Assessing Fire’s Impacts and Benefits from Pine Wood Restoration and Fuel Treatments

Fire is a natural process in forested ecosystems across the west, and it is also a tool that can be used to reduce the risk of wildfire, improve forest health and wildlife habitat, and enhance wood quality and market value, particularly for pine trees. Fire can change wood properties (positively and negatively) and the amount of usable wood from trees. Understanding these relationships will help managers address needs and concerns of industry, managers and environmentalists alike regarding fire impacts to pines and associated forest ecosystems. This research is trying to understand and balance the ecological benefits of using fire with the economic benefits of timber and other wood products.

Objectives

• Quantifying fire effects:  The research team is measuring how fire affects yellow/hard pine trees in the Sierra Nevada region (for example, ponderosa pine) and in the eastern United States (for example, longleaf pine).
• Ecosystem values: The research team is looking at fire effects on wood quality and volume, carbon stored in trees, wildlife habitat, and forests conditions to determine the relationship between forest health and tree qualities when subjected to fire.
• Different fire regimes: The research team is also exploring how fire frequency and intensity affects tree qualities and forest health, as well as the potential for destructive wildfire in the future, applying simulation modeling to explore long-term outcomes.
• Barriers to using fire-impacted wood: Finally, the research team is investigating the challenges faced by forest managers and timber industry stakeholders in selling and processing wood affected by fire.

Expected Results

Expected Outcomes

Forest managers will gain a better understanding of how fire and management options are likely to affect pine wood supply, properties, and forest health. Key stakeholders, such as people in the timber industry, will learn more about science-based forest management practices and policy decisions related to fire. Specific outcomes include:

• This study will give us new information about how fire affects the properties of pine wood, tree mortality, and the value of timber.
• Scientists and land managers can use this data to create models that predict changes in wood quality and value based on factors like tree species, location, and fire characteristics.
• The study will help managers understand how to manage forests through thinning and fire to maximize benefits associated with wood quality and forest health.
• The researchers will explain findings to interested parties through one or more webinars, presentations at major meetings, and publications in peer-reviewed journals.
• The study results will become part of the U.S. Forest Service database, which tracks tree fire characteristics and related wood properties.

Metrics of Success

The research team will measure success by looking at how much support there is for using fire as a management tool. The project aims to decrease this resistance.

Geographies and High-Risk Landscapes to be Addressed

National: This work is related to using fire as a management tool in Sierra yellow pine and eastern hard pine forests.