Lake Tahoe Basin Management Unit—Angora Fire Area Fuelbed Pathways Handbook

Project Description

The Lake Tahoe Basin Management Unit (LTBMU) collaborated with the Fire and Environmental Research and Applications (FERA) team of the Pacific Wildland Fire Research Laboratory to create a comprehensive set of Fuel Characteristic Classification System (FCCS) fuelbeds representing the past, current and potential future conditions of major forest types, management activities, and natural disturbances occurring within the Angora fire area of the management unit. The fuelbeds are arranged in management and successional pathways initiated by a stand-replacement event. In most cases, the event is a stand-replacement wildfire, but in some pathways clearcut harvests are a secondary initiation point. While we recognize that most stands in the area were established following clearcuts in the late 1800s and early 1900s, the disturbances included in the pathways are intended to reflect more recent and future initiation of the forest types on LTBMU lands.

Purpose and Scope

Results of this research help all area landowners assess the potential effects of fire in forests that received various fuel treatments and, in turn, suggest to land managers how they can attain a situtation that meets their forest management goals.

Methods

Fuelbed pathways were developed through site visits and meetings between FERA researchers and LTBMU and other Pacific Southwest Region personnel. Lists of fuelbeds were created representing major forest types, common management activities, and natural disturbances. In additional, several fuelbeds were added to the fuelbed list allowing complete assignment of fuelbeds to vegetation attributes for the Lake Tahoe basin region.

Implementation

Information from the fuelbed pathways is summarized in tables, including a description, the age class, and any management actions or natural change agents associated with each fuelbed. Fuelbeds were calculated in FCCS version 2.1 and the surface fire behavior; FCCS crown fire, surface fire and available fuels potentials; reaction intensity, rate of spread, and flame length (Sandberg et al. 2007a; Sandberg et al. 2007b); and suggested crosswalks to the original Fire Behavior Prediction System (Rothermel 1972, Albini 1976) and standard fuel models (Scott and Burgan, 2005) at three moisture scenarios, mid-flame windspeeds and slopes are presented in summary tables. Each of the 76 fuelbeds are available from the FERA website for input into the FCCS, allowing additional outputs to be observed, including fuel loading and available carbon by fuelbed category.