Evaluating Fuel Treatment Alternatives at South Lake Tahoe

Project Description

We developed the fuels data and management alternatives needed to reduce fire hazard in the South Shore Project of the Lake Tahoe Management Unit, Tahoe National Forest. Using an integrated approach that links two commonly used tools, the Fire and Fuels Extension to the Forest Vegetation Simulator (FFE-FVS) and the Fuel Characteristic Classification System (FCCS), we developed a range of management alternatives appropriate for application in the wildland-urban interface (WUI). Alternatives will include various combinations of forest thinning and surface fuel treatments, including the effect of treatments over time. By developing a comprehensive fuels map and documenting effective alternatives for reducing fuels, we provide the scientific basis for hazardous fuels reduction, vegetation management, and restoration in the WUI.

Methods

• Acquire stand examination data (e.g., tree list, woody fuel inventory) that are currently available in the South Shore Project from local fire and forest managers
• Convert these data into an FFE-FVS portfolio and begin building FCCS fuelbeds
• Apply fuel treatment to each group using the FCCS fuelbeds
• Obtain FFE-FVS and FCCS outputs
• Evaluate the effect of the thinning and surface fuel treatments

Implementation

We worked with the FFE-FVS programmers at the Forest Management Service Center in Fort Collins, CO, to develop an interface (e.g., post-processing program) for the FFE-FVS that exports output values generated from model projections and save them to a database in XML format that can be recognized by the FCCS program.