Treesearch

A library of macros was developed to automate the Fireshed process within ArcGIS. The macros link a number of vegetation simulation and wildfire behavior models (FVS, SVS, FARSITE, and FlamMap) with ESRI geodatabases, desktop software (Access, Excel), and ArcGIS. The macros provide for (1) an interactive linkage between digital imagery, vegetation data, FVS-FFE, and SVS, creating a map-based interface for designing and testing stand fuel treatments; (2) rapid scale-up of stand-specific treatments to simulate project-wide changes in vegetation and fuels; (3) data linkages between FVS...

Despite a wealth of literature and models concerning wildfire risk, field units in Federal land management agencies lack a clear framework and operational tools to measure how risk might change from proposed fuel treatments. In an actuarial context, risk is defined as the expected value change from a fire, calculated as the product of (1) probability of a fire at a specific intensity and location, and (2) the resulting change financial or ecological value. The expected value definition accounts for landscape scale wildfire spread, intensity, and damage in a single measure, providing a...

In 2005, eight U.S. Forest Service and Bureau of Land Management interdisciplinary teams participated in a test of strategic placement of treatments (SPOTS) techniques to maximize the effectiveness of fuel treatments in reducing problem fire behavior, adverse fire effects, and suppression costs. This interagency approach to standardizing the assessment of risks and proposing strategically placed treatments to mitigate that risk uses an iterative, collaborative strategic approach to proposing landscape scale treatment patterns. The pilot teams used FARSITE and FlamMap, spatially explicit...

There is no doubt that wildland fuel conditions on large portions of federal wildlands in the United States have changed significantly over the last 100 years. The changes include: Increased density of woody species; Artificial fragmentation of fuel mosaics; Exotic species invasions; Structural changes which reduce ecosystem resilience to fire.

Although Australia and New Zealand have quite different fire climates and fuels, the common understanding of fire behaviour underlies many facets of fire management in both countries. Fire management is the legal responsibility of various government land management agencies that manage public lands and individuals, local governments or corporations that manage private land. Volunteer bushfire/rural brigades have been formed throughout rural and peri-urban areas and are coordinated by rural and metropolitan fire authorities for specific activities such as fire suppression and fuel management...

Current fuel management practices vary considerably between European countries. Topography, forest and forest fuel characteristics, size and compartmentalization of forests, forest management practices, land uses, land ownership, size of properties, legislation, and, of course, tradition, are reasons for these differences.Firebreak construction, although not as clearly favored as in the past, is still a prominent fuel management technique. Fuelbreak construction has been adopted quite extensively in the last decades. Fuel treatments along the sides of roads are common. Use of prescribed...

The application and use of wildland fire for a range of beneficial ecological objectives is rapidly expanding across landscapes supporting diverse vegetative complexes and subject to multiple societal uses. Wildland fire use originated in wilderness and has become a proven practice successful in meeting ecological needs. The use of wildland fire in non-wilderness is emerging as an important practice but its success is predicated on the acknowledgment of the fundamental inseparability and equal importance of ecological, social, and economic needs and requirements. The 2005 western fire...

The Healthy Forests Initiative (HFI) and Healthy Forests Restoration Act (HFRA) represent major policy and legislative responses to the fuels management problem in the United States. This study examined the nature and evolution of the public discussion and debate about these policy responses. Computer content analysis was used to analyze favorable and unfavorable beliefs about HFI / HFRA expressed in about 2,800 news stories published from August 1, 2002 through December 31, 2004. The most frequently mentioned favorable beliefs that emerged included the view that HFI / HFRA will (1) reduce...

I was invited to speak at this conference on the subject of disasters and the relative importance of wildfires because of the breadth of my experience. The fact that I currently manage a flight school gives me an outside perspective of wildland fire and fuels management.

The 1st Fire Behavior and Fuels Conference: Fuels Management -- How to Measure Success was held in Portland, Oregon, March 28-30, 2006. The International Association of Wildland Fire (IAWF) initiated a conference on this timely topic primarily in response to the needs of the U.S. National Interagency Fuels Coordinating Group (http://www.nifc.gov/).