Natural Fuels Photo Series

Project Description

The Natural Fuels Photo series are a set of photographs with accompanying fuelbed characteristics data from sites where no recent management activity has occurred. They are used to make quick, easy, and inexpensive determinations of fuel quantities and stand conditions when less precise estimates are acceptable.

Purpose and Scope

The photo series are important land management tools that can be used to ecologically assess landscapes through appraisal of living and dead woody material and vegetation biomass (fuels) and stand characteristics. Once an ecological assessment has been completed, stand treatment options such as prescribed fire or harvesting can be planned and implemented to better achieve desired effects while minimizing negative impacts on other resources.

Implementation

Fire managers will find these data useful for predicting fuel consumption, smoke production, fire behavior, and fire effects during wildfires and prescribed fires. In addition, the photo series can be used to estimate carbon sequestration, an important factor in predictions of future climate, and to link remotely sensed signatures to live and dead fuels on the ground.

Project Deliverables

Each group of photos includes inventory data summarizing vegetation composition, structure, and loading; woody material loading; density by size class, forest floor depth, and loading; and various site characteristics.