Full Project Title: Mapping fuel connectivity to optimize and quantify performance of fuel treatment designs over multi-state areas 

Project Identification Number: PLD6

To be the most effective, fuel treatments need to be conducted in the right places - locations with the greatest numbers of bottlenecks and crossroads for moving fire.

Whether prescribed burns or mechanical thinning, fuel treatments work by physically disconnecting fuels in a landscape. This helps keep wildfires from sweeping across the map. The research team developed a method to test pathways across fuel types, keeping only the successful connections. 

The method uses a supercomputer to try millions of connection attempts, and keeps only the pathways of successful connections through and across the fuel types in the map. This method reveals a continuous gradient of more or less fuel connectivity across a landscape.   

The results will provide an optimum fuel treatment map design and prescribed fire prescription. 

This project was funded through the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law, Provision 40803 (c)(14). This research supports the agency's Wildfire Crisis Strategy.