Assessing the Effectiveness of Landscape Fuel Treatments on Fire Growth and Behavior

This article presents a methodology for assessing the effectiveness of landscape fuel treatments on fire growth and behavior in southern Utah. Treatment areas were selected by fire managers from the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) based on the threat of fire to communities and the need for range and wildlife improvement. A fire density grid was derived from the BLM’s fire start layer to identify historically high ignition areas. FireFamily Plus was used to summarize and analyze historical weather and calculate seasonal severity and percentile reports. Information from FireFamily was used in FARSITE and FlamMap to model pre- and posttreatment effects on fire growth, spotting, fireline intensity, surface flame length, and the occurrence of crown fire. This procedure provides managers with a quantitative measure of treatment effectiveness as well as spatial output that can be used for analyzing fuel treatment effectiveness, burn plan development, National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) documentation, public education, etc.

[1]  M. Finney.  FARSITE : Fire Area Simulator : model development and evaluation , 1998 .

[2]  Jack D. Cohen,et al.  The 1978 National Fire-Danger Rating System: technical documentation , 1984 .

[3]  Jr. James Edward Frew.  The image processing workbench , 1991 .

[4]  U.'S. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE FOREST SERVICE Southeastern Forest Experiment Station , 2002 .

[5]  J. E. Deeming.  National Fire-Danger Rating System / , 1972 .

[6]  M. Finney.  Design of Regular Landscape Fuel Treatment Patterns for Modifying Fire Growth and Behavior , 2001, Forest Science.

[7]  Miguel G. Cruz,et al.  Definition of a Fire Behavior Model Evaluation Protocol: A Case Study Application to Crown Fire Behavior Models , 2003 .

[8]  R. M. Nelson,et al.  Prediction of diurnal change in 10-h fuel stick moisture content , 2000 .

[9]  F. Albini.  Estimating Wildfire Behavior and Effects , 1976 .

[10]  D. Bruce,et al.  Forest Fire Control and Use , 1961 .

[11]  M. Finney.  Fire growth using minimum travel time methods , 2002 .

[12]  R. Burgan,et al.  1988 Revisions to the 1978 National Fire-Danger Rating System , 1988 .

[13]  Scott L. Stephens,et al.  Evaluation of the effects of silvicultural and fuels treatments on potential fire behaviour in Sierra Nevada mixed-conifer forests , 1998 .

[14]  Joe H. Scott,et al.  Assessing Crown Fire Potential by Linking Models of Surface and Crown Fire Behavior , 2003 .

[15]  Jan W. Van Wagtendonk,et al.  Use of a Deterministic Fire Growth Model to Test Fuel Treatments , 1996 .

[16]  Charles W. McHugh,et al.  Potential fire behavior is reduced following forest restoration treatments , 2001 .

[17]  Philip N. Omi,et al.  The use of shaded fuelbreaks in landscape fire management. , 2000 .

[18]  C. E. Van Wagner,et al.  Prediction of crown fire behavior in two stands of jack pine , 1993 .

[19]  Erin McCormick,et al.  FireFamily Plus user's guide, Version 2.0 , 2000 .

[20]  Patricia L. Andrews,et al.  FIRES: Fire Information Retrieval and Evaluation System - A program for fire danger rating analysis , 1997 .

[21]  H. Anderson.  Aids to Determining Fuel Models for Estimating Fire Behavior , 1982 .

[22]  C. E. Van Wagner,et al.  Conditions for the start and spread of crown fire , 1977 .