subsequent Development ◽  
Fire Effects ◽  
Hardwood Forests ◽  
Prescribed Fires ◽  
Oak Regeneration ◽  
Advanced Regeneration ◽  
Composition And Structure

Abstract Fire treatments were initiated in 1990 to evaluate effects of low-intensity prescribed fires on composition and structure of the advanced regeneration pool under mature mixed-hardwood stands on upland sites in the Piedmont of South Carolina. One spring burn was as effective as three winter burns in reducing midstory density, considered a prerequisite for subsequent development of oak (Quercus spp.) advanced regeneration. Burning increased the number of oak rootstocks, reduced the relative position of competing species, and increased root-to-shoot ratios of oak stems in the regeneration layer. These favorable effects of fire on oak regeneration outweigh the removal of small, poorly formed oak stems from the midstory/understory strata during burning. Prescribed burning in hardwood forests may solve some of the current oak regeneration problems, especially on better upland sites in the South. South. J. Appl. For. 22(3):138-142.

Evaluation of Mechanized Thinning and Prescribed Fire Effects on Long-Term Fuels Accumulations in Uneven-Aged Jeffrey Pine

2014 ◽  
Vol 33 (8) ◽  
pp. 827-859
Author(s):  
Shannon L. Swim ◽  
Roger F. Walker ◽  
Dale W. Johnson ◽  
Robert M. Fecko ◽  
Watkins W. Miller
Keyword(s):  
Prescribed Fire ◽  
Fire Effects ◽  
Jeffrey Pine

scholarly journals The efficacy of fire and fuels reduction treatments in a Sierra Nevada pine plantation

2009 ◽  
Vol 18 (7) ◽  
pp. 791 ◽  
Author(s):  
Leda N. Kobziar ◽  
Joe R. McBride ◽  
Scott L. Stephens
Keyword(s):  
Sierra Nevada ◽  
Prescribed Fire ◽  
Large Scale ◽  
Structural Characteristics ◽  
Fire Behavior ◽  
Pine Plantation ◽  
Understorey Vegetation ◽  
Fuels Reduction ◽  
Reduction Techniques ◽  
Reducing Potential

Plantations are the most common means of reforestation following stand-replacing wildfires. As wildfires continue to increase in size and severity as a result of fire suppression or climate change, establishment of plantations will likely also increase. Plantations’ structural characteristics, including dense, uniform spacing and abundant ladder fuels, present significant wildfire hazards. Large-scale fuels reduction techniques may be necessary to reduce potential fire behavior in plantations and to protect surrounding forests. In the present study, four different manipulations aimed at reducing potential fire behavior in a Sierra Nevada pine plantation are compared. The treatments include: mechanical shredding, or mastication, of understorey vegetation and small trees; mastication followed by prescribed fire; fire alone; and controls. Fire behavior modeling shows that mastication is detrimental whereas prescribed fire is effective in reducing potential fire behavior at moderate to extreme weather conditions. Predicted fire behavior was compared with actual values from the prescribed burns in an effort to explore the limitations of fire modeling. Fire behavior predictions were similar to field observations in the more structurally homogeneous stands, but differed greatly where mastication created forest openings and patchy fuels distributions. In contrast to natural stands, the homogeneity of pine plantations make the results of the present work applicable to other regions such as the south-eastern US, where similar fuels reduction techniques are used to increase fire-resistance and stand resilience.

scholarly journals Improvement of fire danger rating and vegetation fire behaviour prediction on protected areas

2019 ◽  
Vol 16 ◽  
pp. 00040
Author(s):  
Aleksandra Volokitina ◽  
Dina Nazimova ◽  
Tatiana Sofronova ◽  
Mikhail Korets
Keyword(s):  
Protected Areas ◽  
Biological Diversity ◽  
Fire Behavior ◽  
Fire Spread ◽  
Fire Effects ◽  
Nature Reserves ◽  
Fire Danger ◽  
Behavior Prediction ◽  
Forest Fire Danger ◽  
Economic Use

Protected areas (PAs) are established to conserve biological diversity, to maintain nature complexes and objects in their natural condition. Strict nature reserves prevail in Russia by their total area. The whole nature complex is forever extracted from economic use in nature reserves. Here it is prohibited to pursue any activity which might disturb or damage the nature complexes. Even under the existing strict protection from anthropogenic ignition sources, vegetation fires do occur on their territory. Besides, lightnings − these natural ignition sources − are impossible to exclude. Since large destructive fires are impermissible in nature reserves, the later especially need vegetation fire behavior prediction for fire management. Fire behavior prediction includes fire spread rate, development (from surface fire into crown or ground one) and fire effects. All this is necessary for taking optimal decisions on how to control each occurring fire and how to suppress it. The Sukachev Institute of Forest SB RAS has developed a method to improve forest fire danger rating and a technique of vegetation fire behavior prediction using vegetation fuel maps (VF maps).

scholarly journals Effects of Biomass Removal Treatments on Stand-Level Fire Characteristics in Major Forest Types of the Northern Rocky Mountains

2010 ◽  
Vol 25 (1) ◽  
pp. 34-41 ◽  
Author(s):  
Elizabeth D. Reinhardt ◽  
Lisa Holsinger ◽  
Robert Keane
Keyword(s):  
Ponderosa Pine ◽  
Rocky Mountains ◽  
Fire Behavior ◽  
Fire Effects ◽  
Forest Types ◽  
Prescribed Burns ◽  
Northern Rocky Mountains ◽  
Biomass Removal ◽  
Fuel Dynamics ◽  
Fire Characteristics

Abstract Removal of dead and live biomass from forested stands affects subsequent fuel dynamics and fire potential. The amount of material left onsite after biomass removal operations can influence the intensity and severity of subsequent unplanned wildfires or prescribed burns. We developed a set of biomass removal treatment scenarios and simulated their effects on a number of stands that represent two major forests types of the northern Rocky Mountains: lodgepole and ponderosa pine. The Fire and Fuels Extension to the Forest Vegetation Simulator was used to simulate effects including stand development, fire behavior, and fire effects prior to the biomass removal treatment and 1, 10, 30, and 60 years after the treatment. Analysis of variance was used to determine whether these changes in fuel dynamics and fire potential differed significantly from each other. Results indicated that fire and fuel characteristics varied within and between forest types and depended on the nature of the treatment, as well as time since treatment. Biomass removal decreased fire potential in the short term, but results were mixed over the long term.

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