Treesearch

Fire is one of the key disturbances affecting aspen (Populus tremuloides Michx.) forest ecosystems within western Canadian wildlands, including Elk Island National Park. Prescribed fire use is a tool available to modify aspen forests, yet clearly understanding its potential impact is necessary to successfully manage this disturbance.Undesirable social consequences of severe, deep burning ground fires include smoke generation and impaired vegetation re-growth. Data on the soil and duff moisture conditions under which ground or subsurface fires may start in aspen are presented, as well as...

To plan fuel treatments in the context of comprehensive ecosystem management, forest managers must meet multiple-use and environmental objectives, address administrative and budget constraints, and reconcile performance measures from multiple policy directives. We demonstrate a multiple criteria approach to measuring success of fuel treatments used in the Butte North Strategic Placement of Treatments (SPOT) pilot project. Located in the Beaverhead - Deerlodge National Forests, Montana, the project addresses multiple issues: altered wildlife habitat affecting sensitive species, grassland...

The relative importance of variables in determining area burned is an important management consideration although gaining insights from existing empirical data has proven difficult. The purpose of this study was to compare the sensitivity of modeled area burned to environmental factors across a range of independently-developed landscape-fire-succession models. The sensitivity of area burned to variation in four factors, namely terrain (flat, undulating and mountainous), fuel pattern (finely and coarsely clumped), climate (observed, warmer & wetter, and warmer & drier) and weather (year-to-y...

Assessing post-fire impacts in coast redwood (Sequoia sempervirens) forests can be difficult due to rough terrain, limited roads, and dense canopies. Remote sensing techniques can identify overstory damage, locating high intensity damage areas, although this can underestimate the effects on the understory vegetation and soils. To accurately assess understory impacts requires field assessment techniques, which can be expensive for larger burn areas. Where geospatial data for fuels and topography can be combined with weather data using FARSITE, a fire behavior simulation model, landscape...

To evaluate the ecological effects of prescribed fire, bird and vegetation surveys were conducted in four study areas of the Klamath National Forest where prescribed fires are being used for management. Bird and vegetation data were collected at sites treated with prescribed fire and nearby untreated control sites. Data were collected at stations from 2000 (pre-treatment) to 2004 (1-4 years post treatment). The treated sites ranged from 9 to 30 ha, and during the course of the study 25-73% of each area was treated with prescribed fire. Over this time period, there was no consistent change...

The wildland fires of 2000, 2002, and 2003 created many opportunities to conduct post-fire logging operations in the Inland Northwest. Relatively little information is available on the impact of post-fire logging on long-term soil productivity or on the best method for monitoring these changes. We present a USDA Forest Service Northern Region study of post-fire logged sites using a variety of methods to assess changes in soil productivity and site sustainability after timber harvesting activities. The disparate soil and climatic conditions throughout the Northern Region made it an ideal...

A study funded through National Fire Plan evaluates the relation between pre-wildfire forest structure and post-wildfire soil burn severity across three forest types: dry, moist, and cold forests. Over 73 wildfires were sampled in Idaho, Oregon, Montana, Colorado, and Utah, which burned between 2000 and 2003. Because of the study’s breadth, the results are applicable for understanding how forest structure relates to post-wildfire soil burn severity within Rocky Mountains forests. This paper discusses a burn severity classification that integrates fire intensity, fire severity, and post...

Effective fire suppression for the past century has altered forest structure and increased fuel loads. Prescribed fire as a fuels treatment can reduce wildfire size and severity. This study investigates how prescribed fire affects fuel loads, forest structure, potential fire behavior, and modeled tree mortality at 80th, 90th, and 97.5th percentile fire weather conditions on eight National Forests in California. Potential fire behavior and effects were modeled using Fuel Management Analyst. Prescription burning did not significantly change forest structure at most sites. Total fuel loads...

The Lick Creek Demonstration Site on the Pomeroy Ranger District, Umatilla National Forest, is a Joint Fire Science Program sponsored project to create a demonstration of the effects of fuels management on forest health. The project was initiated in 2001 and involved the integration of two levels of partial harvest with prescribed fire, a burn only treatment and an untreated control treatment. Biomass utilization was incorporated into the burn preparation following harvest. Objectives of the treatments were to improve stand composition and structure, reduce fuel levels, and enhance...

The recent encroachment of piñon (Pinus edulis) and juniper trees (Juniperus osteosperma) into historically shrub- and grass-dominated landscapes has caused major changes in ecosystem structure and function, including dramatic changes in fuel structure and fire regimes. Such encroachment is currently occurring on thousands of acres on the Shivwits Plateau in northwestern Arizona and land managers are seeking effective techniques to restore these areas to pre-invasion conditions and reduce the threat of high severity crown fires. A study was established on the Shivwits Plateau to test the...