Wood Science and Pulp, Paper Technology Commons^™

An Enhanced Online Piled Fuels Biomass Calculator, Clinton S. Wright, Paige C. Eagle

Joint Fire Science Program Research Project Reports

A web-programming project was undertaken to allow users of the online Hand-piled Fuels Biomass Calculator to also estimate the volume, biomass and potential emissions of mechanically piled fuels. Machine pile calculations encoded in the decision support software CONSUME 3.0 were added to the online Calculator to achieve this objective. In addition, the ability to batch process piled fuels data was added to the online Calculator to ease data input for large analysis projects. A stand-alone version of the Calculator was developed for users without access to the Internet. As it is executed within a standard web browser (e.g., Microsoft Internet …

Evaluating The Effects Of Pinyon Thinning Treatments At A Wildland Urban Interface, J. R. Matchett, Matthew L. Brooks, Anne Halford, Dale Johnson, Helen Smith

Joint Fire Science Program Research Project Reports

This study evaluated the short-term effects of thinning methods for pinyon pine woodlands at two sites in the southwestern Great Basin. Both cut/pile/burn and mastication treatments were equally effective at reducing the target fuels which were mature, live pinyon trees. Application costs though differed substantially, with the cut/pile/burn technique being less expensive. Thinning treatments increased the abundance of herbaceous vegetation, although in some cases the strength of the increase was constrained by the level of pre-treatment tree dominance. Increases in perennial grass cover and density in response to thinning were usually greatest at lower levels of pre-treatment pinyon dominance, whereas …

Exploring The Traditional Use Of Fire In The Coastal Mountains Of Central California, Brent E. Johnson, Rand R. Everett, Kent G. Lightfoot, Charles J. Stiplen

Joint Fire Science Program Research Project Reports

This study brought together a team of ecologists, archaeologists, environmental historians, indigenous peoples, and land managers within a research framework combining an ethnographic investigation of traditional practices with cutting-edge paleoecological techniques to answer questions about Indian utilization of fire as an ecological and cultural landscape management tool in Central Coastal California. The study was designed around four key elements: (1) examining fire regimes for research sites using a combination of fire scar dendrochronology, phytoliths, archaeology, historical information, and traditional ecological knowledge; (2) attempting to formalize a methodology for using phytoliths to estimate the fire return interval and intensity in grassland …

Fire Regimes Of The Southern Appalachian Mountains: Temporal And Spatial Variability Over Multiple Scales And Implications For Ecosystem Management, Charles W. Lafon, Henri D. Grissino-Mayer, Sally P. Horn, Robert N. Klein

Joint Fire Science Program Research Project Reports

Information about historic fire regimes and the departure of current fire regimes from historic conditions is essential for guiding and justifying management actions, such as prescribed burning programs for ecosystem process restoration and fuel reduction. Such information is noticeably lacking for the southern Appalachian Mountains, where human populations are encroaching onto wildland areas, and where decades of fire exclusion have contributed to the decline of fire-associated communities and also to altered fuel loads. We address this knowledge gap via a multi-scale investigation of the variability in fire regimes over time and space using tree-ring reconstructions of fire history and stand …

Fuel Consumption And Smoke Emissions From Landscape-Scale Burns In Eastern Hardwoods, Matthew Dickinson, Ann Acheson, Robert Kremens

Joint Fire Science Program Research Project Reports

Our project used remotely-sensed infrared radiation measurements to estimate fuel consumption in eastern mixed-oak forests and facilitated the development of smoke management expertise and processes for complying with EPA regulations in Ohio and Kentucky. As a result of two workshops, Ohio developed a Smoke Management Plan designed to ensure that best management practices were being used across land ownerships and to facilitate mandated information sharing with the Ohio EPA and US EPA. Ohio also established a Prescribed Fire Council as a result of this process. Kentucky opted for a less formal response to EPA regulations, establishing a Prescribed Fire Council …

Developing And Using Fire Scar Histories In The Southern And Eastern United States, Richard P. Guyette, Martin Spetich, Daniel C. Dey

Joint Fire Science Program Research Project Reports

Land managers developing fire management plans in the eastern and southern United States lack quantitative information on historic fire regimes. Twelve new fire histories were developed from dated fire scars on trees from regions where no fire scar history data had existed before in the states of Alabama, Louisiana, Kentucky, Iowa, Wisconsin, and Michigan. Sites represent highly variable climates from extreme cold (with long snow cover duration) to subtropical. All sites utilized oak or pine recorder species that were collected from closed forest to open savanna structures. Pre-industrial mean fire intervals ranged from 3 to more than 35 years at …

Do Annual Prescribed Fires Enhance Or Slow The Loss Of Coastal Marsh Habitat At Blackwater National Wildlife Refuge?, Donald R. Cahoon, Glenn Guntenspergen, Suzanne Baird

Joint Fire Science Program Research Project Reports

The rate of estuarine marsh loss at Blackwater NWR has been high (up to 2,000 ha) during the past 80 years because the vertical buildup of the marsh surface has lagged behind the local rate of relative sea-level rise. In this mineral sediment-poor estuary, marsh vertical development is driven primarily by the accumulation of plant matter in the soil (roots and rhizomes). Thus any activity that affects plant productivity can affect the ability of these marshes to keep pace with sea-level rise. Blackwater NWR has employed an annual prescribed fire regime since the 1970’s to achieve multiple management objectives. However, …

Do Fuel Treatments Reduce Fire Severity? Evaluating Treatment Effectiveness In The 2006 Tripod Complex Fires, Susan J. Prichard, David L. Peterson

Joint Fire Science Program Research Project Reports

The 2006 Tripod Complex fires burned over 70,000 ha of dry mixed conifer forests in north-central Washington State. Recent fuel treatments burned in the wildfire offered an opportunity to quantitatively evaluate if fuel treatment effectively mitigated fire severity. We quantified the relative effect of two common fuel treatments: mechanical thinning only (thin) and mechanical thinning followed by prescribed burning (thinRx). Fire severity was markedly different between the two treatments. Over 57% of trees survived in thinRx units versus 19% in thin and 14% in control units. Considering only large-diameter trees (> 20 cm dbh), 73% survived in thinRx units versus …

Effect Of Season And Interval Of Prescribed Burns In A Ponderosa Pine Ecosystem On Tree Growth And Understory Vegetation., W. G. Thies, Becky K. Kerns, Douglas J. Westlind

Joint Fire Science Program Research Project Reports

After decades of fire exclusion many stands now have historically unprecedented (high) levels of fuels and overstocking. As a result these stands have developed a variety of health issues. In response to these problems land managers are using prescribed fire to restore fuel loads and stand stocking to pre-fire exclusion levels. The impacts of season of prescribed burn as well as burn interval are not well understood. Managers need the ability to better predict these impacts on such things as tree mortality from fire, associated insect attack and disease development, tree growth, and plant communities. The “Season of Burn” study …

Effects Of Prescribed Burning, Mechanical, And Chemical Treatments To Curtail Rhododendron Dominance And Reduce Urban Interface Fuel Loads, Shepard M. Zedaker, Charles W. Harrell Iii, Christopher D. Pearce

Joint Fire Science Program Research Project Reports

One-half-acre treatment areas were delineated within prescribed burns. Cutting treatments consisted of chainsaw or brushsaw severing of all rhododendron stems within 6 in of the ground surface. Herbicide and herbicide followed by fire treatments consisted of basal applications of triclopyr or imazapyr in methylated seed oil on each plot. Cutting and burning treatments followed by herbicides utilized foliar applications of triclopyr or imazapyr in emulsions to all resprouting rhododendron. All herbicide plots were randomly split in half for the application of imazapyr or triclopyr on different halves. Analyses of variance and mean separation by LSD were used to compare treatment …

Evaluating Postfire Seeding Treatments Designed To Suppress Cheatgrass (Bromus Tectorum) In A Ponderosa Pine Forest On The Colorado Plateau, Matthew L. Brooks, Robert Klinger, Jennifer Chase, Curt Deuser

Joint Fire Science Program Research Project Reports

The restoration of historical fuel conditions and fire regimes is one of the primary land management goals in the Shivwits Plateau region of northwestern Arizona. Fire is the primary tool used in this region to reduce fuel loads and shift landscapes back to historical conditions of a low intensity, 8- 15 year return interval, surface fire regime. However, the invasive plant cheatgrass has become the dominant understory vegetation and fuel type following initial fire treatments in many areas. There is significant concern that repeated burning at historically appropriate fire return intervals for ponderosa pine forest will benefit this invasive plant …

Evaluating Approaches To Mapping Burn Probabilities For A Quantitative Wildland Fire Risk Analysis Framework., Carol Miller, Marc Parisien, Alan Ager, Mark Finney

Joint Fire Science Program Research Project Reports

This final report summarizes a collaboration that brought together experts in burn probability (BP) modeling and wildland fire risk analysis to compare and evaluate BP models, and ultimately incorporate these into a risk analysis framework. The project built on and extended the work from JFSP project #01-1-1-05. This project evaluated and tested three different independent models that generate BP maps as output for their operational use in risk analysis. The project quantified the relative sensitivity of the three BP models to different inputs, enhanced our understanding of the factors that affect BP at the landscape scale, and yielded concrete improvements …

Evaluating Postfire Seeding Treatments Designed To Suppress Cheatgrass (Bromus Tectorum) In A Ponderosa Pine Forest On The Colorado Plateau, Matthew L. Brooks, Robert Klinger, Jennifer Chase, Curt Deuser

Joint Fire Science Program Research Project Reports

The restoration of historical fuel conditions and fire regimes is one of the primary land management goals in the Shivwits Plateau region of northwestern Arizona. Fire is the primary tool used in this region to reduce fuel loads and shift landscapes back to historical conditions of a low intensity, 8- 15 year return interval, surface fire regime. However, the invasive plant cheatgrass has become the dominant understory vegetation and fuel type following initial fire treatments in many areas. There is significant concern that repeated burning at historically appropriate fire return intervals for ponderosa pine forest will benefit this invasive plant …

Burning And Bats: Fire’S Effect On The Endangered Indiana Bat, Christina Frame

Joint Fire Science Program Briefs (2007-2012)

The spring prescribed burn window in the Central Hardwoods is short (usually April) and good burning days are few. The Daniel Boone National Forest (DBNF) prescribed fi re program is trying to regenerate oak ecosystems ahead of the arrival of gypsy moths in the region and the high overstory oak mortality that can result. If the burn window could be extended into the growing season (later spring), managers could control vegetation more effectively. However, the DBNF also serves as warm-season roosting habitat for the endangered Indiana bat, so burning into the growing season could potentially put the bats—and especially maternity …

A Gust Changes Everything: Local Wind Information In Unprecedented Detail With Windwizard And Windninja, Marjie Brown

Joint Fire Science Program Briefs (2007-2012)

Fire behavior model accuracy has suffered from a lack of specific information about how winds shift in direction and speed in mountainous terrain at fine scales. Before this project, fire managers lacked a tool that could provide realtime status of changing wind conditions at the scale of a specific ridge or drainage. This project resulted in two wind simulation tools that focus on this critical need: WindWizard and WindNinja. WindWizard, based on commercial computational fluid dynamics software, comes with a price tag and is computationally slower due to the complexity of the calculations it performs. WindNinja was developed as WindWizard’s …

Nebraska Statewide Forest Resource Assessment & Strategy - 2010, Scott Josiah, John Erixson

Nebraska Forest Service: Publications

This Assessment relies heavily on the input from our partners. To complete the Assessment, we bolstered our own forest resource data with publicly available data from a variety of sources, including the National Land Cover Dataset, USFS Spatial Analysis Project, U.S. Census Bureau, Nebraska Game and Parks Commission, Nebraska Department of Roads, Nebraska Natural Resources Districts and input from many partners. Combined, this information provided us with valuable insights about the nature, complexity and value of our forest resources, and helped us identify priority forest areas across the state.

Using the information from the Assessment, we developed strategic goals based …

A Powerful New Planning Environment For Fuels Managers: The Interagency Fuels Treatment Decision Support System, Gail Wells

Joint Fire Science Program Digests

The Joint Fire Science Program, the National Wildfire Coordinating Group Fuels Management Committee, and Sonoma Technology, Inc. are unveiling the prototype of a new planning environment that will help fuels specialists negotiate the confusing array of planning tools. The new framework, dubbed the Interagency Fuels Treatment Decision Support System, or IFT-DSS, organizes fuels-planning software and data into a seamless user environment. IFT-DSS offers users access to powerful modeling software from within a well-designed, intuitive graphical user interface, and it provides a common platform for the further development of fuels-planning software tools. The name may not slide easily off the tongue—you …

Making Biomass Pay: Obstacles And Opportunities, Gail Wells

Joint Fire Science Program Digests

Removing hazardous fuels to reduce the risk of wildfire has become a priority for land managers across the United States. Utilizing biomass taken from forests to cover the cost of fuel reduction is an attractive ideal. Effective utilization could also address important national challenges such as improving forest health, increasing domestic energy supplies, reducing carbon emissions, and revitalizing rural economies. However, getting woody biomass from the forest to the consumer is economically and logistically difficult, and efforts to make biomass utilization profitable have been disappointing so far. JFSP-funded researchers have found that, while there is no recipe for building a …

Community Wildfire Protection Plans: Reducing Wildfire Hazards In The Wildland Urban Interface, Gail Wells

Joint Fire Science Program Digests

The 2003 Healthy Forests Restoration Act calls for local communities in the wildland-urban interface to collaborate on developing Community Wildfire Protection Plans (CWPPs) to reduce their wildfire hazard. To craft a successful CWPP, a community must collaborate effectively. A Joint Fire Science Program-sponsored research team studied 15 communities as they developed CWPPs. They found that social networks, learning communities, and community capacity were key indicators of success, and that working together on a CWPP can enhance a community’s capacity to collaborate, helping it address future challenges more skillfully.

The Fire Effects Information System: How A Superhero Database Comes To Save The Day, Lisa-Natalie Anjozian

Joint Fire Science Program Briefs (2007-2012)

Land managers must make fi re management decisions considering place, history, and species, an undertaking that requires a vast amount of information that tends to be spread through many publications. The Fire Effects Information System ([FEIS] at www.fs.fed.us/database/feis) provides a single source for managers, where knowledge available in the scientifi c literature has been analyzed, discussed, and synthesized into reviews of plant and animal species. As managers formulate plans for prescribed fi res, fuel management, and post-fi re revegetation, they can see at a glance, without having to perform their own literature search, what the results of past research have …

Chipping, Burning, And The Care Of Southeastern Pine Woodlands, Lisa-Natalie Anjozian

Joint Fire Science Program Briefs (2007-2012)

Chipping as a land management tool is increasing in popularity to treat lands where burning presents problems, such as areas with ever growing population along the wildland-urban interface. Escaped fi re, and health and nuisance hazards from smoke have caused many managers to avoid burning altogether. The researchers found chipping by itself is likely not an adequate surrogate for fi re, either for restoring ecosystems to desired plant communities, or for limiting fuels, changing fi re behavior, and reducing smoke as a safeguard for future wildfi res. However, chipping in conjunction with fi re demonstrates mostly positive benefi ts for …

Saltcedar: Is Burning An Option?, Jake Delwiche

Joint Fire Science Program Briefs (2007-2012)

Saltcedar, an invasive plant genus, is diffi cult to eliminate. A 2001–2002 research project, partially funded by the Joint Fire Science Program, investigated burning as a tool to combat the growth and spread of saltcedar in Western riparian environments. It also evaluated the subsequent survival characteristics of saltcedar after the prescribed burn. The research was performed by a team from Texas Tech University, Lubbock, Texas. Researchers concluded that fi re behavior in saltcedar-dominated communities is largely dependent on whether the areas have burned in the recent past. Decadent stands of saltcedar carry fi res through the crowns with extreme fl …

Blackbrush Shrublands: Fire Conditions And Solutions In The Mojave Desert, Lisa-Natalie Anjozian

Joint Fire Science Program Briefs (2007-2012)

While mature stands of blackbrush present an almost continuous cover that appears to suppress other species, this ecosystem supports a greater array of different plant species than was previously thought. Fire can completely remove blackbrush cover, but it also results in reduced numbers of other native species, and increased dominance of non-native species such as annual grasses that can promote recurrent fi re and alter the fi re regime. Where blackbrush shrublands historically experienced intense fi res with a long fi re return interval, the non-native fi ne fuels that are now prevalent in many stands promote a greater rate …

Fuels Treatment Demonstration Sites In The Boreal Forests Of Interior Alaska, Marjie Brown

Joint Fire Science Program Briefs (2007-2012)

Wildland fi re is the dominant disturbance force in the boreal forests of Alaska which cover about 114 million acres of the south-central and interior regions of the state. Fire in the wildland-urban interface (WUI) is an exceptionally daunting concern as a high percentage of Alaskans live in outlying rural areas and settlements. Fire hazard is growing as communities continue to expand into isolated locations surrounded by highly fl ammable black spruce. To address this concern, researchers developed the fi rst shaded fuel break demonstration sites specifi cally designed for use in the WUI. They compared the effectiveness, environmental impacts …

Low-Intensity Fire In Eastern White Pine A Supporting Role In Understory Diversity, Marjie Brown

Joint Fire Science Program Briefs (2007-2012)

Although high-intensity fire has been studied extensively in the forests of the Great Lakes region, the role of low-intensity fi re in stands of eastern white pine has received almost no study. For this project, scientists and mangers teamed up in northern Wisconsin to fi nd out what low-intensity fire means for white pine regeneration and fuels reduction. Surprisingly, there was no white pine regeneration in the burn units even fi ve years after fi re. But low-intensity prescribed fi re triggered a very strong understory response in terms of cover and richness, and can likely be used to support …

The Indefatigable Hand: Cutting, Funding, Studying Treatments, Federal Timber And Market Impacts, Lisa-Natalie Anjozian

Joint Fire Science Program Briefs (2007-2012)

Though fuel specialists, scientists and managers have developed treatment tools to reduce fuel hazards, such as mechanical thinning by removing trees, costs to treat lands at risk can be prohibitively high. Harvesting timber and woody materials that can then be sold reduces costs, but only about 20 to 30 percent. Treatment costs average over $1,000 per acre in some areas. Spending $300 million per year in treating government lands would take over twelve decades to treat all high and moderate risk stands; $900 million per year would reduce this to four decades. Treating only wildland-urban interface areas or high risk …

Wildfire, Prescribed Fire, And Peak Stream Flow: Understanding Effects On Stream Habitats And Communities, Joy Drohan

Joint Fire Science Program Briefs (2007-2012)

Much of the previous research on wildfire’s effects on stream communities has examined biotic responses in burned versus unburned watersheds (catchments). But we know that fires burn in a mosaic pattern of differing severities across the landscape, depending on topography, aspect, vegetation, weather, and other factors. Scientists evaluated the gradient of burn severity among watersheds in a dry Intermountain West ponderosa pine forest in central Idaho to gauge the relative response of stream communities under a range of burn severities. They observed a gradient of both habitat and biotic effects correlated with a gradient of burn severity. Effects varied based …

Mapping And Estimating Forest Fuel With Radar Remote Sensing, Rachel Clark

Joint Fire Science Program Briefs (2007-2012)

With an increase in the risk of large fires across much of the Western United States, along with a growing variety of fuel types that result from changes in the landscape and management strategies, there has never been a more pressing need for accurate, cost-efficient, large scale forest fuel maps. Emerging remote sensing technologies may yield exactly the kind of large scale maps needed to more accurately predict forest fuel loads, fire risk, and fire behavior. With the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem as their backdrop, Don Despain, Sasaan Saatchi, Kerry Halligan, Richard Aspinall, and Robert Crabtree worked together to acquire a …

From The Ground Up, Way Up: Measuring Live Fuel Moisture With Satellite Imagery To Fine-Tune Fire Modeling In Western Ecosystems, Rachel Clark

Joint Fire Science Program Briefs (2007-2012)

Remote sensing from space may well become one of the world’s most effective, accurate, and effi cient ways to assess fi re risk and thus manage large landscapes. The technology is evolving quickly, and researchers are busy keeping up. Some major western U.S. landscapes are just now being assessed for integrating remote sensing data with “on the ground” data that helps fi ne tune remote sensing models, and helps researchers assess which models work best. Drs. Jenny Rechel and Dar Roberts have worked together to gather Live Fuel Moisture (LFM) data from seven major western landscapes with similar mixed vegetation …

Lookouts In The Sky With Algorithms: Forecasting Air Quality With Satellite-Sent Data, Lisa-Natalie Anjozian

Joint Fire Science Program Briefs (2007-2012)

Data and algorithms from earth-orbiting satellite observations provide key components in scientists’ tools that can map active fi res and burn scars. Fire perimeter maps can then be crafted using this data. Armed with fi re perimeter maps that have been linked to fuel maps of the area burning, scientists can calculate emissions from recently burned areas, determine the quantity of emitted gases and particulates, and determine where these emissions will travel downwind from the burn site. For this project, data from satellite sources has been compared against data collected on the ground by ground-based instruments and incident management teams, …