Treesearch

We summarize courtship, incubation, feeding, fledging, and flight behavior of Marbled Murrelets (Brachyramphus marmoratus) using information collected at 24 nest sites in North America. Chick development, vocalizations given by adults and chicks at the nest, and predator avoidance behaviors are also described. Marbled Murrelets initiate nesting as early as March. Females lay a single egg and both adults participate in incubation, exchanging duties every 24 hours at dawn. Most incubation exchanges occur before sunrise. Chicks hatch after 27-30 days. Adults feed chicks single fish up to 8...

We devised a method of estimating population size of Marbled Murrelets (Brachyramphus marmoratus) found in California’s offshore waters. The method involves determining the distribution of birds from the shore outward to 6,000 m offshore. Applying this distribution to data from boat surveys, we derived population estimates and estimates of sampling error. We estimate a total California population of approximately 6,500 birds (+ 450). Lower previous estimates of the Marbled Murrelet population in California were derived from surveys conducted for different purposes. Possible sources of...

Major wildland/urban interface fire losses, principally residences, continue to occur. Although the problem is not new, the specific mechanisms are not well known on how structures ignite in association with wildland fires. In response to the need for a better understanding of wildland/urban interface ignition mechanisms and a method of assessing the ignition risk, USDA Forest Service Fire Research is developing the Structure Ignition Assessment Model (SIAM). SIAM uses an analytical approach that relates the potential for sustained structure ignitions to the location and characteristics of...

More than 25 years ago, the pioneering work in fire ecology by Harold Biswell and others encouraged the incorporation of prescribed fire into fire management policies. However, the use in California of prescribed fire in fuels treatment, wilderness management, or ecosystem maintenance programs has not been particularly extensive. Only a fraction of wilderness areas, for example, have a prescribed natural fire program. In forests and brushlands around the State, natural and activity fuels continue to accumulate, and wildfires are becoming increasingly difficult, if not impossible in some...

The Robert T. Stafford Disaster Relief and Emergency Assistance Act—Public Law 93-288, as amended—is designed to provide support and assistance to citizens, state, and local government from catastrophic disasters and emergencies. The law provides support in three distinct phases, including preparedness in avoiding or minimizing the effect of a disaster, response support during the disaster, and recovery from the emergency. This law has several interesting and unique features relating to fire disasters. Although most disaster assistance requires a presidential declaration, fire is recognized...

Prescribed fire has been recognized as a potential tool for land managers for many years. The gradual recognition of the important role of fire in wildlands has been documented many times. In the United States, this recognition probably first occurred in the longleaf pine region of the southern United States. Various agencies that once focused on fire exclusion gradually adopted the use of prescribed fire as a land management tool. By the late 1970's, many Federal, State, and local wildland agencies were actively implementing prescribed burning programs for purposes such as fuel hazard...

Our forests have been neglected or protected to death, creating an extreme wildfire risk in wildland urban intermix communities. We as agencies and organizations are just now beginning to understand that the fuel problems we have across the western states are not a single agency problem, but "our problem." Wildfires do not respect boundaries, be they political, jurisdictional, or private. Our fuels problem must be dealt with from a cooperative effort by all individuals who reside and work in the wildland urban intermix communities.

One of the traditional roles that prescribed fire has played in the fire management arena is reduction of hazardous fuel buildups under controlled, well-defined environmental conditions. However, our ability to use this tool effectively is blocked by many barriers. The preceding panel discussion about the causes of limited success in implementing prescribed burning programs addressed some of the barriers encountered by various types of governmental agencies. This panel discussion focussed on three specific barriers to implementing fuel management programs incorporating prescribed burning....

Despite a quarter of a century of prescribed burning by the National Park Service (NPS) in California, there is reason to believe that the fuels situation is getting worse rather than better. The area burned in the past 10 years has declined by 42 percent compared to the previous 10 years. The total area burned per year from wildfire and prescribed fire is substantially less than that hypothesized in pre-European settlement times. Fuels within these fire adapted vegetation types are increasing and creating conditions conducive to more high-intensity wildfires. The NPS is failing to meet...

Although recognized as an important tool for ecosystem maintenance, fuels management, and a variety of other purposes, the prescribed fire program in the Pacific Southwest Region of the USDA Forest Service has been constrained by several factors. These range from funding availability, to debates on the effect of fire on the habitat of sensitive species, to competition for resources with fire suppression activities, to the lack of awareness at various levels in the organization of the need for prescribed fire as a land management tool. The Advisory Group for Fire in Ecosystem Management...