Introduction: Strengthening the foundation of wildland fire Effects prediction for research and management

Treesearch

Matthew B. Dickinson; Kevin C. Ryan

2010-01-01

As prescribed fire use increases and the options for responding to wildfires continue to expand beyond suppression, the need for improving fire effects prediction capabilities be¬comes increasingly apparent. The papers in this Fire Ecology special issue describe recent advances in fire effects prediction for key classes of direct (first-order) fire effects. Important...

Effects of dormant-season fire at three different fire frequencies in shortgrass steppe of the southern Great Plains

Treesearch

Paulette L. Ford; Carleton S. White

2008-01-01

Prior to proceeding with large-scale fire reintroduction as a grassland management option, appropriate fire frequencies need to be determined. This research experimentally tested the effects of dormant-season fire on ground cover and on plant and soil nutrient cycling in shortgrass steppe at three different fire frequencies. The objective was to determine if fire...

Assessing the effect of a fuel break network to reduce burnt area and wildfire risk transmission

Treesearch

Tiago M. Oliveira; Ana M. G. Barros; Alan A. Ager; Paulo M. Fernandes

2016-01-01

Wildfires pose complex challenges to policymakers and fire agencies. Fuel break networks and area-wide fuel treatments are risk-management options to reduce losses from large fires. Two fuel management scenarios covering 3% of the fire-prone Algarve region of Portugal and differing in the intensity of treatment in 120-m wide fuel breaks were examined and compared with...

Fire management and carbon sequestration in Pine Barren Forests

Treesearch

Kenneth L. Clark; Nicholas Skowronski; Michael Gallagher

2015-01-01

Prescribed burning is the major viable option that land managers have for reducing hazardous fuels and ensuring the regeneration of fire-dependent species in a cost-effective manner in Pine Barren ecosystems. Fuels management activities are directly linked to carbon (C) storage and rates of C sequestration by forests. To evaluate the effects of prescribed burning on...

A comprehensive guide to fuel management practices for dry mixed conifer forests in the northwestern United States: Prescribed fire

Treesearch

Theresa B. Jain; Mike A. Battaglia; Han-Sup Han; Russell T. Graham; Christopher R. Keyes; Jeremy S. Fried; Jonathan E. Sandquist

2014-01-01

Fire has had a profound historical role in shaping dry mixed conifer forests in the western United States. However, the uncertainty and complexity of prescribed fires raises the question “Is fire always the best option for treating fuels?” The decision to use prescribed fire is dependent upon several factors.

FIREFAMILY: Fire planning with historic weather data.

Treesearch

William A. Main; Robert J. Straub; Donna M. Paananen

1982-01-01

This user's guide will help fire managers interpret the output from FIREFAMILY, a computer program that uses historic weather data for fire planning. The guide describes options within the program and explains various tables and graphs necessary for planning. It also provides details which computer specialists need to run the program.

Fire Effects Information System: New engine, remodeled interior, added options

Treesearch

Jane Kapler Smith

2010-01-01

Some of today's firefighters weren't even born when the Fire Effects Information System (FEIS) (Web site ) "hit the streets" in 1986. Managers might remember using a dial-up connection in the early 1990s to access information on biology, ecology, and fire offered by FEIS.

Impacts of fire on sage-grouse habitat and diet resources

USDA-ARS?s Scientific Manuscript database

Small (<40.5-ha) patch fires or mechanical manipulations to reduce big sagebrush (Artemisia tridentata) cover has been suggested as a management option to improve sage-grouse prenesting and brood rearing habitat and provide a diverse habitat mosaic. We evaluated the effects of prescribed fire and wi...

Wildland fire decision support system air quality tools

Treesearch

Sim Larkin; Tim Brown; Pete Lahm; Tom Zimmerman

2010-01-01

Smoke and air quality information have an important role in wildland fire decisionmaking that is reinforced in the 2009 "Guidance for Implementation of Federal Wildland Fire Management Policy." A key intent of the guidance is to allow consideration and use of the full range of strategic and tactical options that are available in the response to every wildland...

Putative resistance gene markers associated with quantitative trait loci for fire blight resistance in Malus 'Robusta 5' accessions

USDA-ARS?s Scientific Manuscript database

Breeding of fire blight resistant scions and rootstocks is a goal of several international apple breeding programs, as options are limited for management of this destructive disease caused by the bacterial pathogen Erwinia amylovora. A broad, large effect QTL for fire blight resistance has been pre...

Evaluating fuel complexes for fire hazard mitigation planning in the southeastern United States

Treesearch

Anne G. Andreu; Dan Shea; Bernard R. Parresol; Roger D. Ottmar

2012-01-01

Fire hazard mitigation planning requires an accurate accounting of fuel complexes to predict potential fire behavior and effects of treatment alternatives. In the southeastern United States, rapid vegetation growth coupled with complex land use history and forest management options requires a dynamic approach to fuel characterization. In this study we assessed...

Policy Options to Address Crucial Communication Gaps in the Incident Command System

DTIC Science & Technology

2012-09-01

California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection COML Communications Unit Leader COMT Communication Technician EBRPD East Bay Regional Parks...Laguna Fire 1970 - One of California’s Worst Wildfires.” Available at http://www.cccarto.com/cal_wildfire/laguna/fire.html, Accessed August 10, 2012...NIMS - The Evolution of the National Incident Management System.” Fire Rescue Magazine, August 2011. 15 compatibility, and department emergency

Management options for mitigating Nitrogen (N) losses from N-saturated mixed-conifer forests in California

Treesearch

Benjamin S. Gimeno; Fengming Yuan; Mark E. Fenn; Thomas Meixner

2009-01-01

Mixed-conifer forests of southern California are exposed to nitrogen (N) deposition levels that impair carbon (C) and N cycling, enhance forest flammability, increase the risk of fire occurrence and air pollution emissions in fire, and increase nitrate...

Conservation implications for neotropical migratory and game birds in oak-hardwood stands managed with shelterwood harvests and prescribed fire

Treesearch

J. Drew Lanham; Patrick H. Brose; Patrick D. Keyser

2006-01-01

Prescribed fire in conjunction with shelterwood cutting is a novel way to regenerate oakdominated stands on certain upland sites while minimizing the intrusion of hardwoods. We describe three options (complete or partial canopy retention, postharvest prescribed burning, and complete canopy removal) within a shelterwood-prescribed fire regime that will create two-age...

Management options for songbirds using the oak shelterwood-burn technique in upland forests of the Southeastern United States

Treesearch

J. Drew Lanham; Patrick D. Keyser; Patrick H. Brose; David H. Van Lear

2002-01-01

The shelterwood-burn technique is a novel method for regenerating oak-dominated stands on some upland sites while simultaneously minimizing undesirable hardwood intrusion with prescribed fire. Management options available within an oak shelterwood-burn regime will create variably structured habitats that may potentially harbor avian communities of mature forest and...

User's guide [Chapter 3

Treesearch

Nicholas L. Crookston; Donald C. E. Robinson; Sarah J. Beukema

2003-01-01

The Fire and Fuels Extension (FFE) to the Forest Vegetation Simulator (FVS) simulates fuel dynamics and potential fire behavior over time, in the context of stand development and management. This chapter presents the model's options, provides annotated examples, describes the outputs, and describes how to use and apply the model.

Fuel-reduction treatments with a gyrotrac GT-25

Treesearch

Dana Mitchell

2005-01-01

Land managers in urban areas are turning to mulching equipment as a tool for managing their timberlands. Prescribed burning to reduce fire risk may not be an option, due to smoke management concerns and the level of current fuel loading.

A qualitative and quantitative analysis of risk perception and treatment options as related to wildfires in the USDA FS Region 3 National Forests

Treesearch

Ingrid M. Martin; Wade E. Martin; Carol B. Raish

2011-01-01

As the incidence of devastating fires rises, managing the risk posed by these fires has become critical. This report provides important information to examine the ways that different groups or disaster subcultures develop the mentalities or perceived realities that affect their views and responses concerning risk and disaster preparedness. Fire risk beliefs and...

Post-fire vegetation and fuel development influences fire severity patterns in reburns.

PubMed

Coppoletta, Michelle; Merriam, Kyle E; Collins, Brandon M

2016-04-01

In areas where fire regimes and forest structure have been dramatically altered, there is increasing concern that contemporary fires have the potential to set forests on a positive feedback trajectory with successive reburns, one in which extensive stand-replacing fire could promote more stand-replacing fire. Our study utilized an extensive set of field plots established following four fires that occurred between 2000 and 2010 in the northern Sierra Nevada, California, USA that were subsequently reburned in 2012. The information obtained from these field plots allowed for a unique set of analyses investigating the effect of vegetation, fuels, topography, fire weather, and forest management on reburn severity. We also examined the influence of initial fire severity and time since initial fire on influential predictors of reburn severity. Our results suggest that high- to moderate-severity fire in the initial fires led to an increase in standing snags and shrub vegetation, which in combination with severe fire weather promoted high-severity fire effects in the subsequent reburn. Although fire behavior is largely driven by weather, our study demonstrates that post-fire vegetation composition and structure are also important drivers of reburn severity. In the face of changing climatic regimes and increases in extreme fire weather, these results may provide managers with options to create more fire-resilient ecosystems. In areas where frequent high-severity fire is undesirable, management activities such as thinning, prescribed fire, or managed wildland fire can be used to moderate fire behavior not only prior to initial fires, but also before subsequent reburns.

First Approximations of Prescribed Fire Risks Relative to Other Management Techniques Used on Private Lands.

PubMed

Twidwell, Dirac; Wonkka, Carissa L; Sindelar, Michael T; Weir, John R

2015-01-01

Fire is widely recognized as a critical ecological and evolutionary driver that needs to be at the forefront of land management actions if conservation targets are to be met. However, the prevailing view is that prescribed fire is riskier than other land management techniques. Perceived risks associated with the application of fire limits its use and reduces agency support for prescribed burning in the private sector. As a result, considerably less cost-share support is given for prescribed fire compared to mechanical techniques. This study tests the general perception that fire is a riskier technique relative to other land management options. Due to the lack of data available to directly test this notion, we use a combination of approaches including 1) a comparison of fatalities resulting from different occupations that are proxies for techniques employed in land management, 2) a comparison of fatalities resulting from wildland fire versus prescribed fire, and 3) an exploration of causal factors responsible for wildland fire-related fatalities. This approach establishes a first approximation of the relative risk of fatality to private citizens using prescribed fire compared to other management techniques that are readily used in ecosystem management. Our data do not support using risks of landowner fatalities as justification for the use of alternative land management techniques, such as mechanical (machine-related) equipment, over prescribed fire. Vehicles and heavy machinery are consistently leading reasons for fatalities within occupations selected as proxies for management techniques employed by ranchers and agricultural producers, and also constitute a large proportion of fatalities among firefighters. Our study provides the foundation for agencies to establish data-driven decisions regarding the degree of support they provide for prescribed burning on private lands.

First Approximations of Prescribed Fire Risks Relative to Other Management Techniques Used on Private Lands

PubMed Central

Twidwell, Dirac; Wonkka, Carissa L.; Sindelar, Michael T.; Weir, John R.

2015-01-01

Fire is widely recognized as a critical ecological and evolutionary driver that needs to be at the forefront of land management actions if conservation targets are to be met. However, the prevailing view is that prescribed fire is riskier than other land management techniques. Perceived risks associated with the application of fire limits its use and reduces agency support for prescribed burning in the private sector. As a result, considerably less cost-share support is given for prescribed fire compared to mechanical techniques. This study tests the general perception that fire is a riskier technique relative to other land management options. Due to the lack of data available to directly test this notion, we use a combination of approaches including 1) a comparison of fatalities resulting from different occupations that are proxies for techniques employed in land management, 2) a comparison of fatalities resulting from wildland fire versus prescribed fire, and 3) an exploration of causal factors responsible for wildland fire-related fatalities. This approach establishes a first approximation of the relative risk of fatality to private citizens using prescribed fire compared to other management techniques that are readily used in ecosystem management. Our data do not support using risks of landowner fatalities as justification for the use of alternative land management techniques, such as mechanical (machine-related) equipment, over prescribed fire. Vehicles and heavy machinery are consistently leading reasons for fatalities within occupations selected as proxies for management techniques employed by ranchers and agricultural producers, and also constitute a large proportion of fatalities among firefighters. Our study provides the foundation for agencies to establish data-driven decisions regarding the degree of support they provide for prescribed burning on private lands. PMID:26465329

Future Wildfire and Managed Fire Interactions in the Lake Tahoe Basin

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Scheller, R.; Kretchun, A.

2017-12-01

Managing large forested landscape in the context of a changing climate and altered disturbance regimes presents new challenges and require integrated assessments of forest disturbance, management, succession, and the carbon cycle. Successful management under these circumstances will require information about trade-offs among multiple objectives and opportunities for spatially optimized landscape-scale management. Improved information about the effects of climate on forest communities, disturbance feedbacks, and the effectiveness of mitigation strategies enables actionable options for landscape managers. We evaluated the effects of fire suppression, wildfires, and forest fuel (thinning) treatments on the long-term carbon storage potential for Lake Tahoe Basin (LTB) forests under various climate futures. We simulated management scenarios that encompass fuel treatments across the larger landscape, beyond the Wildland Urban Interface. We improved upon current fire modeling under climate change via an integrated fire modeling module that, a) explicitly captures the influence of climate, fuels, topography, active fire management (e.g., fire suppression), and fuel treatments, and b) can be parameterized from available data, e.g., remote sensing, field reporting, fire databases, expert opinion. These improvements increase geographic flexibility and decrease reliance on broad historical fire regime statistics - imperfect targets for a no analog future and require minimal parameterization and calibration. We assessed the interactions among fuel treatments, prescribe fire, fire suppression, and stochastically recurring wildfires. Predicted changes in climate and ignition patterns in response to future climatic conditions, vegetation dynamics, and fuel treatments indicate larger potential long-term effects on C emissions, forest structure, and forest composition than prior studies.

Feasibility of a medium-size central cogenerated energy facility, energy management memorandum

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Porter, R. W.

1982-09-01

The thermal-economic feasibility was studied of a medium-size central cogenerated energy facility designed to serve five varied industries. Generation options included one dual-fuel diesel and one gas turbine, both with waste heat boilers, and five fired boilers. Fuels included natural gas, and for the fired-boiler cases, also low-sulphur coal and municipal refuse. The fired-boiler cogeneration systems employed back-pressure steam turbines. For coal and refuse, the option of steam only without cogeneration was also assessed. The refuse-fired cases utilized modular incinerators. The options provided for a wide range of steam and electrical capacities. Deficient steam was assumed generated independently in existing equipment. Excess electrical power over that which could be displaced was assumed sold to Commonwealth Edison Company under PURPA (Public Utility Regulator Policies Act). The facility was assumed operated by a mutually owned corporation formed by the cogenerated power users. The economic analysis was predicted on currently applicable energy-investment tax credits and accelerated depreciation for a January 1985 startup date. Based on 100% equity financing, the results indicated that the best alternative was the modular-incinerator cogeneration system.

The nature of the beast: examining climate adaptation options in forests with stand-replacing fire regimes

Treesearch

Joshua S. Halofsky; Daniel C. Donato; Jerry F. Franklin; Jessica E. Halofsky; David L. Peterson; Brian J. Harvey

2018-01-01

Building resilience to natural disturbances is a key to managing forests for adaptation to climate change. To date, most climate adaptation guidance has focused on recommendations for frequent-fire forests, leaving few published guidelines for forests that naturally experience infrequent, stand-replacing wildfires. Because most such forests are inherently resilient to...

Feasibility of a small central cogenerated energy facility: Energy management memorandum

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Porter, R. N.

1982-10-01

The thermal economic feasibility of a small cogenerated energy facility designed to serve several industries in the Stockyards area was investigated. Cogeneration options included two dual fuel diesels and two gas turbines, all with waste heat boilers, and five fired boilers. Fuels included natural gas, and for the fired boiler cases, also low sulphur coal and municipal refuse. For coal and refuse, the option of steam only without cogeneration was also assessed. The fired boiler cogeneration systems employed back pressure steam turbines. The refuse fired cases utilized electrical capacities, 8500 to 52,400 lbm/hr and 0 to 9.9 MW (e), respectively. Deficient steam was assumed generated independently in existing equipment. Excess electrical power over that which was displaced was sold to Commonwealth Edison Company under PURPA (Public Utility Regulatory Policies Act). The facility was operated by a mutually owned corporation formed by the cogenerated power users.

Communicating forest management science and practices through visualized and animated media approaches to community presentations: An exploration and assessment

Treesearch

Donald E. Zimmerman; Carol Akerelrea; Jane Kapler Smith; Garrett J. O' Keefe

2006-01-01

Natural-resource managers have used a variety of computer-mediated presentation methods to communicate management practices to diverse publics. We explored the effects of visualizing and animating predictions from mathematical models in computerized presentations explaining forest succession (forest growth and change through time), fire behavior, and management options...

Managing an established tree invader: developing control methods for Chinese tallow (Triadica sebifera) in maritime forests

Treesearch

Lauren S. Pile; G. Geoff Wang; Thomas A. Waldrop; Joan L. Walker; William C. Bridges; Patricia A. Layton

2017-01-01

Biological invasions by woody species in forested ecosystems can have significant impacts on forest management and conservation. We designed and tested several management options based on the physiology of Chinese tallow (Triadica sebifera [L.] Small). Specifically, we tested four treatments, including mastication, foliar herbicide, and fire (MH...

Winter grazing decreases wildfire risk, severity, and behavior in semi-arid sagebrush rangelands

USDA-ARS?s Scientific Manuscript database

Wildfires are an ecological and economic risk for many semi-arid rangelands which has resulted in increased pressure for pre-suppression management of fuels. In rangelands, fuel management treatment options are limited by costs. We evaluated winter grazing as a tool to manage fuels and alter fire ...

Research on stand management options for reducing fuels and restoring two-aged lodgepole pine communities on the Tenderfoot Creek Experimental Forest

Treesearch

Ward McCaughey

2003-01-01

Fire-dependent lodgepole pine stands comprise significant acreages of midand upper-elevation forests in the Northern Rockies, providing wood products, wildlife habitat, livestock forage, water, recreational opportunities, and expansive viewsheds. Many lodgepole pine stands are in late-successional stages and at risk to pests and catastrophic-scale fires. Tenderfoot...

Back to the future: assessing accuracy and sensitivity of a forest growth model

Treesearch

Susan Hummel; Paul Meznarich

2014-01-01

The Forest Vegetation Simulator (FVS) is a widely used computer model that projects forest growth and predicts the effects of disturbances such as fire, insects, harvests, or disease. Land managers often use these projections to decide among silvicultural options and estimate the potential effects of these options on forest conditions. Despite FVS's popularity,...

Fire, humans and landscape. Is there a connection?

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Valese, Eva; Ascoli, Davide; Conedera, Marco; Held, Alex

2013-04-01

Fire evolved on the earth under the direct influence of climate and the accumulation of burnable biomass at various times and spatial scales. As a result, fire regimes depend not only on climatic and biological factors, but also greatly reflect the cultural background of how people do manage ecosystems and fire. A new awareness among scientists and managers has been rising about the ecological role of fire and the necessity to understand its past natural and cultural dynamics in different ecosystems, in order to preserve present ecosystem functionality and minimize management costs and negative impacts. As a consequence we assisted in the last decades to a general shift from the fire control to the fire management approach, where fire prevention, fire danger rating, fire ecology, fire pre-suppression and suppression strategies are fully integrated in the landscape management. Nowadays, a large number of authors recognize that a total suppression strategy, as the one adopted during last decades, leads to a fire paradox: the more we fight for putting out all fires, the more extreme events occur and cause long term damages. The aim of this review is to provide a state of art about the connection between fire, humans and landscape, along time and space. Negative and positive impacts on ecosystem services and values are put in evidence, as well as their incidence on human aptitude to fire use as to fire suppression. In order to capture a consistent fragment of fire history, palaeofires and related palynological studies are considered. They enable a valuable, even if partial, look at the millenary fire regime. Actual strategies and future directions are described in order to show what are the alternatives for living with fire, since removing completely this disturbance from earth is not a option, nor feasible neither advisable. Examples from the world, in particular from the Alps and the Mediterranean basin, are shown for better illustrating the signature of anthropogenic fire on landscapes.

Fighting Fire with Fire: Surgical Options for Patients with Drug-Resistant Epilepsy.

PubMed

Bayer, Alina D; Blum, Andrew S; Asaad, Wael F; Roth, Julie; Toms, Steven A; Deck, Gina M

2018-03-01

While antiepileptic drugs (AEDs) provide adequate seizure control for most patients with epilepsy, ~30% continue to have seizures despite treatment with two or more AEDs.1 In addition to direct harm from seizures, poor epilepsy control correlates with higher mortality, morbidity, 2, 3 and cost to the healthcare system.4 In the subset of patients with persistent seizures despite medical management, surgical intervention and neuromodulation may be more effective. Primary care physicians and general neurologists should be aware of non-AED treatment options that are standard of care for drug- resistant epilepsy (DRE). [Full article available at http://rimed.org/rimedicaljournal-2018-03.asp].

Fire Distribution in Peninsular Malaysia, Sumatra and Borneo in 2015 with Special Emphasis on Peatland Fires.

PubMed

Miettinen, Jukka; Shi, Chenghua; Liew, Soo Chin

2017-10-01

In this paper, we analyze the spatio-temporal distribution of vegetation fires in Peninsular Malaysia, Sumatra, and Borneo in the severe El Niño year of 2015, concentrating on the distribution of fires between mineral soils and peatland areas, and between land cover types in peatland areas. The results reveal that 53% of all Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) fire detections were recorded in peatlands that cover only 12% of the study area. However, fire occurrence in the peatland areas was highly dependent on land cover type. Pristine peat swamp forests (PSF) experienced only marginal fire activity (30 fire detections per 1000 km 2 ) compared to deforested undeveloped peatlands (831-915 fire detections per 1000 km 2 ). Our results also highlight the extreme fire vulnerability of the southern Sumatran and Bornean peatlands under strong El Niño conditions: 71% of all peatland hotspots were detected in the provinces of South Sumatra and Central Kalimantan, which contain 29% of peatlands in the study area. Degraded PSF and all deforested peatland land cover types, including managed areas, in the two provinces were severely affected, demonstrating how difficult it is to protect even managed drained agricultural areas from unwanted fires during dry periods. Our results thereby advocate rewetting and rehabilitation as the primary management option for highly fire prone degraded undeveloped peatland areas, whenever feasible, as a means to reduce fire risk during future dry episodes.

Fire Distribution in Peninsular Malaysia, Sumatra and Borneo in 2015 with Special Emphasis on Peatland Fires

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Miettinen, Jukka; Shi, Chenghua; Liew, Soo Chin

2017-10-01

In this paper, we analyze the spatio-temporal distribution of vegetation fires in Peninsular Malaysia, Sumatra, and Borneo in the severe El Niño year of 2015, concentrating on the distribution of fires between mineral soils and peatland areas, and between land cover types in peatland areas. The results reveal that 53% of all Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) fire detections were recorded in peatlands that cover only 12% of the study area. However, fire occurrence in the peatland areas was highly dependent on land cover type. Pristine peat swamp forests (PSF) experienced only marginal fire activity (30 fire detections per 1000 km2) compared to deforested undeveloped peatlands (831-915 fire detections per 1000 km2). Our results also highlight the extreme fire vulnerability of the southern Sumatran and Bornean peatlands under strong El Niño conditions: 71% of all peatland hotspots were detected in the provinces of South Sumatra and Central Kalimantan, which contain 29% of peatlands in the study area. Degraded PSF and all deforested peatland land cover types, including managed areas, in the two provinces were severely affected, demonstrating how difficult it is to protect even managed drained agricultural areas from unwanted fires during dry periods. Our results thereby advocate rewetting and rehabilitation as the primary management option for highly fire prone degraded undeveloped peatland areas, whenever feasible, as a means to reduce fire risk during future dry episodes.

Impact of prescribed fire and other factors on cheatgrass persistence in a Sierra Nevada ponderosa pine forest

USGS Publications Warehouse

Keeley, J.E.; McGinnis, T.W.

2007-01-01

Following the reintroduction of fire Bromus tectorum has invaded the low elevation ponderosa pine forests in parts of Kings Canyon National Park, California. We used prescribed burns, other field manipulations, germination studies, and structural equation modelling, to investigate how fire and other factors affect the persistence of cheatgrass in these forests. Our studies show that altering burning season to coincide with seed maturation is not likely to control cheatgrass because sparse fuel loads generate low fire intensity. Increasing time between prescribed fires may inhibit cheatgrass by increasing surface fuels (both herbaceous and litter), which directly inhibit cheatgrass establishment, and by creating higher intensity fires capable of killing a much greater fraction of the seed bank. Using structural equation modelling, postfire cheatgrass dominance was shown to be most strongly controlled by the prefire cheatgrass seedbank; other factors include soil moisture, fire intensity, soil N, and duration of direct sunlight. Current fire management goals in western conifer forests are focused on restoring historical fire regimes; however, these frequent fire regimes may enhance alien plant invasion in some forest types. Where feasible, fire managers should consider the option of an appropriate compromise between reducing serious fire hazards and exacerbating alien plant invasions. ?? IAWF 2007.

40 CFR Appendix D to Part 75 - Optional SO2 Emissions Data Protocol for Gas-Fired and Oil-Fired Units

Code of Federal Regulations, 2014 CFR

2014-07-01

... 40 Protection of Environment 17 2014-07-01 2014-07-01 false Optional SO2 Emissions Data Protocol for Gas-Fired and Oil-Fired Units D Appendix D to Part 75 Protection of Environment ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION AGENCY (CONTINUED) AIR PROGRAMS (CONTINUED) CONTINUOUS EMISSION MONITORING Pt. 75, App. D Appendix D to Part 75—Optional SO2 Emissions Data...

In the line of fire: the peatlands of Southeast Asia

PubMed Central

Hooijer, A.

2016-01-01

Peatlands are a significant component of the global carbon (C) cycle, yet despite their role as a long-term C sink throughout the Holocene, they are increasingly vulnerable to destabilization. Nowhere is this shift from sink to source happening more rapidly than in Southeast Asia, and nowhere else are the combined pressures of land-use change and fire on peatland ecosystem C dynamics more evident nor the consequences more apparent. This review focuses on the peatlands of this region, tracing the link between deforestation and drainage and accelerating C emissions arising from peat mineralization and fire. It focuses on the implications of the recent increase in fire occurrence for air quality, human health, ecosystem resilience and the global C cycle. The scale and controls on peat-driven C emissions are addressed, noting that although fires cause large, temporary peaks in C flux to the atmosphere, year-round emissions from peat mineralization are of a similar magnitude. The review concludes by advocating land management options to reduce future fire risk as part of wider peatland management strategies, while also proposing that this region's peat fire dynamic could become increasingly relevant to northern peatlands in a warming world. This article is part of the themed issue ‘The interaction of fire and mankind’. PMID:27216508

Geographic considerations for fire management in the Eastern United States: geomorphology and topography, soils, and climate

Treesearch

Barton D. Clinton; James M. Vose; Erika C. Cohen

2012-01-01

Across the Eastern United States, there is on average an estimated 36 MT ha–1 (16 tons ac–1) of dead woody fuel (Chojnacky and others 2004). Variations in fuel type, size, and flammability make the selection of treatment options critical for effective fuels management. The region is a complex landscape characterized by...

Modeling trade-offs between fire threat reduction and late-seral forest structure.

Treesearch

David E. Calkin; Susan Stevens Hummel; James K. Agee

2005-01-01

Evaluating the effects of managing for one forest resource in terms of associated impacts on other resources is not easy. Yet methods to identify potential trade-offs among forest resources are necessary to inform people about the implications of management options on public land. This paper uses a case study from a forest reserve in the northwestern United States to...

Modeling Fire Emissions across Central and Southern Italy: Implications for Land and Fire Management

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Bacciu, V. M.; Salis, M.; Spano, D.

2015-12-01

Fires play a relevant role in the global and regional carbon cycle, representing a remarkable source of CO2 and other greenhouse gases (GHG) that influence atmosphere budgets and climate. In addition, the wildfire increase projected in Southern Europe due to climate change (CC) and concurrent exacerbation of extreme weather conditions could also lead to a significant rise in GHG. Recently, in the context of the Italian National Adaptation Strategy to Climate Change (SNAC), several approaches were identified as valuable tools to adapt and mitigate the impacts of CC on wildfires, in order to reduce landscape susceptibility and to contribute to the efforts of carbon emission mitigation proposed within the Kyoto protocol. Active forest and fuel management (such as prescribed burning, fuel reduction and removal, weed and flammable shrub control, creation of fuel discontinuity) is recognised to be a key element to adapt and mitigate the impacts of CC on wildfires. Despite this, overall there is a lack of studies about the effectiveness of fire emission mitigation strategies. The current work aims to analyse the potential of a combination of fuel management practices in mitigating emissions from forest fires and evaluate valuable and viable options across Central and Southern Italy. These objectives were achieved throughout a retrospective application of an integrated approach combining a fire emission model (FOFEM - First Order Fire Effect Model) with spatially explicit, comprehensive, and accurate fire, vegetation and weather data for the period 2004-2012. Furthermore, a number of silvicultural techniques were combined to develop several fuel management scenarios and then tested to evaluate their potential in mitigating fire emissions.The preliminary results showed the crucial role of appropriate fuel, fire behavior, and weather data to reduce bias in quantifying the source and the composition of fire emissions and to attain reasonable estimations. Also, the current study highlighted that balanced combination of fuel management techniques could not only be a viable mean to reduce fire emissions but at the same time prevent future wildfires and the related threat to human lives and activities.

40 CFR Appendix E to Part 75 - Optional NOX Emissions Estimation Protocol for Gas-Fired Peaking Units and Oil-Fired Peaking Units

Code of Federal Regulations, 2013 CFR

2013-07-01

... 40 Protection of Environment 17 2013-07-01 2013-07-01 false Optional NOX Emissions Estimation Protocol for Gas-Fired Peaking Units and Oil-Fired Peaking Units E Appendix E to Part 75 Protection of Environment ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION AGENCY (CONTINUED) AIR PROGRAMS (CONTINUED) CONTINUOUS EMISSION...

40 CFR Appendix E to Part 75 - Optional NOX Emissions Estimation Protocol for Gas-Fired Peaking Units and Oil-Fired Peaking Units

Code of Federal Regulations, 2014 CFR

2014-07-01

... 40 Protection of Environment 17 2014-07-01 2014-07-01 false Optional NOX Emissions Estimation Protocol for Gas-Fired Peaking Units and Oil-Fired Peaking Units E Appendix E to Part 75 Protection of Environment ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION AGENCY (CONTINUED) AIR PROGRAMS (CONTINUED) CONTINUOUS EMISSION...

40 CFR Table 6 to Subpart IIIi of... - Optional 3-Mode Test Cycle for Stationary Fire Pump Engines

Code of Federal Regulations, 2010 CFR

2010-07-01

... 40 Protection of Environment 6 2010-07-01 2010-07-01 false Optional 3-Mode Test Cycle for.... IIII, Table 6 Table 6 to Subpart IIII of Part 60—Optional 3-Mode Test Cycle for Stationary Fire Pump Engines [As stated in § 60.4210(g), manufacturers of fire pump engines may use the following test cycle...

Past and future changes in Canadian boreal wildfire activity.

PubMed

Girardin, Martin P; Mudelsee, Manfred

2008-03-01

Climate change in Canadian boreal forests is usually associated with increased drought severity and fire activity. However, future fire activity could well be within the range of values experienced during the preindustrial period. In this study, we contrast 21st century forecasts of fire occurrence (FireOcc, number of large forest fires per year) in the southern part of the Boreal Shield, Canada, with the historical range of the past 240 years statistically reconstructed from tree-ring width data. First, a historical relationship between drought indices and FireOcc is developed over the calibration period 1959-1998. Next, together with seven tree-ring based drought reconstructions covering the last 240 years and simulations from the CGCM3 and ECHAM4 global climate models, the calibration model is used to estimate past (prior to 1959) and future (post 1999) FireOcc. Last, time-dependent changes in mean FireOcc and in the occurrence rate of extreme fire years are evaluated with the aid of advanced methods of statistical time series analysis. Results suggest that the increase in precipitation projected toward the end of the 21st century will be insufficient to compensate for increasing temperatures and will be insufficient to maintain potential evapotranspiration at current levels. Limited moisture availability would cause FireOcc to increase as well. But will future FireOcc exceed its historical range? The results obtained from our approach suggest high probabilities of seeing future FireOcc reach the upper limit of the historical range. Predictions, which are essentially weighed on northwestern Ontario and eastern boreal Manitoba, indicate that, by 2061-2100, typical FireOcc could increase by more than 34% when compared with the past two centuries. Increases in fire activity as projected by this study could negatively affect the implementation in the next century of forest management inspired by historical or natural disturbance dynamics. This approach is indeed feasible only if current and future fire activities are sufficiently low compared with the preindustrial fire activity, so a substitution of fire by forest management could occur without elevating the overall frequency of disturbance. Conceivable management options will likely have to be directed toward minimizing the adverse impacts of the increasing fire activity.

North Carolina's Emerging Forest Threats: Management Options for Healthy Forests

Treesearch

Lisa Jennings; Emrys Treasure; Jennifer Moore Myers; Steve McNulty; Sean Brogan; David Jones

2012-01-01

Forest landowners are seeing increased pressure from threats like fire, insects, disease, extreme weather, and drought on their land and resources. The last decade has brought record droughts to North Carolina, increasing wildfires, expanding insect and plant invasions, and more intense hurricane and tornado events. Scientists predict increases in temperature and...

Cost, production and effectiveness of masticated fireline.

Treesearch

Elizabeth Dodson; Dana Mitchell

2016-01-01

Fire managers are continuously looking for improved methods to construct fireline with minimal resource damage. One option for fireline construction that has so far received limited attention is the use of mastication equipment. This study evaluated a masticating disk mounted on a self-leveling feller- buncher for the cost, speed, and adherence to fireline...

Two-aged silvicultural treatments in lodgepole pine stands can be economically viable

Treesearch

Ward W. McCaughey; Steven J. Martin; Dean A. Blomquist

2006-01-01

Economically viable silvicultural options are critical for management activities that provide wood products, reduce forest fuels, improve forest health, and enhance wildlife habitat. The Tenderfoot Research Project was developed in the late 1990s to evaluate and quantify ecological and biological effects of two-aged silvicultural treatments including prescribed fire in...

A wildfire risk assessment framework for land and resource management

Treesearch

Joe H. Scott; Matthew P. Thompson; David E. Calkin

2013-01-01

Wildfires can result in significant, long-lasting impacts to ecological, social, and economic systems. It is necessary, therefore, to identify and understand the risks posed by wildland fire, and to develop cost-effective mitigation strategies accordingly. This report presents a general framework with which to assess wildfire risk and explore mitigation options, and...

Assessing Pinyon Juniper Feedstock Properties and Utilization Options

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Gresham, Garold Linn; Kenney, Kevin Louis

2015-08-01

Pinyon-juniper woodlands are a major ecosystem type found in the Southwest and the Intermountain West regions of the United States. These ecosystems are characterized by the presence of several different species of pinyon pine and juniper as the dominant plant cover. Since the 1800s, pinyon-juniper woodlands have rapidly expanded their range at the expense of existing ecosystems. Additionally, existing woodlands have become more dense, potentially increasing fire hazards. Land managers responsible for these areas often desire to reduce pinyonjuniper coverage on their lands for a variety of reasons, including restoration to previous vegetative cover, mitigation of fire risk, and improvementmore » in wildlife habitat. However, the cost of clearing or thinning pinyon-juniper stands can be prohibitive. One reason for this is the lack of utilization options for the resulting biomass that could help recover some of the cost of pinyonjuniper stand management. The goal of this project was to assess the feedstock characteristics of biomass from a pinyon-juniper harvest so that potential applications for the biomass may be evaluated.« less

Info-Gap Decision Theory for Assessing the Management of Catchments for Timber Production and Urban Water Supply

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

McCarthy, Michael A.; Lindenmayer, David B.

2007-04-01

While previous studies have examined how forest management is influenced by the risk of fire, they rely on probabilistic estimates of the occurrence and impacts of fire. However, nonprobabilistic approaches are required for assessing the importance of fire risk when data are poor but risks are appreciable. We explore impacts of fire risk on forest management using as a case study a water catchment in the Australian Capital Territory (ACT) (southeastern Australia). In this forested area, urban water supply and timber yields from exotic plantations are potential joint but also competing land uses. Our analyses were stimulated by extensive wildfires in early 2003 that burned much of the existing exotic pine plantation estate in the water catchment and the resulting need to explore the relative economic benefits of revegetating the catchment with exotic plantations or native vegetation. The current mean fire interval in the ACT is approximately 40 years, making the establishment of a pine plantation economically marginal at a 4% discount rate. However, the relative impact on water yield of revegetation with native species and pines is very uncertain, as is the risk of fire under climate change. We use info-gap decision theory to account for these nonprobabilistic sources of uncertainty, demonstrating that the decision that is most robust to uncertainty is highly sensitive to the cost of native revegetation. If costs of native revegetation are sufficiently small, this option is more robust to uncertainty than revegetation with a commercial pine plantation.

Info-gap decision theory for assessing the management of catchments for timber production and urban water supply.

PubMed

McCarthy, Michael A; Lindenmayer, David B

2007-04-01

While previous studies have examined how forest management is influenced by the risk of fire, they rely on probabilistic estimates of the occurrence and impacts of fire. However, nonprobabilistic approaches are required for assessing the importance of fire risk when data are poor but risks are appreciable. We explore impacts of fire risk on forest management using as a case study a water catchment in the Australian Capital Territory (ACT) (southeastern Australia). In this forested area, urban water supply and timber yields from exotic plantations are potential joint but also competing land uses. Our analyses were stimulated by extensive wildfires in early 2003 that burned much of the existing exotic pine plantation estate in the water catchment and the resulting need to explore the relative economic benefits of revegetating the catchment with exotic plantations or native vegetation. The current mean fire interval in the ACT is approximately 40 years, making the establishment of a pine plantation economically marginal at a 4% discount rate. However, the relative impact on water yield of revegetation with native species and pines is very uncertain, as is the risk of fire under climate change. We use info-gap decision theory to account for these nonprobabilistic sources of uncertainty, demonstrating that the decision that is most robust to uncertainty is highly sensitive to the cost of native revegetation. If costs of native revegetation are sufficiently small, this option is more robust to uncertainty than revegetation with a commercial pine plantation.

Options for managing early-successional forest and shrubland bird habitats in the northeastern United States

Treesearch

Richard M. DeGraaf; Mariko Yamasaki

2003-01-01

Historically, forests in the northeastern United States were disturbed by fire, wind, Native American agriculture, flooding, and beavers (Castor canadensis). Of these, wind and beavers are now the only sources of natural disturbance. Most disturbance-dependent species, especially birds, are declining throughout the region whereas species affiliated with mature forests...

The impacts of increasing drought on forest dynamics, structure, and biodiversity in the United States

Treesearch

James S. Clark; Louis Iverson; Christopher W. Woodall; Craig D. Allen; David M. Bell; Don C. Bragg; Anthony W. D' Amato; Frank W. Davis; Michelle H. Hersh; Ines Ibanez; Stephen T. Jackson; Stephen Matthews; Neil Pederson; Matthew Peters; Mark W. Schwartz; Kristen M. Waring; Niklaus E. Zimmermann

2016-01-01

We synthesize insights from current understanding of drought impacts at stand-to-biogeographic scales, including management options, and we identify challenges to be addressed with new research. Large stand-level shifts underway in western forests already are showing the importance of interactions involving drought, insects, and fire. Diebacks, changes in composition...

Lethal soil temperatures during burning of masticated forest residues

Treesearch

Matt D. Busse; Ken R. Hubbert; Gary O. Fiddler; Carol J. Shestak; Robert F. Powers

2005-01-01

Mastication of woody shrubs is used increasingly as a management option to reduce fire risk at the wildland-urban interface. Whether the resulting mulch layer leads to extreme soil heating, if burned, is unknown. We measured temperature profiles in a clay loam soil during burning of Arctostaphylos residues. Four mulch depths were burned (0, 2.5, 7.5...

Urban-wildland fires: how California and other regions of the US can learn from Australia

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Stephens, Scott L; Adams, Mark A; Handmer, John; Kearns, Faith R; Leicester, Bob; Leonard, Justin; Moritz, Max A

2009-01-01

Most urban-wildland interface (UWI) fires in California and the other regions of the US are managed in a similar fashion: fire agencies anticipate the spread of fire, mandatory evacuations are ordered, and professional fire services move in and attempt to suppress the fires. This approach has not reduced building losses in California. Conversely, losses and the associated suite of environmental impacts, including reduced air quality, have dramatically increased over the last three decades. In contrast to California, Australia has developed a more effective 'Prepare, stay and defend, or leave early' policy. Using this approach, trained residents decide whether they will stay and actively defend their well-prepared property or leave early before a fire threatens them. Australian strategies have the distinct advantage of engaging and preparing those most affected by such fires: homeowners. Investing more in fire suppression alone, the common response after large UWI fires in California, will not reduce losses. US society has attempted to accommodate many of the natural hazards inherent to the landscapes that we inhabit; by examining the Australian model, we may approach a more sustainable coexistence with fire as well. However, it should be noted that some California communities are so vulnerable that a 'Prepare and leave early' strategy may be the only option.

Assessing the Fire Risk for a Historic Hangar

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Datta, Koushik; Morrison, Richard S.

2010-01-01

NASA Ames Research Center (ARC) is evaluating options of reuse of its historic Hangar 1. As a part of this evaluation, a qualitative fire risk assessment study was performed to evaluate the potential threat of combustion of the historic hangar. The study focused on the fire risk trade-off of either installing or not installing a Special Hazard Fire Suppression System in the Hangar 1 deck areas. The assessment methodology was useful in discussing the important issues among various groups within the Center. Once the methodology was deemed acceptable, the results were assessed. The results showed that the risk remained in the same risk category, whether Hangar 1 does or does not have a Special Hazard Fire Suppression System. Note that the methodology assessed the risk to Hangar 1 and not the risk to an aircraft in the hangar. If one had a high value aircraft, the aircraft risk analysis could potentially show a different result. The assessed risk results were then communicated to management and other stakeholders.

Modeling disturbance-based native invasive species control and its implications for management.

PubMed

Shackelford, Nancy; Renton, Michael; Perring, Michael P; Hobbs, Richard J

2013-09-01

Shifts in disturbance regime have often been linked to invasion in systems by native and nonnative species. This process can have negative effects on biodiversity and ecosystem function. Degradation may be ameliorated by the reinstatement of the disturbance regimes, such as the reintroduction of fire in pyrogenic systems. Modeling is one method through which potential outcomes of different regimes can be investigated. We created a population model to examine the control of a native invasive that is expanding and increasing in abundance due to suppressed fire. Our model, parameterized with field data from a case study of the tree Allocasuarina huegeliana in Australian sandplain heath, simulated different fire return intervals with and without the additional management effort of mechanical removal of the native invader. Population behavior under the different management options was assessed, and general estimates of potential biodiversity impacts were compared. We found that changes in fire return intervals made no significant difference in the increase and spread of the population. However, decreased fire return intervals did lower densities reached in the simulated heath patch as well as the estimated maximum biodiversity impacts. When simulating both mechanical removal and fire, we found that the effects of removal depended on the return intervals and the strategy used. Increase rates were not significantly affected by any removal strategy. However, we found that removal, particularly over the whole patch rather than focusing on satellite populations, could decrease average and maximum densities reached and thus decrease the predicted biodiversity impacts. Our simulation model shows that disturbance-based management has the potential to control native invasion in cases where shifted disturbance is the likely driver of the invasion. The increased knowledge gained through the modeling methods outlined can inform management decisions in fire regime planning that takes into consideration control of an invasive species. Although particularly applicable to native invasives, when properly informed by empirical knowledge these techniques can be expanded to management of invasion by nonnative species, either by restoring historic disturbance regimes or by instating novel regimes in innovative ways.

The effect of salvage logging on surface fuel loads and fuel moisture in beetle-infested lodgepole pine forests

Treesearch

Paul R. Hood; Kellen N. Nelson; Charles C. Rhoades; Daniel B. Tinker

2017-01-01

Widespread tree mortality from mountain pine beetle (MPB; Dendroctonus ponderosae Hopkins) outbreaks has prompted forest management activities to reduce crown fire hazard in the Rocky Mountain region. However, little is known about how beetle-related salvage logging and biomass utilization options affect woody surface fuel loads and fuel moisture dynamics. We compared...

Applying management modeling to assess the feasibility of accelerating landscape restoration on federal forests in Eastern Oregon

Treesearch

Sara Loreno; Jeremy S. Fried; Andrew Yost

2015-01-01

The state of Oregon recently invested in exploring options for increasing the extent of forest restoration activity. This initiative aims to reduce the incidence, effects, and expense of catastrophic fire events and restore economic stability to rural communities by enhancing the supply of raw materials for wood processing facilities and wood-based, renewable energy...

Modeling Firing Range Best Management Practices with TREECS (trademark)

DTIC Science & Technology

2013-06-01

is reduced. Phytoremediation can also be considered a source treatment BMP when plants uptake and transform the MC into other chemical forms that are...the amendment, and the local soil conditions. Phytoremediation includes phytoextraction, phytostabilization, and phytotransformation...model can then be run as usual while taking into account the phytoremediation of the MC. Phytotransformation is being implemented as an option in

TAP Report - Southwest Idaho Juniper Working Group

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Gresham, Garold Linn

There is explicit need for characterization of the materials for possible commercialization as little characterization data exists. Pinyon-juniper woodlands are a major ecosystem type found in the Southwest and the Intermountain West regions of the United States including Nevada, Idaho and Oregon. These widespread ecosystems are characterized by the presence of several different species of pinyon and juniper as the dominant plant cover. Since the 1800s, pinyon-juniper woodlands have rapidly expanded their range at the expense of existing ecosystems. Additionally, existing woodlands have become denser, progressively creating potential fire hazards as seen in the Soda Fire, which burned more thanmore » 400 sq. miles. Land managers responsible for these areas often desire to reduce pinyon-juniper coverage on their lands for a variety of reasons, as stated in the Working Group objectives. However, the cost of clearing thinning pinyon-juniper stands can be prohibitive. One reason for this is the lack of utilization options for the resulting biomass that could help recover some of the cost of pinyon-juniper stand management. The goal of this TAP effort was to assess the feedstock characteristics of biomass from a juniper harvested from Owyhee County to evaluate possible fuel and conversion utilization options.« less

Fire management, managed relocation, and land conservation options for long-lived obligate seeding plants under global changes in climate, urbanization, and fire regime.

PubMed

Bonebrake, Timothy C; Syphard, Alexandra D; Franklin, Janet; Anderson, Kurt E; Akçakaya, H Resit; Mizerek, Toni; Winchell, Clark; Regan, Helen M

2014-08-01

Most species face multiple anthropogenic disruptions. Few studies have quantified the cumulative influence of multiple threats on species of conservation concern, and far fewer have quantified the potential relative value of multiple conservation interventions in light of these threats. We linked spatial distribution and population viability models to explore conservation interventions under projected climate change, urbanization, and changes in fire regime on a long-lived obligate seeding plant species sensitive to high fire frequencies, a dominant plant functional type in many fire-prone ecosystems, including the biodiversity hotspots of Mediterranean-type ecosystems. First, we investigated the relative risk of population decline for plant populations in landscapes with and without land protection under an existing habitat conservation plan. Second, we modeled the effectiveness of relocating both seedlings and seeds from a large patch with predicted declines in habitat area to 2 unoccupied recipient patches with increasing habitat area under 2 projected climate change scenarios. Finally, we modeled 8 fire return intervals (FRIs) approximating the outcomes of different management strategies that effectively control fire frequency. Invariably, long-lived obligate seeding populations remained viable only when FRIs were maintained at or above a minimum level. Land conservation and seedling relocation efforts lessened the impact of climate change and land-use change on obligate seeding populations to differing degrees depending on the climate change scenario, but neither of these efforts was as generally effective as frequent translocation of seeds. While none of the modeled strategies fully compensated for the effects of land-use and climate change, an integrative approach managing multiple threats may diminish population declines for species in complex landscapes. Conservation plans designed to mitigate the impacts of a single threat are likely to fail if additional threats are ignored. © 2014 Society for Conservation Biology.

Forest fire advanced system technology (FFAST) conceptual design study

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Nichols, J. David; Warren, John R.

1987-01-01

The National Aeronautics and Space Administration's Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) and the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) Forest Service completed a conceptual design study that defined an integrated forest fire detection and mapping system that will be based upon technology available in the 1990s. Potential system configuration options in emerging and advanced technologies related to the conceptual design were identified and recommended for inclusion as preferred system components. System component technologies identified for an end-to-end system include airborne mounted, thermal infrared (IR) linear array detectors, automatic onboard georeferencing and signal processing, geosynchronous satellite communications links, and advanced data integration and display. Potential system configuration options were developed and examined for possible inclusion in the preferred system configuration. The preferred system configuration will provide increased performance and be cost effective over the system currently in use. Forest fire management user requirements and the system component emerging technologies were the basis for the system configuration design. The conceptual design study defined the preferred system configuration that warrants continued refinement and development, examined economic aspects of the current and preferred system, and provided preliminary cost estimates for follow-on system prototype development.

Adoption and perceptions of shelter-in-place in California's Rancho Santa Fe Fire Protection District

Treesearch

Travis B. Paveglio; Matthew S. Carroll; Pamela J. Jakes

2010-01-01

The increasing impact of wildland fire on human settlements in the USA, and a growing recognition that evacuation might not always to the safest option for those in the path of the flames, continue to spur consideration of alternatives to evacuation among the American public and its fire professionals. Alternatives to evacuation typically include the option for...

NOX EMISSION CONTROL OPTIONS FOR COAL-FIRED ELECTRIC UTILITY BOILERS

EPA Science Inventory

The paper reviews NOx control options for coal-fired electric utility boilers. (NOTE: Acid Rain NOx regulations, the Ozone Transport Commission's NOx Budget Program, revision of the New Source Performance Standards (NSPS) for NOx emissions from utility sources, and Ozone Transpor...

Ecological effects of the Hayman Fire - Part 3: Soil properties, erosion, and implications for rehabilitation and aquatic ecosystems

Treesearch

Jan E. Cipra; Eugene F. Kelly; Lee MacDonald; John Norman

2003-01-01

This team was asked to address three questions regarding soil properties, erosion and sedimentation, and how aquatic and terrestrial ecosystems have responded or could respond to various land management options. We have used soil survey maps, burn severity maps, and digital elevation model (DEM) maps as primary map data. We used our own field measurements and...

Assessing Land Management Change Effects on Forest Carbon and Emissions Under Changing Climate

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Law, B. E.

2014-12-01

There has been limited focus on fine-scale land management change effects on forest carbon under future environmental conditions (climate, nitrogen deposition, increased atmospheric CO2). Forest management decisions are often made at the landscape to regional levels before analyses have been conducted to determine the potential outcomes and effectiveness of such actions. Scientists need to evaluate plausible land management actions in a timely manner to help shape policy and strategic land management. Issues of interest include species-level adaptation to climate, resilience and vulnerability to mortality within forested landscapes and regions. Efforts are underway to improve land system model simulation of future mortality related to climate, and to develop and evaluate plausible land management options that could help mitigate or avoid future die-offs. Vulnerability to drought-related mortality varies among species and with tree size or age. Predictors of species ability to survive in specific environments are still not resolved. A challenge is limited observations for fine-scale (e.g. 4 km2) modeling, particularly physiological parameters. Uncertainties are primarily associated with future land management and policy decisions. They include the interface with economic factors and with other ecosystem services (biodiversity, water availability, wildlife habitat). The outcomes of future management scenarios should be compared with business-as-usual management under the same environmental conditions to determine the effects of management changes on forest carbon and net emissions to the atmosphere. For example, in the western U.S., land system modeling and life cycle assessment of several management options to reduce impacts of fire reduced long-term forest carbon gain and increased carbon emissions compared with business-as-usual management under future environmental conditions. The enhanced net carbon uptake with climate and reduced fire emissions after thinning did not compensate for the increased wood removals over 90 years, leading to reduced net biome production. Analysis of land management change scenarios at fine scales is needed, and should consider other ecological values in addition to carbon.

An ecosystem services approach to the ecological effects of salvage logging: valuation of seed dispersal.

PubMed

Leverkus, Alexandro B; Castro, Jorge

2017-06-01

Forest disturbances diminish ecosystem services and boost disservices. Because post-disturbance management intends to recover the greatest possible value, selling timber often prevails over other considerations. Ecological research has shown diverse effects of salvage logging, yet such research has focused on the biophysical component of post-disturbance ecosystems and lacks the link with human well-being. Here we bridge that gap under the ecosystem services framework by assessing the impact of post-fire management on a non-timber value. By employing the replacement cost method, we calculated the value of the post-fire natural regeneration of Holm oaks in southern Spain under three post-fire management options by considering the cost of planting instead. The value of this ecosystem service in non-intervention areas doubled that of salvage-logged stands due to the preference for standing dead trees by the main seed disperser. Still, most of the value resulted from the resprouting capacity of oaks. The value of this and other ecosystem services should be added to traditional cost/benefit analyses of post-disturbance management. We thus call for a more holistic approach to salvage logging research, one that explicitly links ecological processes with human well-being through ecosystem services, to better inform decision-makers on the outcomes of post-disturbance management. © 2017 by the Ecological Society of America.

MENU OF NOX EMISSION CONTROL OPTIONS FOR COAL-FIRED ELECTRIC UTILITY BOILERS

EPA Science Inventory

The paper reviews NOx control options for coal-fired electric utility boilers. (NOTE: Acid Rain NOx regulations, the Ozone Transport Commission's NOx Budget Program, revision of the New Source Performance Standards (NSPS) for NOx emissions from utility sources, and Ozone Transpor...

Evaluation of fire as a management tool for controlling Schinus terebinthifolius as secondary successional growth on abandoned agricultural land

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Doren, Robert F.; Whiteaker, Louis D.; Larosa, Anne Marie

1991-01-01

Schinus terebinthifolius, native to South America, has become an aggressive woody weed in southern Florida, displacing native vegetation as well as rapidly invading disturbed sites. Studies to evaluate the effectiveness of fire as a management option for controlling Schinus on abandoned farmland in Everglades National Park, known as the “Hole-in-the-Donut,” began in 1979. Study plots were established to monitor any change(s) in herbaceous cover and in numbers and size of Schinus stems. Except in the control plot (which was not burned), each site was burned as often as fuel conditions permitted (usually once every one or two years), through 1985. Results indicated that both the number and density of Schinus stems increased over the course of the study. While plots that burned showed a reduction in the rate of Schinus invasion, invasion still progressed rapidly with or without the occurrence of fire. The increase in Schinus stem density from 1980 to 1985 was highly significant in all transects except one. Herbaceous cover showed no clear trends relative to burning.

Fire characteristics charts for fire behavior and U.S. fire danger rating

Treesearch

Faith Ann Heinsch; Pat Andrews

2010-01-01

The fire characteristics chart is a graphical method of presenting U.S. National Fire Danger Rating indices or primary surface or crown fire behavior characteristics. A desktop computer application has been developed to produce fire characteristics charts in a format suitable for inclusion in reports and presentations. Many options include change of scales, colors,...

Vegetation projections for Wind Cave National Park with three future climate scenarios: Final report in completion of Task Agreement J8W07100052

USGS Publications Warehouse

King, David A.; Bachelet, Dominique M.; Symstad, Amy J.

2013-01-01

Since the initial application of MC1 to a small portion of WICA (Bachelet et al. 2000), the model has been altered to improve model performance with the inclusion of dynamic fire. Applying this improved version to WICA required substantial recalibration, during which we have made a number of improvements to MC1 that will be incorporated as permanent changes. In this report we document these changes and our calibration procedure following a brief overview of the model. We compare the projections of current vegetation to the current state of the park and present projections of vegetation dynamics under future climates downscaled from three GCMs selected to represent the existing range in available GCM projections. In doing so, we examine the consequences of different management options regarding fire and grazing, major aspects of biotic management at Wind Cave.

Conceptual design study: Forest Fire Advanced System Technology (FFAST)

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Nichols, J. D.; Warren, J. R.

1986-01-01

An integrated forest fire detection and mapping system that will be based upon technology available in the 1990s was defined. Uncertainties in emerging and advanced technologies related to the conceptual design were identified and recommended for inclusion as preferred system components. System component technologies identified for an end-to-end system include thermal infrared, linear array detectors, automatic georeferencing and signal processing, geosynchronous satellite communication links, and advanced data integration and display. Potential system configuration options were developed and examined for possible inclusion in the preferred system configuration. The preferred system configuration will provide increased performance and be cost effective over the system currently in use. Forest fire management user requirements and the system component emerging technologies were the basis for the system configuration design. A preferred system configuration was defined that warrants continued refinement and development, examined economic aspects of the current and preferred system, and provided preliminary cost estimates for follow-on system prototype development.

Clarifying evacuation options through fire behavior and traffic modeling

Treesearch

Carol L. Rice; Ronny J. Coleman; Mike Price

2011-01-01

Communities are becoming increasingly concerned with the variety of choices related to wildfire evacuation. We used ArcView with Network Analyst to evaluate the different options for evacuations during wildfire in a case study community. We tested overlaying fire growth patterns with the road network and population characteristics to determine recommendations for...

Mixed-severity fire regimes in the northern Rocky Mountains: consequences of fire exclusion and options for the future

Treesearch

Stephen F. Arno; David J. Parsons; Robert E. Keane

2000-01-01

Findings from fire history studies have increasingly indicated that many forest ecosystems in the northern Rocky Mountains were shaped by mixed-severity fire regimes, characterized by fires of variable severities at intervals averaging between about 30 and 100 years. Perhaps because mixed-severity fire regimes and their resulting vegetational patterns are difficult to...

Post-fire wood management alters water stress, growth, and performance of pine regeneration in a Mediterranean ecosystem

USGS Publications Warehouse

Maranon-Jimenez, Sara; Castro, Jorge; Querejeta, José Ignacio; Fernandez-Ondono, Emilia; Allen, Craig D.

2013-01-01

Extensive research has focused on comparing the impacts of post-fire salvage logging versus those of less aggressive management practices on forest regeneration. However, few studies have addressed the effects of different burnt-wood management options on seedling/sapling performance, or the ecophysiological mechanisms underlying differences among treatments. In this study, we experimentally assess the effects of post-fire management of the burnt wood on the growth and performance of naturally regenerating pine seedlings (Pinus pinaster). Three post-fire management treatments varying in degree of intervention were implemented seven months after a high-severity wildfire burned Mediterranean pine forests in the Sierra Nevada, southeast Spain: (a) “No Intervention” (NI, all burnt trees left standing); (b) “Partial Cut plus Lopping” (PCL, felling most of the burnt trees, cutting off branches, and leaving all the biomass on site without mastication); and (c) “Salvage Logging” (SL, felling the burnt trees, piling up the logs and masticating the fine woody debris). Three years after the fire, the growth, foliar nutrient concentrations, and leaf carbon, nitrogen and oxygen isotopic composition (δ13C, δ18O and δ15N) of naturally regenerating seedlings were measured in all the treatments. Pine seedlings showed greatest vigor and size in the PCL treatment, whereas growth was poorest in SL. The nutrient concentrations were similar among treatments, although greater growth in the two treatments with residual wood present indicated higher plant uptake. Seedlings in the SL treatment showed high leaf δ13C and δ18O values indicating severe water stress, in contrast to significantly alleviated water stress indications in the PCL treatment. Seedling growth and physiological performance in NI was intermediate between that of PCL and SL. After six growing seasons, P. pinaster saplings in PCL showed greater growth and cone production than SL saplings. In summary, salvage logging has a detrimental effect on the ecophysiological performance and growth of naturally regenerating pine seedlings, compared to alternative post-fire management practices in which burnt logs and branches are left in situ. Improved seedling growth and performance is associated with the amelioration of microsite/microclimate conditions by the presence of residual burnt wood, which alleviates seedling drought stress and improves nutrient availability through the decomposition of woody debris.

Leachability of fired clay brick incorporating with sewage sludge waste

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Kadir, Aeslina Abdul; Salim, Nurul Salhana Abdul; Sarani, Noor Amira; Rahmat, Nur Aqma Izurin; Abdullah, Mohd Mustafa Al Bakri

2017-09-01

Sewage sludge is sewerage from wastewater treatment plants that generates millions tons of sludge ever year. Regarding this activity, it causes lack management of waste which is harmful to the surrounding conditions. Therefore, this study is focuses on the incorporation of sewage sludge waste into fired clay brick to provide an option of disposal method, producing adequate quality of brick as well as limiting the heavy metal leachability to the environment. Sewage sludge brick (SSB) mixtures were incorporated with 0%, 1%, 5%, 10%, 20% and 30% of sewage sludge waste (SSW). Heavy metals of crushed SSB were determined by using Toxicity Characteristic Leaching Procedure (TCLP) according to Method 1311 of United State Environment Protection Agency (USEPA) standard. From the results obtained, up to 20% of SSW could be incorporated into fired clay brick and comply with the USEPA standard. Therefore, this study revealed that by incorporating SSW into fired clay brick it could be an alternative method to dispose the SSW and also could act as a replacement material for brick manufacturing with appropriate mix and design.

Controls upon biomass losses and char production from prescribed burning on UK moorland.

PubMed

Worrall, Fred; Clay, Gareth D; May, Richard

2013-05-15

Prescribed burning is a common management technique used across many areas of the UK uplands. However, there are few data sets that assess the loss of biomass during burning and even fewer data on the effect of burning on above-ground carbon stocks and production of char. During fire the production of char occurs which represents a transfer of carbon from the short term bio-atmospheric cycle to the longer term geological cycle. However, biomass is consumed leading to the reduction in litter formation which is the principal mechanism for peat formation. This study aims to solve the problem of whether loss of biomass during a fire is ever outweighed by the production of refractory forms of carbon during the fire. This study combines both a laboratory study of char production with an assessment of biomass loss from a series of field burns from moorland in the Peak District, UK. The laboratory results show that there are significant effects due to ambient temperature but the most important control on dry mass loss is the maximum burn temperature. Burn temperature was also found to be linearly related to the production of char in the burn products. Optimisation of dry mass loss, char production and carbon content shows that the production of char from certain fires could store more carbon in the ecosystem than if there had been no fire. Field results show that approximately 75% of the biomass and carbon were lost through combustion, a figure comparable to other studies of prescribed fire in other settings. Char-C production was approximately 2.6% of the carbon consumed during the fire. This study has shown that there are conditions (fast burns at high temperatures) under which prescribed fire may increase C sequestration through char production and that these conditions are within existing management options available to practitioners. Copyright © 2013 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Computer program for calculating and plotting fire direction and rate of spread.

Treesearch

James E. Eenigenburg

1987-01-01

Presents an analytical procedure that uses a FORTRAN 77 program to estimate fire direction and rate of spread. The program also calculates the variability of these parameters, both for subsections of the fire and for the fires as a whole. An option in the program allows users with a CALCOMP plotter to obtain a map of the fire with spread vectors.

Bald Mountain Fire, Eagle Cap Wilderness Area, Wallowa-Whitman National Forest, FARSITE analysis

Treesearch

LaWen Hollingsworth

2012-01-01

While the Near Term Fire Behavior analysis option in WFDSS is similar to FARSITE, the advantage of using FARSITE lies in the ability to use gridded winds which produces more reliable fire behavior results in complex terrain. A couple of FARSITE simulations were completed to evaluate fire growth and fire behavior in relation to the values, notably Red's Horse Ranch...

Cost-effective fire management for southern California's chaparral wilderness: an analytical procedure

Treesearch

Chris A. Childers; Douglas D. Piirto

1989-01-01

Fire management has always meant fire suppression to the managers of the chaparral covered southern California National Forests. Today, Forest Service fire management programs must be cost effective, while wilderness fire management objectives are aimed at recreating natural fire regimes. A cost-effectiveness analysis has been developed to compare fire management...

Effects of prescribed fires on soil properties: A review.

PubMed

Alcañiz, M; Outeiro, L; Francos, M; Úbeda, X

2018-02-01

Soils constitute one of the most valuable resources on earth, especially because soil is renewable on human time scales. During the 20th century, a period marked by a widespread rural exodus and land abandonment, fire suppression policies were adopted facilitating the accumulation of fuel in forested areas, exacerbating the effects of wildfires, leading to severe degradation of soils. Prescribed fires emerged as an option for protecting forests and their soils from wildfires through the reduction of fuels levels. However such fires can serve other objectives, including stimulating the regeneration of a particular plant species, maintaining biological diversity or as a tool for recovering grasslands in encroached lands. This paper reviews studies examining the short- and long- term impacts of prescribed fires on the physical, chemical and biological soil properties; in so doing, it provides a summary of the benefits and drawbacks of this technique, to help determine if prescribed fires can be useful for managing the landscape. From the study conducted, we can affirm that prescribed fires affects soil properties but differ greatly depending on soil initial characteristics, vegetation or type of fire. Also, it is possible to see that soil's physical and biological properties are more strongly affected by prescribed fires than are its chemical properties. Finally, we conclude that prescribed fires clearly constitute a disturbance on the environment (positive, neutral or negative depending on the soil property studied), but most of the studies reviewed report a good recovery and their effects could be less pronounced than those of wildfires because of the limited soil heating and lower fire intensity and severity. Copyright © 2017. Published by Elsevier B.V.

The management of building fire safety towards the sustainability of Malaysian public universities

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Ebenehi, I. Y.; Mohamed, S.; Sarpin, N.; Masrom, M. A. N.; Zainal, R.; Azmi, M. A. Mohd

2017-11-01

Recently, there had been reduction in annual budgetary allocations to public universities in Malaysia due to some economic tensions. This situation had left many institutions in question with the options of scaling down their expenses as well as sourcing for other means of meeting up with the shortfalls in allocated funds. Hence, it affects the sustainability of the building itself. This paper is an attempt to look at the possibility of reducing incidents that could lead to expending unbudgeted fund to rehabilitating property unfortunately destroyed by fire on campus, in addition to limiting risk to life and interruption of academic and business activities. Several research had been conducted on FSM, nevertheless very few consider Higher Education Institutions (HEI)s holistically. Hence this research intends to fill that gap.

Fuels planning: science synthesis and integration; environmental consequences fact sheet 06: wildland fire use: the "other" treatment option

Treesearch

Anne Black

2004-01-01

Fire suppression has reduced acres burned to an average of 2 million acres a year. An unfortunate result of this has been the accumulation of even more above-normal fuel loads in many areas. This paper discusses (1) the important ecological role of fire, (2) using fire as a fuels treatment, and (2) the benefits and risks of fire.

Mitigating old tree mortality in long-unburned, fire-dependent forests: a synthesis

Treesearch

Sharon M. Hood

2010-01-01

This report synthesizes the literature and current state of knowledge pertaining to reintroducing fire in stands where it has been excluded for long periods and the impact of these introductory fires on overstory tree injury and mortality. Only forested ecosystems in the United States that are adapted to survive frequent fire are included. Treatment options that...

Peats from West Kalimantan Province, Indonesia: The Distribution, Formation, Disturbances, Utilization and Conservation

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Anshari, G. Z.

2011-12-01

A major portion of tropical peats, approximately between 180,000 and 210,000 km2, occurs in Indonesia. Peat is a water body that preserves and stores enormous organic Carbon of dead biomass vegetation. In a natural state, peat helps to maintain Carbon balance, hydrological cycle, and supply of dissolved and particulate organic matters into adjacent waters. Peat disturbances drive the change from Carbon sink function into Carbon source. This paper aims to discuss variability of tropical peats and peat degradation in West Kalimantan Province. The discussions include extent and formation, biodiversity, Carbon and water storage, major properties, utilization, peat disturbances (i.e. logging, forest conversion, drainage affects, and recurrent peat fires), and peat conservation. Management options for reducing peat fires and developing sustainable peat utilization are also explored. Data were collected from both coastal and inland peats in West Kalimantan Province. This paper declares that degradation of tropical peats in Indonesia is strongly associated with anthropogenic fires, peat forest conversion, and logging. To reduce speeds of peat degradation, the current utilization of peats needs being more intensive than extensive, and preventing water table drop by managing excessive drainage that leads to substantial decline of moisture in the upper peat layer, which is subsequently dry and flammable.

Principles of effective USA federal fire management plans

USGS Publications Warehouse

Meyer, Marc D.; Roberts, Susan L.; Wills, Robin; Brooks, Matthew L.; Winford, Eric M.

2015-01-01

Federal fire management plans are essential implementation guides for the management of wildland fire on federal lands. Recent changes in federal fire policy implementation guidance and fire science information suggest the need for substantial changes in federal fire management plans of the United States. Federal land management agencies are also undergoing land management planning efforts that will initiate revision of fire management plans across the country. Using the southern Sierra Nevada as a case study, we briefly describe the underlying framework of fire management plans, assess their consistency with guiding principles based on current science information and federal policy guidance, and provide recommendations for the development of future fire management plans. Based on our review, we recommend that future fire management plans be: (1) consistent and compatible, (2) collaborative, (3) clear and comprehensive, (4) spatially and temporally scalable, (5) informed by the best available science, and (6) flexible and adaptive. In addition, we identify and describe several strategic guides or “tools” that can enhance these core principles and benefit future fire management plans in the following areas: planning and prioritization, science integration, climate change adaptation, partnerships, monitoring, education and communication, and applied fire management. These principles and tools are essential to successfully realize fire management goals and objectives in a rapidly changing world.

Smokey comes of age: Unmanned aerial systems for fire management

USGS Publications Warehouse

Twidwell, Dirac; Allen, Craig R.; Detweiler, Carrick; Higgins, James; Laney, Christian; Elbaum, Sebastian

2016-01-01

During the past century, fire management has focused on techniques both to protect human communities from catastrophic wildfire and to maintain fire-dependent ecological systems. However, despite a large and increasing allocation of resources and personnel to achieve these goals, fire management objectives at regional to global scales are not being met. Current fire management techniques are clearly inadequate for the challenges faced by fire managers, and technological innovations are needed. Advances in unmanned aerial systems (UAS) technology provide opportunities for innovation in fire management and science. In many countries, fire management organizations are beginning to explore the potential of UAS for monitoring fires. We have taken the next step and developed a prototype that can precisely ignite fires as part of wildfire suppression tactics or prescribed fires (fire intentionally ignited within predetermined conditions to reduce hazardous fuels, improve habitat, or mitigate for large wildfires). We discuss the potential for these technologies to benefit fire management activities, while acknowledging the sizeable sociopolitical barriers that prevent their immediate broad application.

Seeding techniques for sagebrush community restoration after fire

Treesearch

Jeffrey E. Ott; Anne Halford; Nancy Shaw

2016-01-01

Purpose: To outline important considerations and options for post-fire seeding, including the selection of seed mixes and seeding equipment for restoring sagebrush communities following fire. The emphasis is on lower-elevation communities where restoration needs are greatest. References and resources are offered for greater detail and guidance on specific...

Resilience and resistance of sagebrush ecosystems: implications for state and transition models and management treatments

USGS Publications Warehouse

Chambers, Jeanne C.; Miller, Richard F.; Board, David I.; Pyke, David A.; Roundy, Bruce A.; Grace, James B.; Schupp, Eugene W.; Tausch, Robin J.

2014-01-01

In sagebrush ecosystems invasion of annual exotics and expansion of piñon (Pinus monophylla Torr. and Frem.) and juniper (Juniperus occidentalis Hook., J. osteosperma [Torr.] Little) are altering fire regimes and resulting in large-scale ecosystem transformations. Management treatments aim to increase resilience to disturbance and enhance resistance to invasive species by reducing woody fuels and increasing native perennial herbaceous species. We used Sagebrush Steppe Treatment Evaluation Project data to test predictions on effects of fire vs. mechanical treatments on resilience and resistance for three site types exhibiting cheatgrass (Bromus tectorum L.) invasion and/or piñon and juniper expansion: 1) warm and dry Wyoming big sagebrush (WY shrub); 2) warm and moist Wyoming big sagebrush (WY PJ); and 3) cool and moist mountain big sagebrush (Mtn PJ). Warm and dry (mesic/aridic) WY shrub sites had lower resilience to fire (less shrub recruitment and native perennial herbaceous response) than cooler and moister (frigid/xeric) WY PJ and Mtn PJ sites. Warm (mesic) WY Shrub and WY PJ sites had lower resistance to annual exotics than cool (frigid to cool frigid) Mtn PJ sites. In WY shrub, fire and sagebrush mowing had similar effects on shrub cover and, thus, on perennial native herbaceous and exotic cover. In WY PJ and Mtn PJ, effects were greater for fire than cut-and-leave treatments and with high tree cover in general because most woody vegetation was removed increasing resources for other functional groups. In WY shrub, about 20% pretreatment perennial native herb cover was necessary to prevent increases in exotics after treatment. Cooler and moister WY PJ and especially Mtn PJ were more resistant to annual exotics, but perennial native herb cover was still required for site recovery. We use our results to develop state and transition models that illustrate how resilience and resistance influence vegetation dynamics and management options.

Fuel Management-An Integral Part of Fire Management: Trans-Tasman Perspective

Treesearch

Jim Gould

2006-01-01

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...

An integrated land change model for projecting future climate and land change scenarios

USGS Publications Warehouse

Wimberly, Michael; Sohl, Terry L.; Lamsal, Aashis; Liu, Zhihua; Hawbaker, Todd J.

2013-01-01

Climate change will have myriad effects on ecosystems worldwide, and natural and anthropogenic disturbances will be key drivers of these dynamics. In addition to climatic effects, continual expansion of human settlement into fire-prone forests will alter fire regimes, increase human vulnerability, and constrain future forest management options. There is a need for modeling tools to support the simulation and assessment of new management strategies over large regions in the context of changing climate, shifting development patterns, and an expanding wildland-urban interface. To address this need, we developed a prototype land change simulator that combines human-driven land use change (derived from the FORE-SCE model) with natural disturbances and vegetation dynamics (derived from the LADS model) and incorporates novel feedbacks between human land use and disturbance regimes. The prototype model was implemented in a test region encompassing the Denver metropolitan area along with its surrounding forested and agricultural landscapes. Initial results document the feasibility of integrated land change modeling at a regional scale but also highlighted conceptual and technical challenges for this type of model integration. Ongoing development will focus on improving climate sensitivities and modeling constraints imposed by climate change and human population growth on forest management activities.

Probability model for analyzing fire management alternatives: theory and structure

Treesearch

Frederick W. Bratten

1982-01-01

A theoretical probability model has been developed for analyzing program alternatives in fire management. It includes submodels or modules for predicting probabilities of fire behavior, fire occurrence, fire suppression, effects of fire on land resources, and financial effects of fire. Generalized "fire management situations" are used to represent actual fire...

Learning from wilderness: The social dimension of fire management

Treesearch

Anne E. Black

2009-01-01

In 2008, the U.S. Forest Service (USFS) began piloting a "new" concept in fire management: managing "fire as fire" on the landscape; no more black-and-white distinctions between "good" fire and "bad" fire. Instead, under the new direction, the USFS manages the fire based on what the land, the long-term objectives, the land...

Cyber Warfare as an Operational Fire

DTIC Science & Technology

2010-04-03

This paper explores cyber warfare as an option for creating operational fires effects. Initially, cyberspace is defined and explained from the...fires are defined and the advantages of their use are explained. From there, discussion focuses on how cyber warfare fulfills the purposes of...operational fires. Finally, the paper draws conclusions about the viability of cyber warfare as an operational fire and makes recommendations about how to prioritize the activities of the newly approved U.S. Cyber Command.

Effects of fire on fish populations: Landscape perspectives on persistance of native fishes and nonnative fish invasions

USGS Publications Warehouse

Dunham, J.B.; Young, M.; Gresswell, Robert E.; Rieman, B.

2003-01-01

Our limited understanding of the short and long-term effects of fire on fish contributes to considerable uncertainty in assessments of the risks and benefits of fire management alternatives. A primary concern among the many potential effects of fire is the effects of fire and fire management on persistence of native fish populations. Limited evidence suggests vulnerability of fish to fire is contingent upon the quality of affected habitats, the amount and distribution of habitat (habitat fragmentation), and habitat specificity of the species in question. Species with narrow habitat requirements in highly degraded and fragmented systems are likely to be most vulnerable to fire and fire-related disturbance. In addition to effects of fire on native fish, there are growing concerns about the effects of fire on nonnative fish invasions. The role of fire in facilitating invasions by nonnative fishes is unknown, but experience with other species suggests some forms of disturbance associated with fire may facilitate invasion. Management efforts to promote persistence of fishes in fire-prone landscapes can take the form of four basic alternatives: (1) pre-fire management; (2) post-fire management; (3) managing fire itself (e.g. fire fighting); and (4) monitoring and adaptive management. Among these alternatives, pre-fire management is likely to be most effective. Effective pre-fire management activities will address factors that may render fish populations more vulnerable to the effects of fire (e.g. habitat degradation, fragmentation, and nonnative species). Post-fire management is also potentially important, but suffers from being a reactive approach that may not address threats in time to avert them. Managing fire itself can be important in some contexts, but negative consequences for fish populations are possible (e.g. toxicity of fire fighting chemicals to fish). Monitoring and adaptive management can provide important new information for evaluating alternatives, but proper implementation is often hampered by inadequate study designs and inconsistent financial and institutional support. The challenge for providing better management guidelines will be to add solid empirical data and models to assess the relevance of emerging concepts and theories, and provide a sense of where and when fires pose significant risks and/or benefits to fishes.

Division of Forestry Fire and Aviation Program

Science.gov Websites

Conservation Education Timber Management Wildland Fire & Aviation Burn Permits Firewise Alaska Brochure (PDF) Fire Management Plans Fire Assignments Annual Fire Statistics Fire Terms Glossary Incident Business Management Grants Become an Alaska Firewise Community Community Wildland Fire Protection Plans

Network-Based Real-time Integrated Fire Detection and Alarm (FDA) System with Building Automation

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Anwar, F.; Boby, R. I.; Rashid, M. M.; Alam, M. M.; Shaikh, Z.

2017-11-01

Fire alarm systems have become increasingly an important lifesaving technology in many aspects, such as applications to detect, monitor and control any fire hazard. A large sum of money is being spent annually to install and maintain the fire alarm systems in buildings to protect property and lives from the unexpected spread of fire. Several methods are already developed and it is improving on a daily basis to reduce the cost as well as increase quality. An integrated Fire Detection and Alarm (FDA) systems with building automation was studied, to reduce cost and improve their reliability by preventing false alarm. This work proposes an improved framework for FDA system to ensure a robust intelligent network of FDA control panels in real-time. A shortest path algorithmic was chosen for series of buildings connected by fiber optic network. The framework shares information and communicates with each fire alarm panels connected in peer to peer configuration and declare the network state using network address declaration from any building connected in network. The fiber-optic connection was proposed to reduce signal noises, thus increasing large area coverage, real-time communication and long-term safety. Based on this proposed method an experimental setup was designed and a prototype system was developed to validate the performance in practice. Also, the distributed network system was proposed to connect with an optional remote monitoring terminal panel to validate proposed network performance and ensure fire survivability where the information is sequentially transmitted. The proposed FDA system is different from traditional fire alarm and detection system in terms of topology as it manages group of buildings in an optimal and efficient manner.Introduction

Disturbance and productivity interactions mediate stability of forest composition and structure.

PubMed

O'Connor, Christopher D; Falk, Donald A; Lynch, Ann M; Swetnam, Thomas W; Wilcox, Craig P

2017-04-01

Fire is returning to many conifer-dominated forests where species composition and structure have been altered by fire exclusion. Ecological effects of these fires are influenced strongly by the degree of forest change during the fire-free period. Response of fire-adapted species assemblages to extended fire-free intervals is highly variable, even in communities with similar historical fire regimes. This variability in plant community response to fire exclusion is not well understood; however, ecological mechanisms such as individual species' adaptations to disturbance or competition and underlying site characteristics that facilitate or impede establishment and growth have been proposed as potential drivers of assemblage response. We used spatially explicit dendrochronological reconstruction of tree population dynamics and fire regimes to examine the influence of historical disturbance frequency (a proxy for adaptation to disturbance or competition), and potential site productivity (a proxy for underlying site characteristics) on the stability of forest composition and structure along a continuous ecological gradient of pine, dry mixed-conifer, mesic mixed-conifer, and spruce-fir forests following fire exclusion. While average structural density increased in all forests, species composition was relatively stable in the lowest productivity pine-dominated and highest productivity spruce-fir-dominated sites immediately following fire exclusion and for the next 100 years, suggesting site productivity as a primary control on species composition and structure in forests with very different historical fire regimes. Species composition was least stable on intermediate productivity sites dominated by mixed-conifer forests, shifting from primarily fire-adapted species to competition-adapted, fire-sensitive species within 20 years of fire exclusion. Rapid changes to species composition and stand densities have been interpreted by some as evidence of high-severity fire. We demonstrate that the very different ecological process of fire exclusion can produce similar changes by shifting selective pressures from disturbance-mediated to productivity-mediated controls. Restoring disturbance-adapted species composition and structure to intermediate productivity forests may help to buffer them against projected increasing temperatures, lengthening fire seasons, and more frequent and prolonged moisture stress. Fewer management options are available to promote adaptation in forest assemblages historically constrained by underlying site productivity. © 2016 by the Ecological Society of America.

The federal wildland policy: opportunities for wilderness fire management

Treesearch

G. Thomas Zimmerman; David L. Bunnell

2000-01-01

The Federal Wildland Fire Management Policy and Program Review represents the latest stage in the evolution of wildland fire management. This policy directs changes that consolidate past fire management practices into a single direction to achieve multidimensional objectives and creates increased opportunities for wilderness fire management. Objectives previously...

Community-based preparedness programmes and the 2009 Australian bushfires: policy implications derived from applying theory.

PubMed

MacDougall, Colin; Gibbs, Lisa; Clark, Rachel

2014-04-01

The Victorian Country Fire Authority in Australia runs the Community Fireguard (CFG) programme to assist individuals and communities in preparing for fire. The objective of this qualitative research was to understand the impact of CFG groups on their members' fire preparedness and response during the 2009 Australian bushfires. Social connectedness emerged as a strong theme, leading to an analysis of data using social capital theory. The main strength of the CFG programme was that it was driven by innovative community members; however, concerns arose regarding the extent to which the programme covered all vulnerable areas, which led the research team to explore the theory of diffusion of innovation. The article concludes by stepping back from the evaluation and using both applied theories to reflect on broad options for community fire preparedness programmes in general. The exercise produced two contrasting options for principles underlying community fire preparedness programmes. © 2014 The Author(s). Disasters © Overseas Development Institute, 2014.

Alaska's State Forests

Science.gov Websites

Conservation Education Timber Management Wildland Fire & Aviation Burn Permits Firewise Alaska Brochure (PDF) Fire Management Plans Fire Assignments Annual Fire Statistics Fire Terms Glossary Incident Business Management Grants Become an Alaska Firewise Community Community Wildland Fire Protection Plans

Management of spent shea waste: An instrumental characterization and valorization in clay bricks construction.

PubMed

Adazabra, A N; Viruthagiri, G; Shanmugam, N

2017-06-01

This work studies the reuse of spent shea waste as an economic construction material in improving fired clay bricks manufacture aside providing a novel approach to ecofriendly managing its excessive generated from the shea agroindustry. For this purpose, the influence of spent shea waste addition on the chemical, mineralogical, molecular bonding and technological properties (i.e. compressive strength and water absorption) of the fired clay bricks were extensively investigated. The results indicated that the chemical, mineralogical, phase transformations, molecular bonding and thermal behavior of the produced bricks were practically unaffected by the addition of spent shea waste. However, spent shea waste addition increased the compressive strengths and water absorptions of the brick products. Potential performance benefits of reusing spent shea waste was improved fluxing agents, energy-contribution reaction, excellent porosifying effect, reduced thermal conductivity and enhanced compressive strengths of the brick products. This research has therefore provided compelling evidence that could create newfound route for the synergistic ecofriendly reuse of spent shea waste to enhance clay brick construction aside being a potential mainstream disposal option. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Alaska Timber Jobs Task Force

Science.gov Websites

Conservation Education Timber Management Wildland Fire & Aviation Burn Permits Firewise Alaska Brochure (PDF) Fire Management Plans Fire Assignments Annual Fire Statistics Fire Terms Glossary Incident Business Management Grants Become an Alaska Firewise Community Community Wildland Fire Protection Plans

Climate change impacts on forest fires: the stakeholders' perspective

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Giannakopoulos, C.; Roussos, A.; Karali, A.; Hatzaki, M.; Xanthopoulos, G.; Chatzinikos, E.; Fyllas, N.; Georgiades, N.; Karetsos, G.; Maheras, G.; Nikolaou, I.; Proutsos, N.; Sbarounis, T.; Tsaggari, K.; Tzamtzis, I.; Goodess, C.

2012-04-01

In this work, we present a synthesis of the presentations and discussions which arose during a workshop on 'Impacts of climate change on forest fires' held in September 2011 at the National Observatory of Athens, Greece in the framework of EU project CLIMRUN. At first, a general presentation about climate change and extremes in the Greek territory provided the necessary background to the audience and highlighted the need for data and information exchange between scientists and stakeholders through climate services within CLIMRUN. Discussions and presentations that followed linked climate with forest science through the use of a meteorological index for fire risk and future projections of fire danger using regional climate models. The current situation on Greek forests was also presented, as well as future steps that should be taken to ameliorate the situation under a climate change world. A time series analysis of changes in forest fires using available historical data on forest ecosystems in Greece was given in this session. This led to the topic of forest fire risk assessment and fire prevention, stating all actions towards sustainable management of forests and effective mechanisms to control fires under climate change. Options for a smooth adaptation of forests to climate change were discussed together with the lessons learned on practical level on prevention, repression and rehabilitation of forest fires. In between there were useful interventions on sustainable hunting and biodiversity protection and on climate change impacts on forest ecosystems dynamics. The importance of developing an educational program for primary/secondary school students on forest fire management was also highlighted. The perspective of forest stakeholders on climate change and how this change can affect their current or future activities was addressed through a questionnaire they were asked to complete. Results showed that the majority of the participants consider climate variability to be important or very important and to influence their activities. Extreme climate events, desertification and drought were regarded as the most important environmental problems along with loss of biodiversity. Most of the participants answered that they use historical data for research, and would welcome climate data and services targeted to their sector if offered. Acknowledgement: This work was supported by the EU project CLIMRUN under contract FP7-ENV-2010- 265192.

Tongue-tied: Confused meanings for common fire terminology can lead to fuels mismanagement

Treesearch

Theresa B. Jain; Russell T. Graham; David S. Pilliod

2004-01-01

The ineffective and inconsistent use of terminology among fire managers, scientists, resource managers and the public is a constant problem in resource management. In fire management and fire science, the terms fire severity, burn severity and fire intensity are defined in a variety of ways, used inconsistently and, in some cases, interchangeably.

A national cohesive wildland fire management strategy

Treesearch

Forest Service U.S. Department of Agriculture; Office of Wildland Fire Coordination Department of the Interior

2011-01-01

Addressing wildfire is not simply a fire management, fire operations, or wildland-urban interface problem - it is a larger, more complex land management and societal issue. The vision for the next century is to: Safely and effectively extinguish fire, when needed; use fire where allowable; manage our natural resources; and as a Nation, live with wildland fire. Three...

"Making Do" Decisions: How Home Healthcare Personnel Manage Their Exposure to Home Hazards.

PubMed

Wills, Celia E; Polivka, Barbara J; Darragh, Amy; Lavender, Steven; Sommerich, Carolyn; Stredney, Donald

2016-04-01

This study describes the decision-making processes home healthcare personnel (HHP) use to manage their personal health and safety when managing hazards in client homes. A professionally diverse national sample of 68 HHP participated in individual semi-structured interviews and focus group discussions, and described their decision making and strategies for hazard management in their work environments. HHP described 353 hazard management dilemmas within 394 specifically identified hazards, which were clustered within three broader categories: electrical/fire, slip/trip/lift, and environmental exposures. HHP described multiple types of "making do" decisions for hazard management solutions in which perceived and actual resource limitations constrained response options. A majority of hazard management decisions in the broader hazards categories (72.5%, 68.5%, and 63.5%, respectively) were classifiable as less than optimal. These findings stress the need for more support of HHPs, including comprehensive training, to improve HHP decision making and hazard management strategies, especially in context of resource constraints. © The Author(s) 2015.

“Making Do” Decisions: How Home Healthcare Personnel Manage Their Exposure to Home Hazards

PubMed Central

Wills, Celia E.; Polivka, Barbara J.; Darragh, Amy; Lavender, Steven; Sommerich, Carolyn; Stredney, Donald

2016-01-01

This study describes the decision-making processes home healthcare personnel (HHP) use to manage their personal health and safety when managing hazards in client homes. A professionally diverse national sample of 68 HHP participated in individual semi-structured interviews and focus group discussions, and described their decision making and strategies for hazard management in their work environments. HHP described 353 hazard management dilemmas within 394 specifically identified hazards, which were clustered within three broader categories: electrical/fire, slip/trip/lift, and environmental exposures. HHP described multiple types of “making do” decisions for hazard management solutions in which perceived and actual resource limitations constrained response options. A majority of hazard management decisions in the broader hazards categories (72.5%, 68.5%, and 63.5%, respectively) were classifiable as less than optimal. These findings stress the need for more support of HHPs, including comprehensive training, to improve HHP decision making and hazard management strategies, especially in context of resource constraints. PMID:26669605

Tanana Valley State Forest Citizens' Advisory Committee

Science.gov Websites

Conservation Education Timber Management Wildland Fire & Aviation Burn Permits Firewise Alaska Brochure (PDF) Fire Management Plans Fire Assignments Annual Fire Statistics Fire Terms Glossary Incident Business Management Grants Become an Alaska Firewise Community Community Wildland Fire Protection Plans

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Green,T.

This Wildland Fire Management Plan (FMP) for Brookhaven National Lab (BNL) updates the 2003 plan incorporating changes necessary to comply with DOE Order 450.1 and DOE P 450.4, Federal Wildland Fire Management Policy and Program Review; Wildland and Prescribed Fire Management Policy and implementation Procedures Reference Guide. This current plan incorporates changes since the original draft of the FMP that result from new policies on the national level. This update also removes references and dependence on the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service and Department of the Interior, fully transitioning Wildland Fire Management responsibilities to BNL. The Department of Energy policymore » for managing wildland fires requires that all areas, managed by the DOE and/or its various contractors, that can sustain fire must have a FMP that details fire management guidelines for operational procedures associated with wild fire, operational, and prescribed fires. Fire management plans provide guidance on fire preparedness, fire prevention, wildfire suppression, and the use of controlled, 'prescribed' fires and mechanical means to control the amount of available combustible material. Values reflected in the BNL Wildland FMP include protecting life and public safety; Lab properties, structures and improvements; cultural and historical sites; neighboring private and public properties; and endangered, threatened, and species of concern. Other values supported by the plan include the enhancement of fire-dependent ecosystems at BNL. This FMP will be reviewed periodically to ensure the fire program advances and evolves with the missions of the DOE and BNL. This Fire Management Plan is presented in a format that coverers all aspects specified by DOE guidance documents which are based on the national template for fire management plans adopted under the National Fire Plan. The DOE is one of the signatory agencies on the National Fire Plan. This FMP is to be used and implemented for the entire BNL site including the Upton Reserve and has been reviewed by, The Nature Conservancy, New York State Department of Environmental Conservation Forest Rangers, and DOE, as well as appropriate BNL emergency services personnel. The BNL Fire Department is the lead on wildfire suppression. However, the BNL Natural Resource Manager will be assigned to all wildland fires as technical resource advisor.« less

Fire resistant polyamide based on 1-(diorganooxyphosphonyl)methyl-2,4- and -2,6diamino benzene

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Mikroyannidis, J. A. (Inventor); Kourtides, D. A. (Inventor)

1986-01-01

1-(Diorganooxyphosphonyl)methyl2,4- and-2,6diamino benzenes are reacted with polyacylhalides and optionally comonomers to produce polyamides which have desirable heat and fire resistance properties. These polymers are used to form fibers and fabrics where fire resistance properties are important, e.g., aircraft equipment and structures.

State of Fire Behavior Models and their Application to Ecosystem and Smoke Management Issues: Special Session Summary Report

DTIC Science & Technology

2013-10-24

advance fire science: (1) fire behavior, (2) ecological effects of fire, (3) carbon accounting , (4) emissions characterization, and (5) fire plume...relates to smoke management. 3) Carbon accounting in forest management and prescribed fire programs (including tradeoffs such as prescribed burning...carbon accounting , 4) emissions characterization and 5) fire plume dispersion. 1) Fire behavior. Better characterization of wildland fire behavior is

Employment Opportunities

Science.gov Websites

Conservation Education Timber Management Wildland Fire & Aviation Burn Permits Firewise Alaska Brochure (PDF) Fire Management Plans Fire Assignments Annual Fire Statistics Fire Terms Glossary Incident Business Management Grants Become an Alaska Firewise Community Community Wildland Fire Protection Plans

Forest Stewardship Committee

Science.gov Websites

Conservation Education Timber Management Wildland Fire & Aviation Burn Permits Firewise Alaska Brochure (PDF) Fire Management Plans Fire Assignments Annual Fire Statistics Fire Terms Glossary Incident Business Management Grants Become an Alaska Firewise Community Community Wildland Fire Protection Plans

Potential changes in forest composition could reduce impacts of climate change on boreal wildfires.

PubMed

Terrier, Aurélie; Girardin, Martin P; Périé, Catherine; Legendre, Pierre; Bergeron, Yves

2013-01-01

There is general consensus that wildfires in boreal forests will increase throughout this century in response to more severe and frequent drought conditions induced by climate change. However, prediction models generally assume that the vegetation component will remain static over the next few decades. As deciduous species are less flammable than conifer species, it is reasonable to believe that a potential expansion of deciduous species in boreal forests, either occurring naturally or through landscape management, could offset some of the impacts of climate change on the occurrence of boreal wildfires. The objective of this study was to determine the potential of this offsetting effect through a simulation experiment conducted in eastern boreal North America. Predictions of future fire activity were made using multivariate adaptive regression splines (MARS) with fire behavior indices and ecological niche models as predictor variables so as to take into account the effects of changing climate and tree distribution on fire activity. A regional climate model (RCM) was used for predictions of future fire risk conditions. The experiment was conducted under two tree dispersal scenarios: the status quo scenario, in which the distribution of forest types does not differ from the present one, and the unlimited dispersal scenario, which allows forest types to expand their range to fully occupy their climatic niche. Our results show that future warming will create climate conditions that are more prone to fire occurrence. However, unlimited dispersal of southern restricted deciduous species could reduce the impact of climate change on future fire occurrence. Hence, the use of deciduous species could be a good option for an efficient strategic fire mitigation strategy aimed at reducing fire Propagation in coniferous landscapes and increasing public safety in remote populated areas of eastern boreal Canada under climate change.

Alaska Community Forest Council

Science.gov Websites

Conservation Education Timber Management Wildland Fire & Aviation Burn Permits Firewise Alaska Brochure (PDF) Fire Management Plans Fire Assignments Annual Fire Statistics Fire Terms Glossary Incident Business Management Grants Become an Alaska Firewise Community Community Wildland Fire Protection Plans

Firewood on Alaska State Lands

Science.gov Websites

Conservation Education Timber Management Wildland Fire & Aviation Burn Permits Firewise Alaska Brochure (PDF) Fire Management Plans Fire Assignments Annual Fire Statistics Fire Terms Glossary Incident Business Management Grants Become an Alaska Firewise Community Community Wildland Fire Protection Plans

Using climate information for fuels management

USGS Publications Warehouse

Kolden, Crystal A.; Brown, Timothy J.

2008-01-01

Climate has come to the forefront of wildfire discussions in recent years as research contributes to the general understanding of how climate influences fuels availability to burn, the occurrence of severe fire weather conditions and other wildfire parameters. This understanding has crossed over into wildfire management applications through the creation of tools like climate forecasts for wildfire and drought indices, which are now widely used in wildfire suppression and mitigation planning. The overall question is how can climate information help fire managers meet management objectives? Climate underlies weather. For example, a number of days could be generally wet, but that may occur in the context of a two-year overall drought. Knowing the baseline climate is not only critical to preventing escaped prescribed fires, but also how it may affect fire behavior, fire effects and whether or not fire managers will meet their fuels management objectives. Thus, for fire managers to use prescribed and WFU fire safely and effectively, and to minimize the number of escaped fires and conversions to suppression, they need to understand how current climate conditions will impact the use of fire. One example is the need to use prescribed fire under set “burn windows”. Since meteorological conditions vary considerably from year to year for a given day, fire managers will be more successful in utilizing burn windows effectively if they understand those climate thresholds conducive to an increased number of safe burn windows, and are able to predict and take advantage of those burn windows. While climate and wildfire has been studied extensively, climate and fire use has not. The initial goal of this project was to assess how climate impacts prescribed fire use in a more general sense. After a preliminary informal survey in the spring of 2003, we determined that 1) there is insufficient data (less than 10 years) to conduct empirical correlative studies similar to those of the relationships between climate and wildfire (e.g., Swetnam and Betancourt 1990), and 2) prescribed fire policy has many regulations that potentially inhibited the use of climate information for decision-making. It was also determined that because fire use is a human decision, it would be more informative to ask fire managers themselves how climate impacts fire use through their decision-making processes, and whether or not they use climate information for prescribed fire. The first task for this project was to complete a regional survey of prescribed fire managers in California and Nevada. During the second phase of the project, additional prescribed fire managers were surveyed across the country. During the third year a second survey of WFU managers was completed. The goals of these inquiries were to determine: 1) If fire managers use climate information for fuels management; 2) The perspective fire managers have towards climate affecting fuels management; 3) Determine any obstacles that make it difficult to use climate information for fuels management; and 4) Determine climate information managers need to help them make better decisions for fire use.

Remote sensing of vegetation fires and its contribution to a fire management information system

Treesearch

Stephane P. Flasse; Simon N. Trigg; Pietro N. Ceccato; Anita H. Perryman; Andrew T. Hudak; Mark W. Thompson; Bruce H. Brockett; Moussa Drame; Tim Ntabeni; Philip E. Frost; Tobias Landmann; Johan L. le Roux

2004-01-01

In the last decade, research has proven that remote sensing can provide very useful support to fire managers. This chapter provides an overview of the types of information remote sensing can provide to the fire community. First, it considers fire management information needs in the context of a fire management information system. An introduction to remote sensing then...

Fire management in central America

Treesearch

Andrea L. Koonce; Armando González-Cabán

1992-01-01

Information on fire management operations in Central America is scant. To evaluate the known level of fire occurrence in seven countries in that area, fire management officers were asked to provide information on their fire control organizations and on any available fire statistics. The seven countries surveyed were Guatemala, Belize, Honduras, El Salvador, Nicaragua,...

Design of monocular head-mounted displays for increased indoor firefighting safety and efficiency

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Wilson, Joel; Steingart, Dan; Romero, Russell; Reynolds, Jessica; Mellers, Eric; Redfern, Andrew; Lim, Lloyd; Watts, William; Patton, Colin; Baker, Jessica; Wright, Paul

2005-05-01

Four monocular Head-Mounted Display (HMD) prototypes from the Fire Information and Rescue Equipment (FIRE) project at UC Berkeley are presented. The FIRE project aims to give firefighters a system of information technology tools for safer and more efficient firefighting in large buildings. The paper begins by describing the FIRE project and its use of a custom wireless sensor network (WSN) called SmokeNet for personnel tracking. The project aims to address urban/industrial firefighting procedures in need of improvement. Two "user-needs" studies with the Chicago and Berkeley Fire Departments are briefly presented. The FIRE project"s initial HMD prototype designs are then discussed with regard to feedback from the user-needs studies. These prototypes are evaluated in their potential costs and benefits to firefighters and found to need improvement. Next, some currently available commercial HMDs are reviewed and compared in their cost, performance, and potential for use by firefighters. Feedback from the Berkeley Fire Department user-needs study, in which the initial prototypes were demonstrated, is compiled into a concept selection matrix for the next prototypes. This matrix is used to evaluate a variety of HMDs, including some of the commercial units presented, and to select the best design options. Finally, the current prototypes of the two best design options are presented and discussed.

Integrating fire management analysis into land management planning

Treesearch

Thomas J. Mills

1983-01-01

The analysis of alternative fire management programs should be integrated into the land and resource management planning process, but a single fire management analysis model cannot meet all planning needs. Therefore, a set of simulation models that are analytically separate from integrated land management planning models are required. The design of four levels of fire...

75 FR 39852 - Emergency Planning and Community Right-to-Know Act; Guidance on Reporting Options for Sections...

Federal Register 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014

2010-07-13

... hazardous substances (EHSs) and to provide the public, local agencies, fire departments, and other emergency... submitted to the SERC, LEPC and the local fire department. The implementing regulations for sections 311 and... burden for SERCs, LEPCs and fire departments in the form of draft guidance in the preamble to the June 8...

Contribution of suppression difficulty and lessons learned in forecasting fire suppression operations productivity: A methodological approach

Treesearch

Francisco Rodríguez y Silva; Armando González-Cabán

2016-01-01

We propose an economic analysis using utility and productivity, and efficiency theories to provide fire managers a decision support tool to determine the most efficient fire management programs levels. By incorporating managers’ accumulated fire suppression experiences (capitalized experience) in the analysis we help fire managers...

Economic efficiency and risk character of fire management programs, Northern Rocky Mountains

Treesearch

Thomas J. Mills; Frederick W. Bratten

1988-01-01

Economic efficiency and risk have long been considered during the selection of fire management programs and the design of fire management polices. The risk considerations was largely subjective, however, and efficiency has only recently been calculated for selected portions of the fire management program. The highly stochastic behavior of the fire system and the high...

75 FR 50713 - Procedural Changes to the Fire Management Assistance Declaration Process

Federal Register 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014

2010-08-17

... FEMA-2010-0036] RIN-1660-AA72 Procedural Changes to the Fire Management Assistance Declaration Process... Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) is updating its Fire Management Assistance Grant Program regulations to reflect a change in the internal delegation of authority for fire management assistance...

Conference on the Development of Fire-Resistant Aircraft Passenger Seats

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Fewell, L. L.; Kourtides, D. A.; Rosser, R. W.; Parker, J. A.

1976-01-01

Papers are presented dealing with the development of aircraft seats with the minimum fire risk. Criteria examined include: flame spread, heat release, and smoke and/or toxic fumes. Materials and performance specifications of all seat material options are provided.

Simulation of the consequences of different fire regimes to support wildland fire use decisions

Treesearch

Carol Miller

2007-01-01

The strategy known as wildland fire use, in which lightning-ignited fires are allowed to burn, is rapidly gaining momentum in the fire management community. Managers need to know the consequences of an increase in area burned that might result from an increase in wildland fire use. One concern of land managers as they consider implementing wildland fire use is whether...

The Great Basin: Wildland Fire Management in the Year 2000

Treesearch

James B. Webb

1987-01-01

The future of wildland fire management depends on the course chosen by fire managers today. Our responsiveness to issues will determine how much we influence where we go. Economics in concert with a better appreciation of fire's role in ecosystem dynamics will significantly alter fire management as we know it today. Public subsidies of homeowners who refuse to...

Fire and aquatic ecosystems of the western USA: Current knowledge and key questions

USGS Publications Warehouse

Bisson, P.A.; Rieman, B.; Luce, C.; Hessburg, Paul F.; Lee, D.; Kershner, J.; Reeves, G.H.; Gresswell, Robert E.

2003-01-01

Understanding of the effects of wildland fire and fire management on aquatic and riparian ecosystems is an evolving field, with many questions still to be resolved. Limitations of current knowledge, and the certainty that fire management will continue, underscore the need to summarize available information. Integrating fire and fuels management with aquatic ecosystem conservation begins with recognizing that terrestrial and aquatic ecosystems are linked and dynamic, and that fire can play a critical role in maintaining aquatic ecological diversity. To protect aquatic ecosystems we argue that it will be important to: (1) accommodate fire-related and other ecological processes that maintain aquatic habitats and biodiversity, and not simply control fires or fuels; (2) prioritize projects according to risks and opportunities for fire control and the protection of aquatic ecosystems; and (3) develop new consistency in the management and regulatory process. Ultimately, all natural resource management is uncertain; the role of science is to apply experimental design and hypothesis testing to management applications that affect fire and aquatic ecosystems. Policy-makers and the public will benefit from an expanded appreciation of fire ecology that enables them to implement watershed management projects as experiments with hypothesized outcomes, adequate controls, and replication.

Forest-fire models

Treesearch

Haiganoush Preisler; Alan Ager

2013-01-01

For applied mathematicians forest fire models refer mainly to a non-linear dynamic system often used to simulate spread of fire. For forest managers forest fire models may pertain to any of the three phases of fire management: prefire planning (fire risk models), fire suppression (fire behavior models), and postfire evaluation (fire effects and economic models). In...

Burning, fire prevention and landscape productions among the Pemon, Gran Sabana, Venezuela: toward an intercultural approach to wildland fire management in Neotropical Savannas.

PubMed

Sletto, Bjørn; Rodriguez, Iokiñe

2013-01-30

Wildland fire management in savanna landscapes increasingly incorporates indigenous knowledge to pursue strategies of controlled, prescriptive burning to control fuel loads. However, such participatory approaches are fraught with challenges because of contrasting views on the role of fire and the practices of prescribed burning between indigenous and state fire managers. Also, indigenous and state systems of knowledge and meanings associated with fire are not monolithic but instead characterized by conflicts and inconsistencies, which require new, communicative strategies in order to develop successful, intercultural approaches to fire management. This paper is based on long-term research on indigenous Pemon social constructs, rules and regulations regarding fire use, and traditional system of prescribed burning in the Gran Sabana, Venezuela. The authors review factors that act as constraints against successful intercultural fire management in the Gran Sabana, including conflicting perspectives on fire use within state agencies and in indigenous communities, and propose strategies for research and communicative planning to guide future efforts for more participatory and effective fire management. Copyright © 2012 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

A comparison of geospatially modeled fire behavior and fire management utility of three data sources in the southeastern United States

Treesearch

LaWen T. Hollingsworth; Laurie L. Kurth; Bernard R. Parresol; Roger D. Ottmar; Susan J. Prichard

2012-01-01

Landscape-scale fire behavior analyses are important to inform decisions on resource management projects that meet land management objectives and protect values from adverse consequences of fire. Deterministic and probabilistic geospatial fire behavior analyses are conducted with various modeling systems including FARSITE, FlamMap, FSPro, and Large Fire Simulation...

The fire environment--innovations, management, and policy; conference proceedings

Treesearch

Bret W. Butler; Wayne Cook

2007-01-01

The International Association of Wildland Fire sponsored the second Fire Behavior and Fuels conference in Destin, Florida. The conference theme was "Fire Environment--Innovations, Management, and Policy." Over 450 attendees participated in presentations on the latest innovations in wildland fire management, examples of successful and maybe not so successful...

Prediction errors in wildland fire situation analyses.

Treesearch

Geoffrey H. Donovan; Peter Noordijk

2005-01-01

Wildfires consume budgets and put the heat on fire managers to justify and control suppression costs. To determine the appropriate suppression strategy, land managers must conduct a wildland fire situation analysis (WFSA) when:A wildland fire is expected to or does escape initial attack,A wildland fire managed for resource benefits...

Use of expert knowledge to develop fuel maps for wildland fire management [chapter 11

Treesearch

Robert E. Keane; Matt Reeves

2012-01-01

Fuel maps are becoming an essential tool in fire management because they describe, in a spatial context, the one factor that fire managers can control over many scales ­ surface and canopy fuel characteristics. Coarse-resolution fuel maps are useful in global, national, and regional fire danger assessments because they help fire managers effectively plan, allocate, and...

Valuing fire planning alternatives in forest restoration: using derived demand to integrate economics with ecological restoration.

PubMed

Rideout, Douglas B; Ziesler, Pamela S; Kernohan, Nicole J

2014-08-01

Assessing the value of fire planning alternatives is challenging because fire affects a wide array of ecosystem, market, and social values. Wildland fire management is increasingly used to address forest restoration while pragmatic approaches to assessing the value of fire management have yet to be developed. Earlier approaches to assessing the value of forest management relied on connecting site valuation with management variables. While sound, such analysis is too narrow to account for a broad range of ecosystem services. The metric fire regime condition class (FRCC) was developed from ecosystem management philosophy, but it is entirely biophysical. Its lack of economic information cripples its utility to support decision-making. We present a means of defining and assessing the deviation of a landscape from its desired fire management condition by re-framing the fire management problem as one of derived demand. This valued deviation establishes a performance metric for wildland fire management. Using a case study, we display the deviation across a landscape and sum the deviations to produce a summary metric. This summary metric is used to assess the value of alternative fire management strategies on improving the fire management condition toward its desired state. It enables us to identify which sites are most valuable to restore, even when they are in the same fire regime condition class. The case study site exemplifies how a wide range of disparate values, such as watershed, wildlife, property and timber, can be incorporated into a single landscape assessment. The analysis presented here leverages previous research on environmental capital value and non-market valuation by integrating ecosystem management, restoration, and microeconomics. Copyright © 2014 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Defining fire environment zones in the boreal forests of northeastern China.

PubMed

Wu, Zhiwei; He, Hong S; Yang, Jian; Liang, Yu

2015-06-15

Fire activity in boreal forests will substantially increase with prolonged growing seasons under a warming climate. This trend poses challenges to managing fires in boreal forest landscapes. A fire environment zone map offers a basis for evaluating these fire-related problems and designing more effective fire management plans to improve the allocation of management resources across a landscape. Toward that goal, we identified three fire environment zones across boreal forest landscapes in northeastern China using analytical methods to identify spatial clustering of the environmental variables of climate, vegetation, topography, and human activity. The three fire environment zones were found to be in strong agreement with the spatial distributions of the historical fire data (occurrence, size, and frequency) for 1966-2005. This paper discusses how the resulting fire environment zone map can be used to guide forest fire management and fire regime prediction. Copyright © 2015 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Assessing the Role and Impact of Geospatial Data for Wildland Fire Management Decisions

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Klein, E. A.; Lev, S. M.

2016-12-01

The 2015 Wildland and Fire Science and Technology Task Force Final Report, produced by the National Science and Technology Council, Committee on Environment, Natural Resources, and Sustainability, Subcommittee on Disaster Reduction, highlighted the increasing frequency of large wildfires and the growing demand for science to inform critical resource decisions to manage, mitigate, respond to, and recover from wildland fires. Federal spending on fire suppression from 2005-2015 has more than doubled despite policy changes that prioritize the mitigation of fire risks through the use of fuel treatments, prescribed fire, and management of naturally occurring wildfires to protect life and property. Fire suppression policies over the last century have created forests primed for severe fire, and in the face of a changing climate, the benefits of re-introducing fire into once fire-resilient ecosystems are clear. There are a range of complex factors and regional variation associated with wildland fire risk that complicate our understanding and effective management of this hazard. Data derived from Earth-observing (EO) systems and networks are a crucial input for managers when making decisions about fire suppression and fuel management. EO data can also be used to develop pre- and post-fire metrics that can aid in the evaluating the effectiveness of wildland fire management decisions. A value-tree method for mapping the role of EO systems and networks in delivering societal benefit through key Federal objectives related to wildland fire management will be presented. The value-tree methodology utilizes input from subject matter experts to assess the availability and usability of data and data products and to evaluate the impact of individual EO data inputs for achieving wildland fire management objectives. The results provide a qualitative assessment of the value of the data for the objectives described and identify critical gaps and continuity issues associated with improvements to and continuous delivery of societal benefit.

78 FR 14740 - Disaster Assistance; Fire Management Assistance Grant (FMAG) Program-Deadline Extensions and...

Federal Register 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014

2013-03-07

... [Docket ID FEMA-2013-0004] RIN 1660-AA78 Disaster Assistance; Fire Management Assistance Grant (FMAG..., DHS. ACTION: Proposed rule. SUMMARY: FEMA proposes to revise its Fire Management Assistance Grant...-2340, or (email) [email protected] . SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: I. Background The Fire Management...

75 FR 10308 - Fire Management Plan, Final Environmental Impact Statement, Record of Decision, Grand Canyon...

Federal Register 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014

2010-03-05

... DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR National Park Service Fire Management Plan, Final Environmental Impact... Statement for the Fire Management Plan, Grand Canyon National Park. SUMMARY: Pursuant to the National... the Record of Decision for the Fire Management Plan, Grand Canyon National Park, Arizona. On January...

Wildland Arson as Clandestine Resource Management: A Space-Time Permutation Analysis and Classification of Informal Fire Management Regimes in Georgia, USA

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Coughlan, Michael R.

2016-05-01

Forest managers are increasingly recognizing the value of disturbance-based land management techniques such as prescribed burning. Unauthorized, "arson" fires are common in the southeastern United States where a legacy of agrarian cultural heritage persists amidst an increasingly forest-dominated landscape. This paper reexamines unauthorized fire-setting in the state of Georgia, USA from a historical ecology perspective that aims to contribute to historically informed, disturbance-based land management. A space-time permutation analysis is employed to discriminate systematic, management-oriented unauthorized fires from more arbitrary or socially deviant fire-setting behaviors. This paper argues that statistically significant space-time clusters of unauthorized fire occurrence represent informal management regimes linked to the legacy of traditional land management practices. Recent scholarship has pointed out that traditional management has actively promoted sustainable resource use and, in some cases, enhanced biodiversity often through the use of fire. Despite broad-scale displacement of traditional management during the 20th century, informal management practices may locally circumvent more formal and regionally dominant management regimes. Space-time permutation analysis identified 29 statistically significant fire regimes for the state of Georgia. The identified regimes are classified by region and land cover type and their implications for historically informed disturbance-based resource management are discussed.

Wildland Arson as Clandestine Resource Management: A Space-Time Permutation Analysis and Classification of Informal Fire Management Regimes in Georgia, USA.

PubMed

Coughlan, Michael R

2016-05-01

Forest managers are increasingly recognizing the value of disturbance-based land management techniques such as prescribed burning. Unauthorized, "arson" fires are common in the southeastern United States where a legacy of agrarian cultural heritage persists amidst an increasingly forest-dominated landscape. This paper reexamines unauthorized fire-setting in the state of Georgia, USA from a historical ecology perspective that aims to contribute to historically informed, disturbance-based land management. A space-time permutation analysis is employed to discriminate systematic, management-oriented unauthorized fires from more arbitrary or socially deviant fire-setting behaviors. This paper argues that statistically significant space-time clusters of unauthorized fire occurrence represent informal management regimes linked to the legacy of traditional land management practices. Recent scholarship has pointed out that traditional management has actively promoted sustainable resource use and, in some cases, enhanced biodiversity often through the use of fire. Despite broad-scale displacement of traditional management during the 20th century, informal management practices may locally circumvent more formal and regionally dominant management regimes. Space-time permutation analysis identified 29 statistically significant fire regimes for the state of Georgia. The identified regimes are classified by region and land cover type and their implications for historically informed disturbance-based resource management are discussed.

BehavePlus fire modeling system: Past, present, and future

Treesearch

Patricia L. Andrews

2007-01-01

Use of mathematical fire models to predict fire behavior and fire effects plays an important supporting role in wildland fire management. When used in conjunction with personal fire experience and a basic understanding of the fire models, predictions can be successfully applied to a range of fire management activities including wildfire behavior prediction, prescribed...

FARSITE: a fire area simulator for fire managers

Treesearch

Mark A. Finney

1995-01-01

A fire growth model (FARSITE) has been developed for use on personal computers (PC’s). Because PC’s are commonly used by land and fire managers, this portable platform would be an accustomed means to bring fire growth modeling technology to management applications. The FARSITE model is intended for use in projecting the growth of prescribed natural fires for wilderness...

The Howling Prescribed Natural Fire - long-term effects on the modernization of planning and implementation of wildland fire management

Treesearch

Tom Zimmerman; Laurie Kurth; Mitchell Burgard

2011-01-01

Wildland fire management policy and practices have long been driven by the occurrence of significant events. The Howling Prescribed Natural Fire in Glacier National Park in 1994 is a prime example of a significant historical fire event that provided the impetus for program changes and modifications that modernized wildland fire management at the local, regional, and...

75 FR 40845 - Preventing Deaths and Injuries of Fire Fighters Using Risk Management Principles at Structure Fires

Federal Register 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014

2010-07-14

... NIOSH 141-A] Preventing Deaths and Injuries of Fire Fighters Using Risk Management Principles at Structure Fires AGENCY: National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) of the Centers for... publication entitled ``Preventing Deaths and Injuries of Fire Fighters Using Risk Management Principles at...

A comparison of effects from prescribed fires and wildfires managed for resource objectives in Sequoia and Kings Canyon National Parks

USGS Publications Warehouse

Nesmith, C.B.; Caprio, Anthony C.; Pfaff, Anne H.; McGinnis, Thomas W.; Keeley, Jon E.

2011-01-01

Current goals for prescription burning are focused on measures of fuel consumption and changes in forest density. These benchmarks, however, do not address the extent to which prescription burning meets perceived ecosystem needs of heterogeneity in burning, both for overstory trees and understory herbs and shrubs. There are still questions about how closely prescribed fires mimic these patterns compared to natural wildfires. This study compared burn patterns of prescribed fires and managed unplanned wildfires to understand how the differing burning regimes affect ecosystem properties. Measures of forest structure and fire severity were sampled in three recent prescribed fires and three wildfires managed for resource objectives in Sequoia and Kings Canyon National Parks. Fine scale patterns of fire severity and heterogeneity were compared between fire types using ground-based measures of fire effects on fuels and overstory and understory vegetation. Prescribed fires and wildfires managed for resource objectives displayed similar patterns of overstory and understory fire severity, heterogeneity, and seedling and sapling survival. Variation among plots within the same fire was always greater than between fire types. Prescribed fires can provide burned landscapes that approximate natural fires in many ways. It is recognized that constraints placed on when wildfires managed for resource objectives are allowed to burn freely may bias the range of conditions that might have been experienced under more natural conditions. Therefore they may not exactly mimic natural wildfires. Overall, the similarity in fire effects that we observed between prescribed fires and managed wildfires indicate that despite the restrictions that are often placed on prescribed fires, they appear to be creating post-fire conditions that approximate natural fires when assessed on a fine spatial scale.

Seasonal and local differences in leaf litter flammability of six Mediterranean tree species.

PubMed

Kauf, Zorica; Fangmeier, Andreas; Rosavec, Roman; Španjol, Željko

2015-03-01

One of the suggested management options for reducing fire danger is the selection of less flammable plant species. Nevertheless, vegetation flammability is both complex and dynamic, making identification of such species challenging. While large efforts have been made to connect plant traits to fire behavior, seasonal changes and within species variability of traits are often neglected. Currently, even the most sophisticated fire danger systems presume that intrinsic characteristics of leaf litter stay unchanged, and plant species flammability lists are often transferred from one area to another. In order to assess if these practices can be improved, we performed a study examining the relationship between morphological characteristics and flammability parameters of leaf litter, thereby taking into account seasonal and local variability. Litter from six Mediterranean tree species was sampled throughout the fire season from three different locations along a climate gradient. Samples were subjected to flammability testing involving an epiradiator operated at 400 °C surface temperature with 3 g sample weight. Specific leaf area, fuel moisture content, average area, and average mass of a single particle had significant influences on flammability parameters. Effects of sampling time and location were significant as well. Due to the standardized testing conditions, these effects could be attributed to changes in intrinsic characteristics of the material. As the aforementioned effects were inconsistent and species specific, these results may potentially limit the generalization of species flammability rankings. Further research is necessary in order to evaluate the importance of our findings for fire danger modeling.

What are the most fire-dangerous atmospheric circulations in the Eastern-Mediterranean? Analysis of the synoptic wildfire climatology.

PubMed

Paschalidou, A K; Kassomenos, P A

2016-01-01

Wildfire management is closely linked to robust forecasts of changes in wildfire risk related to meteorological conditions. This link can be bridged either through fire weather indices or through statistical techniques that directly relate atmospheric patterns to wildfire activity. In the present work the COST-733 classification schemes are applied in order to link wildfires in Greece with synoptic circulation patterns. The analysis reveals that the majority of wildfire events can be explained by a small number of specific synoptic circulations, hence reflecting the synoptic climatology of wildfires. All 8 classification schemes used, prove that the most fire-dangerous conditions in Greece are characterized by a combination of high atmospheric pressure systems located N to NW of Greece, coupled with lower pressures located over the very Eastern part of the Mediterranean, an atmospheric pressure pattern closely linked to the local Etesian winds over the Aegean Sea. During these events, the atmospheric pressure has been reported to be anomalously high, while anomalously low 500hPa geopotential heights and negative total water column anomalies were also observed. Among the various classification schemes used, the 2 Principal Component Analysis-based classifications, namely the PCT and the PXE, as well as the Leader Algorithm classification LND proved to be the best options, in terms of being capable to isolate the vast amount of fire events in a small number of classes with increased frequency of occurrence. It is estimated that these 3 schemes, in combination with medium-range to seasonal climate forecasts, could be used by wildfire risk managers to provide increased wildfire prediction accuracy. Copyright © 2015 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

A land management history for central Queensland, Australia as determined from land-holder questionnaire and aerial photography.

PubMed

Fensham, Roderick J; Fairfax, Russell J

2003-08-01

Features of the land management history over a 125,755 km(2) area of central Queensland, Australia were determined from a variety of sources. A random sample of 205 site locations provided the basis for determining trends in land use. Trends in vegetation clearing were determined using sequential aerial photography for the sample sites, revealing a steady rate averaging nearly 1% of the region per annum over 41 years. This measure of sustained clearing over a large region is higher than recently published clearing rates from South America. Land types have been selectively cleared with over 90% of the Acacia on clay land type having been cleared. A land-holder questionnaire pertaining to the random sites yielded a response rate of 71% and provided information on vegetation clearing, ploughing, tree killing (ring-barking or tree poisoning), and fire frequency, season and intensity. The land-holder responses were compared with independent data sources where possible and revealed no mis-information. However, land-holders may have been marginally less likely to respond if the sample area had been cleared, although this effect was not statistically significant. Ploughing and tree killing are variable depending on land type, but the former has affected about 40% of the Acacia on clay land type, effectively eliminating options for natural regrowth. The proportion of decade-site combinations that were reported as having no fires increased from 22% in the 1950s to an average of 42% for subsequent decades, although the reporting of more than one fire per decade has been relatively constant through the study period. The reporting of at least one fire per decade varies from 46% for the Acacia on sand land type to 77% for the Eucalypt on sand land type for decade-site combinations. Fires are more intense when associated with clearing than in uncleared vegetation, but the proportion of cool and hot fires is relatively constant between land types in uncleared vegetation. Nearly all fires reported were either in spring or summer and this seasonally restricted regime is probably at variance with Aboriginal fire regimes. This study describes the rapid transformation of central Queensland. This has yielded substantially increased agricultural production but may also result in a range of negative impacts and these are discussed.

Wildland fire management futures: insights from a foresight panel

Treesearch

Robert L. Olson; David N. Bengston; Leif A. DeVaney; Trevor A.C. Thompson

2015-01-01

Wildland fire management faces unprecedented challenges in the 21st century: the increasingly apparent effects of climate change, more people and structures in the wildland-urban interface, growing costs associated with wildfire management, and the rise of high-impact fires, to name a few. Given these significant and growing challenges, conventional fire management...

Risk in fire management decisionmaking: techniques and criteria

Treesearch

Gail Blatternberger; William F. Hyde; Thomas J. Mills

1984-01-01

In the past, decisionmaking in wildland fire management generally has not included a full consideration of the risk and uncertainty that is inherent in evaluating alternatives. Fire management policies in some Federal land management agencies now require risk evaluation. The model for estimating the economic efficiency of fire program alternatives is the minimization...

Wildland fire in ecosystems: effects of fire on flora

Treesearch

James K. Brown; Jane Kapler Smith

2000-01-01

VOLUME 2: This state-of-knowledge review about the effects of fire on flora and fuels can assist land managers with ecosystem and fire management planning and in their efforts to inform others about the ecological role of fire. Chapter topics include fire regime classification, autecological effects of fire, fire regime characteristics and postfire plant community...

Forest fire management to avoid unintended consequences: a case study of Portugal using system dynamics.

PubMed

Collins, Ross D; de Neufville, Richard; Claro, João; Oliveira, Tiago; Pacheco, Abílio P

2013-11-30

Forest fires are a serious management challenge in many regions, complicating the appropriate allocation to suppression and prevention efforts. Using a System Dynamics (SD) model, this paper explores how interactions between physical and political systems in forest fire management impact the effectiveness of different allocations. A core issue is that apparently sound management can have unintended consequences. An instinctive management response to periods of worsening fire severity is to increase fire suppression capacity, an approach with immediate appeal as it directly treats the symptom of devastating fires and appeases the public. However, the SD analysis indicates that a policy emphasizing suppression can degrade the long-run effectiveness of forest fire management. By crowding out efforts to preventative fuel removal, it exacerbates fuel loads and leads to greater fires, which further balloon suppression budgets. The business management literature refers to this problem as the firefighting trap, wherein focus on fixing problems diverts attention from preventing them, and thus leads to inferior outcomes. The paper illustrates these phenomena through a case study of Portugal, showing that a balanced approach to suppression and prevention efforts can mitigate the self-reinforcing consequences of this trap, and better manage long-term fire damages. These insights can help policymakers and fire managers better appreciate the interconnected systems in which their authorities reside and the dynamics that may undermine seemingly rational management decisions. Copyright © 2013 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Research Summary: Projecting Vegetation and Wildfire Response to Changing Climate and Fire Management in Interior Alaska

DTIC Science & Technology

2016-08-21

USER GUIDE Research Summary: Projecting Vegetation and Wildfire Response to Changing Climate and Fire Management in Interior Alaska SERDP Project...Summary: Projecting Vegetation and Wildfire Response to Changing Climate and Fire Management in Interior Alaska 5b. GRANT NUMBER 5c. PROGRAM ELEMENT NUMBER...forecast landscape change in response to projected changes in climate , fire regime, and fire management. 15. SUBJECT TERMS 16. SECURITY CLASSIFICATION OF

A fire management simulation model using stochastic arrival times

Treesearch

Eric L. Smith

1987-01-01

Fire management simulation models are used to predict the impact of changes in the fire management program on fire outcomes. As with all models, the goal is to abstract reality without seriously distorting relationships between variables of interest. One important variable of fire organization performance is the length of time it takes to get suppression units to the...

Fire and aquatic ecosystems of the Western USA: current knowledge and key questions.

Treesearch

P.A. Bisson; B.E. Rieman; C. Luce; P.F. Hessburg; D.C. Lee; J.L. Kershner; G.H. Reeves; R.E. Gresswell

2003-01-01

Understanding of the effects of wildland fire and fire management on aquatic and riparian ecosystems is an evolving field, with many questions still to be resolved. Limitations of current knowledge, and the certainty that fire management will continue, underscore the need to summarize available information. Integrating fire and fuels management with aquatic ecosystem...

A suite of fire, fuels, and smoke management tools

Treesearch

Roger D. Ottmar; Clint S. Wright; Susan J. Prichard

2009-01-01

The Fire and Environmental Research Applications Team (FERA) of the Forest Service, Pacific Northwest Research Station, is an interdisciplinary team of scientists that conduct primary research on wildland fire and provide decision support for fire hazard and smoke management. The team is committed to providing easy-to-use tools that help managers in their fire and...

44 CFR 204.21 - Fire management assistance declaration criteria.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2010 CFR

2010-10-01

... Declaration Process § 204.21 Fire management assistance declaration criteria. (a) Determinations. We will... 44 Emergency Management and Assistance 1 2010-10-01 2010-10-01 false Fire management assistance declaration criteria. 204.21 Section 204.21 Emergency Management and Assistance FEDERAL EMERGENCY MANAGEMENT...

44 CFR 204.21 - Fire management assistance declaration criteria.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2014 CFR

2014-10-01

... Declaration Process § 204.21 Fire management assistance declaration criteria. (a) Determinations. We will... 44 Emergency Management and Assistance 1 2014-10-01 2014-10-01 false Fire management assistance declaration criteria. 204.21 Section 204.21 Emergency Management and Assistance FEDERAL EMERGENCY MANAGEMENT...

44 CFR 204.21 - Fire management assistance declaration criteria.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2011 CFR

2011-10-01

... Declaration Process § 204.21 Fire management assistance declaration criteria. (a) Determinations. We will... 44 Emergency Management and Assistance 1 2011-10-01 2011-10-01 false Fire management assistance declaration criteria. 204.21 Section 204.21 Emergency Management and Assistance FEDERAL EMERGENCY MANAGEMENT...

44 CFR 204.21 - Fire management assistance declaration criteria.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2012 CFR

2012-10-01

... Declaration Process § 204.21 Fire management assistance declaration criteria. (a) Determinations. We will... 44 Emergency Management and Assistance 1 2012-10-01 2011-10-01 true Fire management assistance declaration criteria. 204.21 Section 204.21 Emergency Management and Assistance FEDERAL EMERGENCY MANAGEMENT...

44 CFR 204.21 - Fire management assistance declaration criteria.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2013 CFR

2013-10-01

... Declaration Process § 204.21 Fire management assistance declaration criteria. (a) Determinations. We will... 44 Emergency Management and Assistance 1 2013-10-01 2013-10-01 false Fire management assistance declaration criteria. 204.21 Section 204.21 Emergency Management and Assistance FEDERAL EMERGENCY MANAGEMENT...

Adding Fuel to the Fire: The Impacts of Non-Native Grass Invasion on Fire Management at a Regional Scale

PubMed Central

Setterfield, Samantha A.; Rossiter-Rachor, Natalie A.; Douglas, Michael M.; Wainger, Lisa; Petty, Aaron M.; Barrow, Piers; Shepherd, Ian J.; Ferdinands, Keith B.

2013-01-01

Background Widespread invasion by non-native plants has resulted in substantial change in fire-fuel characteristics and fire-behaviour in many of the world's ecosystems, with a subsequent increase in the risk of fire damage to human life, property and the environment. Models used by fire management agencies to assess fire risk are dependent on accurate assessments of fuel characteristics but there is little evidence that they have been modified to reflect landscape-scale invasions. There is also a paucity of information documenting other changes in fire management activities that have occurred to mitigate changed fire regimes. This represents an important limitation in information for both fire and weed risk management. Methodology/Principal Findings We undertook an aerial survey to estimate changes to landscape fuel loads in northern Australia resulting from invasion by Andropogon gayanus (gamba grass). Fuel load within the most densely invaded area had increased from 6 to 10 t ha−1 in the past two decades. Assessment of the effect of calculating the Grassland Fire Danger Index (GFDI) for the 2008 and 2009 fire seasons demonstrated that an increase from 6 to 10 t ha−1 resulted in an increase from five to 38 days with fire risk in the ‘severe’ category in 2008 and from 11 to 67 days in 2009. The season of severe fire weather increased by six weeks. Our assessment of the effect of increased fuel load on fire management practices showed that fire management costs in the region have increased markedly (∼9 times) in the past decade due primarily to A. gayanus invasion. Conclusions/Significance This study demonstrated the high economic cost of mitigating fire impacts of an invasive grass. This study demonstrates the need to quantify direct and indirect invasion costs to assess the risk of further invasion and to appropriately fund fire and weed management strategies. PMID:23690917

Adding fuel to the fire: the impacts of non-native grass invasion on fire management at a regional scale.

PubMed

Setterfield, Samantha A; Rossiter-Rachor, Natalie A; Douglas, Michael M; Wainger, Lisa; Petty, Aaron M; Barrow, Piers; Shepherd, Ian J; Ferdinands, Keith B

2013-01-01

Widespread invasion by non-native plants has resulted in substantial change in fire-fuel characteristics and fire-behaviour in many of the world's ecosystems, with a subsequent increase in the risk of fire damage to human life, property and the environment. Models used by fire management agencies to assess fire risk are dependent on accurate assessments of fuel characteristics but there is little evidence that they have been modified to reflect landscape-scale invasions. There is also a paucity of information documenting other changes in fire management activities that have occurred to mitigate changed fire regimes. This represents an important limitation in information for both fire and weed risk management. We undertook an aerial survey to estimate changes to landscape fuel loads in northern Australia resulting from invasion by Andropogon gayanus (gamba grass). Fuel load within the most densely invaded area had increased from 6 to 10 t ha(-1) in the past two decades. Assessment of the effect of calculating the Grassland Fire Danger Index (GFDI) for the 2008 and 2009 fire seasons demonstrated that an increase from 6 to 10 t ha(-1) resulted in an increase from five to 38 days with fire risk in the 'severe' category in 2008 and from 11 to 67 days in 2009. The season of severe fire weather increased by six weeks. Our assessment of the effect of increased fuel load on fire management practices showed that fire management costs in the region have increased markedly (∼9 times) in the past decade due primarily to A. gayanus invasion. This study demonstrated the high economic cost of mitigating fire impacts of an invasive grass. This study demonstrates the need to quantify direct and indirect invasion costs to assess the risk of further invasion and to appropriately fund fire and weed management strategies.

The Influence of Proximity to a National Forest on Emotions and Fire-Management Decisions

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Vining, Joanne; Merrick, Melinda S.

2008-02-01

Because American national forests are managed for all citizens, it is important that researchers explore the differences and similarities between citizens living both near and far from publicly managed land. We surveyed residents living at various distances from nationally managed land to collect resident perceptions of different forest fire-management techniques, to determine public preferences for these techniques, and to examine the motivations behind these preferences. Participants both close to and far away from national forests tended to favor a multipronged approach to fire management by preferring the use of a combination of two or more fire-management techniques. There were no significant differences by proximity in participants’ self-rated emotions, types of fire-management techniques preferred, or the reasons and rationales for their preferred fire-management technique(s), indicating that the proximity variable may not be as significant as previously thought.

The influence of proximity to a national forest on emotions and fire-management decisions.

PubMed

Vining, Joanne; Merrick, Melinda S

2008-02-01

Because American national forests are managed for all citizens, it is important that researchers explore the differences and similarities between citizens living both near and far from publicly managed land. We surveyed residents living at various distances from nationally managed land to collect resident perceptions of different forest fire-management techniques, to determine public preferences for these techniques, and to examine the motivations behind these preferences. Participants both close to and far away from national forests tended to favor a multipronged approach to fire management by preferring the use of a combination of two or more fire-management techniques. There were no significant differences by proximity in participants' self-rated emotions, types of fire-management techniques preferred, or the reasons and rationales for their preferred fire-management technique(s), indicating that the proximity variable may not be as significant as previously thought.

2013 Annual Report: Fire Modeling Institute

Treesearch

Robin J. Innes; Faith Ann Heinsch; Kristine M. Lee

2014-01-01

The Fire Modeling Institute (FMI) of the U.S. Forest Service, Rocky Mountain Research Station (RMRS), is a national and international resource for fire managers. Located within the Fire, Fuel, and Smoke Science Program at the Missoula Fire Sciences Laboratory (Fire Lab) in Montana, FMI helps managers utilize fire and fuel science and technology developed throughout the...

Application of economic techniques to fire management - A status review and evaluation

Treesearch

Julie K. Gorte; Ross W. Gorte

1979-01-01

Discusses both the historic and contemporary influences of economic in formulating USDA, Forest Service fire management policy in allocating money for fire management and in appraising fire effects. Includes a partial listing of publications that deal with resource valuation.

Fire behavior, fuel treatments, and fire suppression on the Hayman Fire - Part 2: Description and interpretations of fire behavior

Treesearch

Mark A. Finney; Charles W. McHugh; Roberta Bartlette; Kelly Close; Paul Langowski

2003-01-01

This report summarizes the progress of the Hayman Fire, its behavior, and the influence of environmental conditions. Data were obtained from narratives from fire behavior analysts assigned to the fire management teams, discussions with fire management staff, meteorology from local weather stations and Bradshaw and others (2003), photographs, satellite imagery, and...

Equipping tomorrow's fire manager

Treesearch

Christopher A. Dicus

2008-01-01

Fire managers are challenged with an ever-increasing array of both responsibilities and critics. As in the past, fire managers must master the elements of fire behavior and ecology using the latest technologies. In addition, today’s managers must be equipped with the skills necessary to understand and liaise with a burgeoning group of vocal stakeholders while also...

Demography: a tool for understanding the wildland-urban interface fire problems

Treesearch

James B. Davis

1989-01-01

Fire managers across the nation are confronting the rapidly developing problem created by movement of people into wildland areas, increasing what has been termed the wildland-urban interface. The problem is very complex from the standpoint of fire planning and management. To plan and manage more effectively, fire managers should identify three types of interface areas...

Developing standardized strategic response categories for fire management units

Treesearch

Matthew P. Thompson; Crystal S. Stonesifer; Robert C. Seli; Marlena Hovorka

2013-01-01

Federal wildland fire policy requires that publicly owned lands with burnable vegetation have a fire management plan (FMP); this applies to the five primary Federal fire agencies (Bureau of Indian Affairs, Bureau of Land Management, National Park Service, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, and Forest Service). FMPs are based on land and resource management plans and are...

Historical and current fire management practices in two wilderness areas in the southwestern United States: The Saguaro Wilderness Area and the Gila-Aldo Leopold Wilderness Complex

Treesearch

Molly E. Hunter; Jose M. Iniguez; Calvin A. Farris

2014-01-01

Fire suppression has been the dominant fire management strategy in the West over the last century. However, managers of the Gila and Aldo Leopold Wilderness Complex in New Mexico and the Saguaro Wilderness Area in Arizona have allowed fire to play a more natural role for decades. This report summarizes the effects of these fire management practices on key resources,...

Interagency wilderness fire management

Treesearch

Jim Desmond

1995-01-01

Wilderness fire managers are often confronted with natural fire ignitions that start and/or burn near an adjoining agency’s wilderness area boundary. Management strategies for prescribed natural fires (PNF) are often developed using the adjoining agency’s wilderness boundary as the maximum allowable perimeter (control line) for the PNF. When this occurs, fire’s natural...

Szendro - type Integrated Vegetation Fire Management--Wildfire Management Program from Hungary

Treesearch

Ágoston Restás

2006-01-01

Szendrő Fire Department is located in the northeastern part of Hungary. The main task is to fight against wildfire and mitigate the impact of fire at the Aggtelek National Park -- which belongs to the UNESCO World Heritage list. Because of greater effectiveness, in 2004 the Fire Department started a project named Integrated Vegetation Fire Management (IVFM)....

Evaluating risks and benefits of wildland fire at landscape scales

Treesearch

Carol Miller; Peter B. Landres; Paul B. Alaback

2000-01-01

Fire suppression has resulted in severe management challenges, especially in the wildland-urban interface zone. Fire managers seek to reduce fuels and risks in the interface zone, while striving to return the natural role of fire to wildland ecosystems. Managers must balance the benefits of wildland fire on ecosystem health against the values that need to be protected...

If You Ax the Superintendent, Don't Chop Off Your Vital Options.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Zakariya, Sally Banks

1984-01-01

The employment contract is the key item in superintendent firing, and thus, it should include provisions for termination. Terminations can misfire if the board does not carry out contractual obligations. Eight points of advice are included for boards that are contemplating firing a superintendent. (MD)

44 CFR 204.24 - Determination on request for a fire management assistance declaration.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2010 CFR

2010-10-01

... 44 Emergency Management and Assistance 1 2010-10-01 2010-10-01 false Determination on request for a fire management assistance declaration. 204.24 Section 204.24 Emergency Management and Assistance FEDERAL EMERGENCY MANAGEMENT AGENCY, DEPARTMENT OF HOMELAND SECURITY DISASTER ASSISTANCE FIRE MANAGEMENT...

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

ENVIRONMENTAL AND WASTE MANAGEMENT SERVICES DIVISION

This Wildland Fire Management Plan (FMP) for Brookhaven National Lab (BNL) and the Upton Ecological and Research Reserve (Upton Reserve) is based on the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service (FWS) fire management planning procedures and was developed in cooperation with the Department of Energy (DOE) by Brookhaven Science Associates. As the Upton Reserve is contained within the BNL 5,265-acre site, it is logical that the plan applies to both the Upton Reserve and BNL. The Department of the Interior policy for managing wildland fires requires that all areas managed by FWS that can sustain fire must have an FMP thatmore » details fire management guidelines for operational procedures and specifies values to be protected or enhanced. Fire management plans provide guidance on fire preparedness, fire prevention, wildfire suppression, and the use of controlled, ''prescribed'' fires and mechanical means to control the amount of available combustible material. Values reflected in the BNL/Upton Reserve Wildland FMP include protecting life and public safety; Lab properties, structures and improvements; cultural and historical sites; neighboring private and public properties; and endangered and threatened species and species of concern. Other values supported by the plan include the enhancement of fire-dependent ecosystems at BNL and the Upton Reserve. This FMP will be reviewed periodically to ensure the fire program advances and evolves with the missions of FWS, BNL, and the Upton Reserve. This Fire Management Plan is a modified version of the Long Island National Wildlife Refuge Complex Fire plan (updated in 2000), which contains all FWS fire plan requirements and is presented in the format specified by the national template for fire management plans adopted under the National Fire Plan. The DOE is one of the signatory agencies on the National Fire Plan. FWS shall be, through an Interagency Agreement dated November 2000 (Appendix C), responsible for coordinating and implementing prescribed burns and fuel reduction projects in the Upton Reserve. Prescribed fire and fuel reduction in locations outside the Upton Reserve will be coordinated through the Natural Resource Management Program at BNL, and done in consultation with FWS. This FMP is to be used and implemented for the entire BNL site including the Upton Reserve and has been reviewed by FWS, The Nature Conservancy, New York State Department of Environmental Conservation Forest Rangers, and DOE, as well as appropriate BNL emergency services personnel.« less

Predicting Fire Season Severity in the Pacific Northwest

Treesearch

Paul Werth

2006-01-01

Projections of fire season severity that integrate historical weather and fire information can be used by fire managers when making decisions about allocating and prioritizing firefighting resources. They enable fire managers to anticipate fire activity and pre-position resources to maximize public and firefighter safety, reduce environmental impacts, and lower...

Communication and implementation of GIS data in fire management: a case study

Treesearch

Kenneth G. Boykin; Douglas I. Boykin; Rusty Stovall; Ryan Whitaker

2008-01-01

Remotely sensed data and Geographical Information Systems (GIS) can be an effective tool in fire management. For the inclusion of these tools, fire management and research personnel must be effective in communication regarding needs and limitations of the data and implementing that data at various scales. A number of personnel can be involved within fire management...

Wildland fire use: the dilemma of managing and restoring natural fire and fuels in United States wilderness

Treesearch

David J. Parsons; Peter B. Landres; Carol Miller

2003-01-01

The management of natural fire and fuels in wilderness areas of the United States presents a significant dilemma to federal land managers.Wilderness fire management requires balancing mandates to both preserve natural conditions and minimize the impacts of human activities.It also requires consideration of ecological and social values both within and outside of...

Studying fire mitigation strategies in multi-ownership landscapes: balancing the management of fire-dependent ecosystems and fire risk

Treesearch

Brian R. Sturtevant; Brian R. Miranda; Jian Yang; Hong S. He; Eric J. Gustafson; Robert M. Scheller

2009-01-01

Public forests are surrounded by land over which agency managers have no control, and whose owners expect the public forest to be a "good neighbor." Fire risk abatement on multi-owner landscapes containing flammable but fire-dependent ecosystems epitomizes the complexities of managing public lands. We report a case study that applies a landscape disturbance...

An empirical machine learning method for predicting potential fire control locations for pre-fire planning and operational fire management

Treesearch

Christopher D. O' Connor; David E. Calkin; Matthew P. Thompson

2017-01-01

During active fire incidents, decisions regarding where and how to safely and effectively deploy resources to meet management objectives are often made under rapidly evolving conditions, with limited time to assess management strategies or for development of backup plans if initial efforts prove unsuccessful. Under all but the most extreme fire weather conditions,...

Assessing the effects of fire disturbances on ecosystems: A scientific agenda for research and management

USGS Publications Warehouse

Schmoldt, D.L.; Peterson, D.L.; Keane, R.E.; Lenihan, J.M.; McKenzie, D.; Weise, D.R.; Sandberg, D.V.

1999-01-01

A team of fire scientists and resource managers convened 17-19 April 1996 in Seattle, Washington, to assess the effects of fire disturbance on ecosystems. Objectives of this workshop were to develop scientific recommendations for future fire research and management activities. These recommendations included a series of numerically ranked scientific and managerial questions and responses focusing on (1) links among fire effects, fuels, and climate; (2) fire as a large-scale disturbance; (3) fire-effects modeling structures; and (4) managerial concerns, applications, and decision support. At the present time, understanding of fire effects and the ability to extrapolate fire-effects knowledge to large spatial scales are limited, because most data have been collected at small spatial scales for specific applications. Although we clearly need more large-scale fire-effects data, it will be more expedient to concentrate efforts on improving and linking existing models that simulate fire effects in a georeferenced format while integrating empirical data as they become available. A significant component of this effort should be improved communication between modelers and managers to develop modeling tools to use in a planning context. Another component of this modeling effort should improve our ability to predict the interactions of fire and potential climatic change at very large spatial scales. The priority issues and approaches described here provide a template for fire science and fire management programs in the next decade and beyond.

Fire Management in the Inter Galatic Interface or 30 Years of Fire Management at Merritt Island National Wildlife Refuge/Kennedy Space Center, Florida

Treesearch

Frederic W. Adrian

2006-01-01

Prescribed burning is essential on Merritt Island National Wildlife Refuge. Not only is it needed to manage the volatile fuels, but also to manage the complex system of fire maintained habitats found here. Fire management on the Refuge presents unique challenges. In addition to the restraints to prescribed burning that are common to many prescribed burning programs,...

Wildland Fire Management Plan

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Schwager, K.

The Wildland Fire Management Plan (FMP) for Brookhaven National Lab (BNL) is written to comply with Department of Energy (DOE) Integrated Safety Management Policy; Federal Wildland Fire Management Policy and Program Review; and Wildland and Prescribed Fire Management Policy and Implementation Procedures Reference Guide. This current plan incorporates changes resulting from new policies on the national level as well as significant changes to available resources and other emerging issues, and replaces BNL's Wildland FMP dated 2014.

76 FR 35467 - Deer and Vegetation Management Plan/Environmental Impact Statement, Fire Island National Seashore...

Federal Register 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014

2011-06-17

... Plan/Environmental Impact Statement, Fire Island National Seashore, New York AGENCY: National Park... for a Deer and Vegetation Management Plan, Fire Island National Seashore, New York. SUMMARY: Pursuant... preparing an Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) for a Deer and Vegetation Management Plan at Fire Island...

Research and management issues in large-scale fire modeling

Treesearch

David L. Peterson; Daniel L. Schmoldt

2000-01-01

In 1996, a team of North American fire scientists and resource managers convened to assess the effects of fire disturbance on ecosystems and to develop scientific recommendations for future fire research and management activities. These recommendations - elicited with the Analytic Hierarchy Process - include numerically ranked scientific and managerial questions and...

75 FR 68811 - Recovery Publication, P-395, Fire Management Assistance Grant Program (FMAGP) Guide

Federal Register 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014

2010-11-09

... DEPARTMENT OF HOMELAND SECURITY Federal Emergency Management Agency [Docket ID FEMA-2010-0066] Recovery Publication, P-395, Fire Management Assistance Grant Program (FMAGP) Guide AGENCY: Federal... Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) is accepting comments on the Fire Management Assistance Grant Program...

Factors affecting collective action for forest fire management: a comparative study of community forest user groups in central Siwalik, Nepal.

PubMed

Sapkota, Lok Mani; Shrestha, Rajendra Prasad; Jourdain, Damien; Shivakoti, Ganesh P

2015-01-01

The attributes of social ecological systems affect the management of commons. Strengthening and enhancing social capital and the enforcement of rules and sanctions aid in the collective action of communities in forest fire management. Using a set of variables drawn from previous studies on the management of commons, we conducted a study across 20 community forest user groups in Central Siwalik, Nepal, by dividing the groups into two categories based on the type and level of their forest fire management response. Our study shows that the collective action in forest fire management is consistent with the collective actions in other community development activities. However, the effectiveness of collective action is primarily dependent on the complex interaction of various variables. We found that strong social capital, strong enforcement of rules and sanctions, and users' participation in crafting the rules were the major variables that strengthen collective action in forest fire management. Conversely, users' dependency on a daily wage and a lack of transparency were the variables that weaken collective action. In fire-prone forests such as the Siwalik, our results indicate that strengthening social capital and forming and enforcing forest fire management rules are important variables that encourage people to engage in collective action in fire management.

Fire danger and fire behavior modeling systems in Australia, Europe, and North America

Treesearch

Francis M. Fujioka; A. Malcolm Gill; Domingos X. Viegas; B. Mike Wotton

2009-01-01

Wildland fire occurrence and behavior are complex phenomena involving essentially fuel (vegetation), topography, and weather. Fire managers around the world use a variety of systems to track and predict fire danger and fire behavior, at spatial scales that span from local to global extents, and temporal scales ranging from minutes to seasons. The fire management...

Avian community responses to post-fire forest structure: implications for fire management in mixed conifer forests

Treesearch

Angela White; Patricia Manley; Gina Tarbill; T. W. Richardson; R. E. Russell; H. D. Safford; S. Z. Dobrowski

2016-01-01

Fire is a natural process and the dominant disturbance shaping plant and animal communities in many coniferous forests of the western US. Given that fire size and severity are predicted to increase in the future, it has become increasingly important to understand how wildlife responds to fire and post-fire management. The Angora Fire...

Linking 3D spatial models of fuels and fire: Effects of spatial heterogeneity on fire behavior

Treesearch

Russell A. Parsons; William E. Mell; Peter McCauley

2011-01-01

Crownfire endangers fire fighters and can have severe ecological consequences. Prediction of fire behavior in tree crowns is essential to informed decisions in fire management. Current methods used in fire management do not address variability in crown fuels. New mechanistic physics-based fire models address convective heat transfer with computational fluid dynamics (...

A review of the relationships between drought and forest fire in the United States

USGS Publications Warehouse

Littell, Jeremy; Peterson, David L.; Riley, Karin L.; Yongquiang Liu,; Luce, Charles H.

2016-01-01

The historical and pre-settlement relationships between drought and wildfire are well documented in North America, with forest fire occurrence and area clearly increasing in response to drought. There is also evidence that drought interacts with other controls (forest productivity, topography, fire weather, management activities) to affect fire intensity, severity, extent, and frequency. Fire regime characteristics arise across many individual fires at a variety of spatial and temporal scales, so both weather and climate—including short- and long-term droughts—are important and influence several, but not all, aspects of fire regimes. We review relationships between drought and fire regimes in United States forests, fire-related drought metrics and expected changes in fire risk, and implications for fire management under climate change. Collectively, this points to a conceptual model of fire on real landscapes: fire regimes, and how they change through time, are products of fuels and how other factors affect their availability (abundance, arrangement, continuity) and flammability (moisture, chemical composition). Climate, management, and land use all affect availability, flammability, and probability of ignition differently in different parts of North America. From a fire ecology perspective, the concept of drought varies with scale, application, scientific or management objective, and ecosystem.

The Wildland Fire Decision Support System: Integrating science, technology, and fire management

Treesearch

Morgan Pence; Tom Zimmerman

2011-01-01

Federal agency policy requires documentation and analysis of all wildland fire response decisions. In the past, planning and decision documentation for fires were completed using multiple unconnected processes, yielding many limitations. In response, interagency fire management executives chartered the development of the Wildland Fire Decision Support System (WFDSS)....

Fire behavior modeling-a decision tool

Treesearch

Jack Cohen; Bill Bradshaw

1986-01-01

The usefulness of an analytical model as a fire management decision tool is determined by the correspondence of its descriptive capability to the specific decision context. Fire managers must determine the usefulness of fire models as a decision tool when applied to varied situations. Because the wildland fire phenomenon is complex, analytical fire spread models will...

Forest fires in the insular Caribbean

Treesearch

A.M.J. Robbins; C.M. Eckelmann; M. Quinones

2008-01-01

This paper presents a summary of the forest fire reports in the insular Caribbean derived from both management reports and an analysis of publicly available Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectrodiometer (MODIS) satellite active fire products from the region. A vast difference between the amount of fires reported by land managers and fire points in the MODIS Fire...

Predicting fire severity using surface fuels and moisture

Treesearch

Pamela G. Sikkink; Robert E. Keane

2012-01-01

Fire severity classifications have been used extensively in fire management over the last 30 years to describe specific environmental or ecological impacts of fire on fuels, vegetation, wildlife, and soils in recently burned areas. New fire severity classifications need to be more objective, predictive, and ultimately more useful to fire management and planning. Our...

Fire Behavior System for the Full Range of Fire Management Needs

Treesearch

Richard C. Rothermel; Patricia L. Andrews

1987-01-01

An "integrated fire behavior/fire danger rating system" should be "seamless" to avoid requiring choices among alternate, independent systems. Descriptions of fuel moisture, fuels, and fire behavior should be standardized, permitting information to flow easily through the spectrum of fire management needs. The level of resolution depends on the...

Ecological fire use for ecological fire management: Managing large wildfires by design

Treesearch

Timothy Ingalsbee

2015-01-01

Past fire exclusion policies and fire suppression actions have led to a historic "fire deficit" on public wildlands. These sociocultural actions have led to unprecedented environmental changes that have created conditions conducive to more frequent large-scale wildfires. Politicians, the newsmedia, and agency officials portray large wildland fires as...

Management impacts on fire occurrence: A comparison of fire regimes of African and South American tropical savannas in different protected areas.

PubMed

Alvarado, Swanni T; Silva, Thiago Sanna Freire; Archibald, Sally

2018-07-15

Humans can alter fire dynamics in grassland systems by changing fire frequency, fire seasonality and fuel conditions. These changes have effects on vegetation structure and recovery, species composition, and ecosystem function. Understanding how human management can affect fire regimes is vital to detect potential changes in the resilience of plant communities, and to predict vegetation responses to human interventions. We evaluated the fire regimes of two recently protected areas in Madagascar (Ibity and Itremo NPA) and one in Brazil (Serra do Cipó NP) before and after livestock exclusion and fire suppression policies. We compare the pre- and post-management fire history in these areas and analyze differences in terms of total annual burned area, density of ignitions, burn scar size distribution, fire return period and seasonal fire distribution. More than 90% of total park areas were burned at least once during the studied period, for all parks. We observed a significant reduction in the number of ignitions for Ibity NPA and Serra do Cipó NP after livestock exclusion and active fire suppression, but no significant change in total burned area for each protected area. We also observed a seasonal shift in burning, with fires happening later in the fire season (October-November) after management intervention. However, the protected areas in Madagascar had shorter fire return intervals (3.23 and 1.82 years) than those in Brazil (7.91 years). Our results demonstrate that fire exclusion is unattainable, and probably unwarranted in tropical grassland conservation areas, but show how human intervention in fire and vegetation patterns can alter various aspects of the fire regimes. This information can help with formulating realistic and effective fire management policies in these valuable conservation areas. Copyright © 2018 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Third U.S. Geological Survey Wildland Fire-Science Workshop : Denver, Colorado, November 12-15, 2002

USGS Publications Warehouse

Livingston, Russell K.

2004-01-01

Executive Summary -- The historically significant wildland fire events that occurred in the United States during 2000 and 2002, together with the associated recognition of the need for a different national policy of forest management, has led to an increased awareness of the need for cooperative effort among all Federal agencies in planning for and managing the risks and consequences of wildland fire. The expertise and capabilities of the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) are significant resources in this regard, and the agency is becoming increasingly involved in fire-science activities in support of the various land-management agencies that are dealing directly with this issue. The First USGS Wildland Fire Workshop was held in Sioux Falls, South Dakota, in 1997 and helped to establish the direction of USGS in sharing its expertise with the fire-management agencies. The Second USGS Wildland Fire Workshop was held in Los Alamos, New Mexico, in 2000 and brought together all the agencies involved in the management of wildland fires in order to determine their needs, to demonstrate USGS capabilities to meet those needs, and to establish methods for the USGS to distribute data and tools useful in fire management. It enhanced the relationships developed during the 1997 workshop and helped to define USGS' role in the fire-management community. The Third USGS Wildland Fire-Science Workshop, held in Denver, Colorado, November 12?15, 2002, was an opportunity for exchange of information on recent progress in the area of fire science and to determine the gaps in fire-science research that could be addressed by the USGS. In addition to more than 90 USGS scientists engaged in fire-related research and managers of organizational units involved in some aspect of wildland fire activities, the workshop was attended by about 30 representatives of 11 other Federal agencies. There also were a number of attendees affiliated with several universities, private companies, and State and local agencies. The 4-day meeting consisted of a pre-workshop field trip to the Hayman Fire area, several keynote presentations, five panel discussions, presentation and 'breakout' discussion of four 'white paper' topics, and a poster session with more than 30 presentations.

Integrating fire behavior models and geospatial analysis for wildland fire risk assessment and fuel management planning

Treesearch

Alan A. Ager; Nicole M. Vaillant; Mark A. Finney

2011-01-01

Wildland fire risk assessment and fuel management planning on federal lands in the US are complex problems that require state-of-the-art fire behavior modeling and intensive geospatial analyses. Fuel management is a particularly complicated process where the benefits and potential impacts of fuel treatments must be demonstrated in the context of land management goals...

44 CFR 204.24 - Determination on request for a fire management assistance declaration.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2014 CFR

2014-10-01

... ASSISTANCE GRANT PROGRAM Declaration Process § 204.24 Determination on request for a fire management... 44 Emergency Management and Assistance 1 2014-10-01 2014-10-01 false Determination on request for a fire management assistance declaration. 204.24 Section 204.24 Emergency Management and Assistance...

44 CFR 204.26 - Appeal of fire management assistance declaration denial.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2011 CFR

2011-10-01

... PROGRAM Declaration Process § 204.26 Appeal of fire management assistance declaration denial. (a... 44 Emergency Management and Assistance 1 2011-10-01 2011-10-01 false Appeal of fire management assistance declaration denial. 204.26 Section 204.26 Emergency Management and Assistance FEDERAL EMERGENCY...

44 CFR 204.24 - Determination on request for a fire management assistance declaration.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2012 CFR

2012-10-01

... ASSISTANCE GRANT PROGRAM Declaration Process § 204.24 Determination on request for a fire management... 44 Emergency Management and Assistance 1 2012-10-01 2011-10-01 true Determination on request for a fire management assistance declaration. 204.24 Section 204.24 Emergency Management and Assistance...

44 CFR 204.26 - Appeal of fire management assistance declaration denial.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2014 CFR

2014-10-01

... PROGRAM Declaration Process § 204.26 Appeal of fire management assistance declaration denial. (a... 44 Emergency Management and Assistance 1 2014-10-01 2014-10-01 false Appeal of fire management assistance declaration denial. 204.26 Section 204.26 Emergency Management and Assistance FEDERAL EMERGENCY...

44 CFR 204.26 - Appeal of fire management assistance declaration denial.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2010 CFR

2010-10-01

... PROGRAM Declaration Process § 204.26 Appeal of fire management assistance declaration denial. (a... 44 Emergency Management and Assistance 1 2010-10-01 2010-10-01 false Appeal of fire management assistance declaration denial. 204.26 Section 204.26 Emergency Management and Assistance FEDERAL EMERGENCY...

44 CFR 204.26 - Appeal of fire management assistance declaration denial.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2012 CFR

2012-10-01

... PROGRAM Declaration Process § 204.26 Appeal of fire management assistance declaration denial. (a... 44 Emergency Management and Assistance 1 2012-10-01 2011-10-01 true Appeal of fire management assistance declaration denial. 204.26 Section 204.26 Emergency Management and Assistance FEDERAL EMERGENCY...

44 CFR 204.24 - Determination on request for a fire management assistance declaration.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2013 CFR

2013-10-01

... ASSISTANCE GRANT PROGRAM Declaration Process § 204.24 Determination on request for a fire management... 44 Emergency Management and Assistance 1 2013-10-01 2013-10-01 false Determination on request for a fire management assistance declaration. 204.24 Section 204.24 Emergency Management and Assistance...

44 CFR 204.26 - Appeal of fire management assistance declaration denial.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2013 CFR

2013-10-01

... PROGRAM Declaration Process § 204.26 Appeal of fire management assistance declaration denial. (a... 44 Emergency Management and Assistance 1 2013-10-01 2013-10-01 false Appeal of fire management assistance declaration denial. 204.26 Section 204.26 Emergency Management and Assistance FEDERAL EMERGENCY...

44 CFR 204.24 - Determination on request for a fire management assistance declaration.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2011 CFR

2011-10-01

... ASSISTANCE GRANT PROGRAM Declaration Process § 204.24 Determination on request for a fire management... 44 Emergency Management and Assistance 1 2011-10-01 2011-10-01 false Determination on request for a fire management assistance declaration. 204.24 Section 204.24 Emergency Management and Assistance...

Control of fire blight (Erwinia amylovora) on apple trees with trunk-injected plant resistance inducers and antibiotics and assessment of induction of pathogenesis-related protein genes

PubMed Central

Aćimović, Srđan G.; Zeng, Quan; McGhee, Gayle C.; Sundin, George W.; Wise, John C.

2015-01-01

Management of fire blight is complicated by limitations on use of antibiotics in agriculture, antibiotic resistance development, and limited efficacy of alternative control agents. Even though successful in control, preventive antibiotic sprays also affect non-target bacteria, aiding the selection for resistance which could ultimately be transferred to the pathogen Erwinia amylovora. Trunk injection is a target-precise pesticide delivery method that utilizes tree xylem to distribute injected compounds. Trunk injection could decrease antibiotic usage in the open environment and increase the effectiveness of compounds in fire blight control. In field experiments, after 1–2 apple tree injections of either streptomycin, potassium phosphites (PH), or acibenzolar-S-methyl (ASM), significant reduction of blossom and shoot blight symptoms was observed compared to water injected control trees. Overall disease suppression with streptomycin was lower than typically observed following spray applications to flowers. Trunk injection of oxytetracycline resulted in excellent control of shoot blight severity, suggesting that injection is a superior delivery method for this antibiotic. Injection of both ASM and PH resulted in the significant induction of PR-1, PR-2, and PR-8 protein genes in apple leaves indicating induction of systemic acquired resistance (SAR) under field conditions. The time separating SAR induction and fire blight symptom suppression indicated that various defensive compounds within the SAR response were synthesized and accumulated in the canopy. ASM and PH suppressed fire blight even after cessation of induced gene expression. With the development of injectable formulations and optimization of doses and injection schedules, the injection of protective compounds could serve as an effective option for fire blight control. PMID:25717330

Wilderness fire management planning guide

Treesearch

William C. Fischer

1984-01-01

Outlines a procedure for fire management planning for parks; wilderness areas; and other wild, natural, or essentially undeveloped areas. Discusses background and philosophy of wilderness fire management, planning concepts, planning elements, and planning methods.

Community owned solutions for fire management in tropical ecosystems: case studies from Indigenous communities of South America

PubMed Central

2016-01-01

Fire plays an increasingly significant role in tropical forest and savanna ecosystems, contributing to greenhouse gas emissions and impacting on biodiversity. Emerging research shows the potential role of Indigenous land-use practices for controlling deforestation and reducing CO2 emissions. Analysis of satellite imagery suggests that Indigenous lands have the lowest incidence of wildfires, significantly contributing to maintaining carbon stocks and enhancing biodiversity. Yet acknowledgement of Indigenous peoples' role in fire management and control is limited, and in many cases dismissed, especially in policy-making circles. In this paper, we review existing data on Indigenous fire management and impact, focusing on examples from tropical forest and savanna ecosystems in Venezuela, Brazil and Guyana. We highlight how the complexities of community owned solutions for fire management are being lost as well as undermined by continued efforts on fire suppression and firefighting, and emerging approaches to incorporate Indigenous fire management into market- and incentive-based mechanisms for climate change mitigation. Our aim is to build a case for supporting Indigenous fire practices within all scales of decision-making by strengthening Indigenous knowledge systems to ensure more effective and sustainable fire management. This article is part of the themed issue ‘The interaction of fire and mankind’. PMID:27216507

Community owned solutions for fire management in tropical ecosystems: case studies from Indigenous communities of South America.

PubMed

Mistry, Jayalaxshmi; Bilbao, Bibiana A; Berardi, Andrea

2016-06-05

Fire plays an increasingly significant role in tropical forest and savanna ecosystems, contributing to greenhouse gas emissions and impacting on biodiversity. Emerging research shows the potential role of Indigenous land-use practices for controlling deforestation and reducing CO2 emissions. Analysis of satellite imagery suggests that Indigenous lands have the lowest incidence of wildfires, significantly contributing to maintaining carbon stocks and enhancing biodiversity. Yet acknowledgement of Indigenous peoples' role in fire management and control is limited, and in many cases dismissed, especially in policy-making circles. In this paper, we review existing data on Indigenous fire management and impact, focusing on examples from tropical forest and savanna ecosystems in Venezuela, Brazil and Guyana. We highlight how the complexities of community owned solutions for fire management are being lost as well as undermined by continued efforts on fire suppression and firefighting, and emerging approaches to incorporate Indigenous fire management into market- and incentive-based mechanisms for climate change mitigation. Our aim is to build a case for supporting Indigenous fire practices within all scales of decision-making by strengthening Indigenous knowledge systems to ensure more effective and sustainable fire management.This article is part of the themed issue 'The interaction of fire and mankind'. © 2016 The Author(s).

Does the Establishment of Sustainable Use Reserves Affect Fire Management in the Humid Tropics?

PubMed Central

Carmenta, Rachel; Blackburn, George Alan; Davies, Gemma; de Sassi, Claudio; Lima, André; Parry, Luke; Tych, Wlodek; Barlow, Jos

2016-01-01

Tropical forests are experiencing a growing fire problem driven by climatic change, agricultural expansion and forest degradation. Protected areas are an important feature of forest protection strategies, and sustainable use reserves (SURs) may be reducing fire prevalence since they promote sustainable livelihoods and resource management. However, the use of fire in swidden agriculture, and other forms of land management, may be undermining the effectiveness of SURs in meeting their conservation and sustainable development goals. We analyse MODIS derived hot pixels, TRMM rainfall data, Terra-Class land cover data, socio-ecological data from the Brazilian agro-census and the spatial extent of rivers and roads to evaluate whether the designation of SURs reduces fire occurrence in the Brazilian Amazon. Specifically, we ask (1) a. Is SUR location (i.e., de facto) or (1) b. designation (i.e. de jure) the driving factor affecting performance in terms of the spatial density of fires?, and (2), Does SUR creation affect fire management (i.e., the timing of fires in relation to previous rainfall)? We demonstrate that pre-protection baselines are crucial for understanding reserve performance. We show that reserve creation had no discernible impact on fire density, and that fires were less prevalent in SURs due to their characteristics of sparser human settlement and remoteness, rather than their status de jure. In addition, the timing of fires in relation to rainfall, indicative of local fire management and adherence to environmental law, did not improve following SUR creation. These results challenge the notion that SURs promote environmentally sensitive fire-management, and suggest that SURs in Amazonia will require special attention if they are to curtail future accidental wildfires, particularly as plans to expand the road infrastructure throughout the region are realised. Greater investment to support improved fire management by farmers living in reserves, in addition to other fire users, will be necessary to help ameliorate these threats. PMID:26886207

Does the Establishment of Sustainable Use Reserves Affect Fire Management in the Humid Tropics?

PubMed

Carmenta, Rachel; Blackburn, George Alan; Davies, Gemma; de Sassi, Claudio; Lima, André; Parry, Luke; Tych, Wlodek; Barlow, Jos

2016-01-01

Tropical forests are experiencing a growing fire problem driven by climatic change, agricultural expansion and forest degradation. Protected areas are an important feature of forest protection strategies, and sustainable use reserves (SURs) may be reducing fire prevalence since they promote sustainable livelihoods and resource management. However, the use of fire in swidden agriculture, and other forms of land management, may be undermining the effectiveness of SURs in meeting their conservation and sustainable development goals. We analyse MODIS derived hot pixels, TRMM rainfall data, Terra-Class land cover data, socio-ecological data from the Brazilian agro-census and the spatial extent of rivers and roads to evaluate whether the designation of SURs reduces fire occurrence in the Brazilian Amazon. Specifically, we ask (1) a. Is SUR location (i.e., de facto) or (1) b. designation (i.e. de jure) the driving factor affecting performance in terms of the spatial density of fires?, and (2), Does SUR creation affect fire management (i.e., the timing of fires in relation to previous rainfall)? We demonstrate that pre-protection baselines are crucial for understanding reserve performance. We show that reserve creation had no discernible impact on fire density, and that fires were less prevalent in SURs due to their characteristics of sparser human settlement and remoteness, rather than their status de jure. In addition, the timing of fires in relation to rainfall, indicative of local fire management and adherence to environmental law, did not improve following SUR creation. These results challenge the notion that SURs promote environmentally sensitive fire-management, and suggest that SURs in Amazonia will require special attention if they are to curtail future accidental wildfires, particularly as plans to expand the road infrastructure throughout the region are realised. Greater investment to support improved fire management by farmers living in reserves, in addition to other fire users, will be necessary to help ameliorate these threats.

41 CFR 102-74.360 - What are the specific accident and fire prevention responsibilities of occupant agencies?

Code of Federal Regulations, 2011 CFR

2011-01-01

... accident and fire prevention responsibilities of occupant agencies? 102-74.360 Section 102-74.360 Public... MANAGEMENT REGULATION REAL PROPERTY 74-FACILITY MANAGEMENT Facility Management Accident and Fire Prevention § 102-74.360 What are the specific accident and fire prevention responsibilities of occupant agencies...

41 CFR 102-74.360 - What are the specific accident and fire prevention responsibilities of occupant agencies?

Code of Federal Regulations, 2014 CFR

2014-01-01

... appropriate fire safety precautions in their work; (i) Keep facilities in the safest condition practicable... accident and fire prevention responsibilities of occupant agencies? 102-74.360 Section 102-74.360 Public... MANAGEMENT REGULATION REAL PROPERTY 74-FACILITY MANAGEMENT Facility Management Accident and Fire Prevention...

41 CFR 102-74.360 - What are the specific accident and fire prevention responsibilities of occupant agencies?

Code of Federal Regulations, 2013 CFR

2013-07-01

... appropriate fire safety precautions in their work; (i) Keep facilities in the safest condition practicable... accident and fire prevention responsibilities of occupant agencies? 102-74.360 Section 102-74.360 Public... MANAGEMENT REGULATION REAL PROPERTY 74-FACILITY MANAGEMENT Facility Management Accident and Fire Prevention...

41 CFR 102-74.360 - What are the specific accident and fire prevention responsibilities of occupant agencies?

Code of Federal Regulations, 2012 CFR

2012-01-01

... appropriate fire safety precautions in their work; (i) Keep facilities in the safest condition practicable... accident and fire prevention responsibilities of occupant agencies? 102-74.360 Section 102-74.360 Public... MANAGEMENT REGULATION REAL PROPERTY 74-FACILITY MANAGEMENT Facility Management Accident and Fire Prevention...

Chapter 4: Use of fire to manage populations of nonnative invasive plants

Treesearch

Peter M. Rice; Jane Kapler Smith

2008-01-01

It may be impossible to overstate the complexity of relationships among wildland ecosystems, fires, and nonnative invasives. Strategies for managing these relationships are similarly complex; they require information on local plant phenology, ability to produce various levels of fire severity within burns, willingness to combine fire with other management techniques,...

AEGIS: a wildfire prevention and management information system

Treesearch

Kostas Kalabokidis; Alan Ager; Mark Finney; Nikos Athanasis; Palaiologos Palaiologou; Christos Vasilakos

2016-01-01

We describe a Web-GIS wildfire prevention and management platform (AEGIS) developed as an integrated and easy-to-use decision support tool to manage wildland fire hazards in Greece (http://aegis.aegean.gr). The AEGIS platform assists with early fire warning, fire planning, fire control and coordination of firefighting forces by providing online access to...

Organizational learning contributes to guidance for managing wildland fires for multiple objectives

Treesearch

Tom Zimmerman; Tim Sexton

2010-01-01

Since the inception of organized fire suppression in the early 1900s, wildland fire management has dramatically evolved in operational complexity; ecological significance; social, economic, and political magnitude; areas and timing of application; and recognition of potentially serious consequences. Throughout the past 100 years, fire management has matured from a...

Fire Modeling Institute 2011 Annual Report

Treesearch

Robin J. Innes

2012-01-01

The Fire Modeling Institute (FMI), a part of the Rocky Mountain Research Station, Fire, Fuel, and Smoke Science Program, provides a bridge between scientists and managers. The mission of FMI is to bring the best available science and technology developed throughout the research community to bear on fire-related management issues across the nation. Resource management...

Community participation in fire management planning: The Trinity county fire safe council's fire plan

Treesearch

Yvonne Everett

2008-01-01

In 1999, Trinity County CA, initiated a participatory fire management planning effort. Since that time, the Trinity County Fire Safe Council has completed critical portions of a fire safe plan and has begun to implement projects defined in the plan. Completion of a GIS based, landscape scale fuels reduction element in the plan defined by volunteer fire fighters, agency...

Caught in a tightening fire safety net.

PubMed

Baillie, Jonathan

2008-06-01

How the Regulatory Reform (Fire Safety) Order 2005 has shifted responsibility for hospital fire safety from local fire authorities to so-called "responsible persons", and the implications for senior management/board-level personnel, as well as for hospital fire officers, fire wardens and department managers charged with implementation, was expertly examined by a leading expert in fire law at May's National Association of Healthcare Fire Officers (NAHFO) 2008 conference in Nottingham. Jonathan Baillie reports.

Estimating Woody Biomass Supply From Thinning Treatments to Reduce Fire Hazard in the U.S. West

Treesearch

Kenneth E. Skog; R. James Barbour

2006-01-01

This paper identifies timberland areas in 12 western states where thinning treatments (1) are judged to be needed to reduce fire hazard and (2) may “pay for themselves” at a scale to make investment in forest product processing a realistic option. A web-based tool - Fuel Treatment Evaluator 3.0 - is used to select high-fire-hazard timberland plots from the Forest...

Prescription Fire and Anion Retention in Tahoe Forest Soils

USDA-ARS?s Scientific Manuscript database

Prescribed burning is a possible option to reduce fire potential in the Lake Tahoe Basin (California and Nevada). However, subsequent nutrient loading to the lake is a major concern. The effect of residual ash on anion leaching, primarily O-PO4 and SO42-, was studied in both the field and laboratory...

Effects of prescribed fire on wintering, bark-foraging birds in northern Arizona

Treesearch

Theresa L. Pope

2006-01-01

Forest management practices of the past century have led to an increase in unnatural and destructive crown fires in ponderosa pine (Pinus ponderosa) forests of the southwest. To combat large fires, forest managers are attempting to simulate past fire regimes of low-intensity surface fires using prescribed fire. While there have been many studies...

Comparison of crown fire modeling systems used in three fire management applications

Treesearch

Joe H. Scott

2006-01-01

The relative behavior of surface-crown fire spread rate modeling systems used in three fire management applications-CFIS (Crown Fire Initiation and Spread), FlamMap and NEXUS- is compared using fire environment characteristics derived from a dataset of destructively measured canopy fuel and associated stand characteristics. Although the surface-crown modeling systems...

Fire Modeling Institute: FY2012 Annual Report: Bridging scientists and managers

Treesearch

Robin J. Innes

2013-01-01

The Fire Modeling Institute (FMI) brings the best available fire and fuel science and technology developed throughout the research community to bear in fire-related management issues. Although located within the Fire, Fuel, and Smoke Science Program of the U.S. Forest Service Rocky Mountain Research Station, FMI is a national and international resource, serving fire...

Fire-management policies and programs

Treesearch

S.J. Husari; K.S. McKelvey

1996-01-01

For most of this century the goal of fire management in the Sierra was to control fire. The policy was aggressively and successfully ap-plied, substantially reducing annual acres burned. This goal was based on a fire policy that emphasized keeping wildland fires as small and inexpensive as possible. As the role of fire in maintaining Sierran ecosystems has been...

Decision making under uncertainty: Recommendations for the Wildland Fire Decision Support System (WFDSS)

Treesearch

Matthew P. Thompson

2015-01-01

The management of wildfire is a dynamic, complex, and fundamentally uncertain enterprise. Fire managers face uncertainties regarding fire weather and subsequent influence on fire behavior, the effects of fire on socioeconomic and ecological resources, and the efficacy of alternative suppression actions on fire outcomes. In these types of difficult decision environments...

Fire and birds in maritime Pacific Northwest

Treesearch

Mark H. Huff; Nathaniel E. Seavy; John D. Alexander; C. John Ralph

2005-01-01

Resource managers face the challenge of understanding how numerous factors, including fire and fire suppression, influence habitat composition and animal communities. We summarize information on fire effects on major vegetation types and bird/fire relations within the maritime Pacific Northwest, and pose management related questions and research considerations....

Severe fire weather and intensive forest management increase fire severity in a multi-ownership landscape.

PubMed

Zald, Harold S J; Dunn, Christopher J

2018-04-26

Many studies have examined how fuels, topography, climate, and fire weather influence fire severity. Less is known about how different forest management practices influence fire severity in multi-owner landscapes, despite costly and controversial suppression of wildfires that do not acknowledge ownership boundaries. In 2013, the Douglas Complex burned over 19,000 ha of Oregon & California Railroad (O&C) lands in Southwestern Oregon, USA. O&C lands are composed of a checkerboard of private industrial and federal forestland (Bureau of Land Management, BLM) with contrasting management objectives, providing a unique experimental landscape to understand how different management practices influence wildfire severity. Leveraging Landsat based estimates of fire severity (Relative differenced Normalized Burn Ratio, RdNBR) and geospatial data on fire progression, weather, topography, pre-fire forest conditions, and land ownership, we asked (1) what is the relative importance of different variables driving fire severity, and (2) is intensive plantation forestry associated with higher fire severity? Using Random Forest ensemble machine learning, we found daily fire weather was the most important predictor of fire severity, followed by stand age and ownership, followed by topographic features. Estimates of pre-fire forest biomass were not an important predictor of fire severity. Adjusting for all other predictor variables in a general least squares model incorporating spatial autocorrelation, mean predicted RdNBR was higher on private industrial forests (RdNBR 521.85 ± 18.67 [mean ± SE]) vs. BLM forests (398.87 ± 18.23) with a much greater proportion of older forests. Our findings suggest intensive plantation forestry characterized by young forests and spatially homogenized fuels, rather than pre-fire biomass, were significant drivers of wildfire severity. This has implications for perceptions of wildfire risk, shared fire management responsibilities, and developing fire resilience for multiple objectives in multi-owner landscapes. © 2018 by the Ecological Society of America.

Fire in longleaf pine stand management: an economic analysis

Treesearch

Rodney L. Busby; Donald G. Hodges

1999-01-01

A simulation analysis of the economics of using prescribed fire as a forest management tool in the management of longleaf pine (Pinus palustris Mill.) plantations was conducted. A management regime using frequent prescribed fire was compared to management regimes involving fertilization and chemical release, chemical control, and mechanical control. Determining the...

44 CFR 204.23 - Processing a request for a fire management assistance declaration.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2011 CFR

2011-10-01

... ASSISTANCE GRANT PROGRAM Declaration Process § 204.23 Processing a request for a fire management assistance... 44 Emergency Management and Assistance 1 2011-10-01 2011-10-01 false Processing a request for a fire management assistance declaration. 204.23 Section 204.23 Emergency Management and Assistance...

44 CFR 204.25 - FEMA-State agreement for fire management assistance grant program.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2010 CFR

2010-10-01

... GRANT PROGRAM Declaration Process § 204.25 FEMA-State agreement for fire management assistance grant... 44 Emergency Management and Assistance 1 2010-10-01 2010-10-01 false FEMA-State agreement for fire management assistance grant program. 204.25 Section 204.25 Emergency Management and Assistance FEDERAL...

44 CFR 204.25 - FEMA-State agreement for fire management assistance grant program.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2014 CFR

2014-10-01

... GRANT PROGRAM Declaration Process § 204.25 FEMA-State agreement for fire management assistance grant... 44 Emergency Management and Assistance 1 2014-10-01 2014-10-01 false FEMA-State agreement for fire management assistance grant program. 204.25 Section 204.25 Emergency Management and Assistance FEDERAL...

44 CFR 204.25 - FEMA-State agreement for fire management assistance grant program.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2011 CFR

2011-10-01

... GRANT PROGRAM Declaration Process § 204.25 FEMA-State agreement for fire management assistance grant... 44 Emergency Management and Assistance 1 2011-10-01 2011-10-01 false FEMA-State agreement for fire management assistance grant program. 204.25 Section 204.25 Emergency Management and Assistance FEDERAL...

44 CFR 204.25 - FEMA-State agreement for fire management assistance grant program.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2012 CFR

2012-10-01

... GRANT PROGRAM Declaration Process § 204.25 FEMA-State agreement for fire management assistance grant... 44 Emergency Management and Assistance 1 2012-10-01 2011-10-01 true FEMA-State agreement for fire management assistance grant program. 204.25 Section 204.25 Emergency Management and Assistance FEDERAL...

44 CFR 204.23 - Processing a request for a fire management assistance declaration.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2012 CFR

2012-10-01

... ASSISTANCE GRANT PROGRAM Declaration Process § 204.23 Processing a request for a fire management assistance... 44 Emergency Management and Assistance 1 2012-10-01 2011-10-01 true Processing a request for a fire management assistance declaration. 204.23 Section 204.23 Emergency Management and Assistance...

44 CFR 204.23 - Processing a request for a fire management assistance declaration.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2014 CFR

2014-10-01

... ASSISTANCE GRANT PROGRAM Declaration Process § 204.23 Processing a request for a fire management assistance... 44 Emergency Management and Assistance 1 2014-10-01 2014-10-01 false Processing a request for a fire management assistance declaration. 204.23 Section 204.23 Emergency Management and Assistance...

44 CFR 204.23 - Processing a request for a fire management assistance declaration.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2013 CFR

2013-10-01

... ASSISTANCE GRANT PROGRAM Declaration Process § 204.23 Processing a request for a fire management assistance... 44 Emergency Management and Assistance 1 2013-10-01 2013-10-01 false Processing a request for a fire management assistance declaration. 204.23 Section 204.23 Emergency Management and Assistance...

44 CFR 204.25 - FEMA-State agreement for fire management assistance grant program.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2013 CFR

2013-10-01

... GRANT PROGRAM Declaration Process § 204.25 FEMA-State agreement for fire management assistance grant... 44 Emergency Management and Assistance 1 2013-10-01 2013-10-01 false FEMA-State agreement for fire management assistance grant program. 204.25 Section 204.25 Emergency Management and Assistance FEDERAL...

The effects of raking on sugar pine mortality following prescribed fire in Sequoia and Kings Canyon National Parks, California, USA

USGS Publications Warehouse

Nesmith, Jonathan C. B.; O'Hara, Kevin L.; van Mantgem, Phillip J.; de Valpine, Perry

2010-01-01

Prescribed fire is an important tool for fuel reduction, the control of competing vegetation, and forest restoration. The accumulated fuels associated with historical fire exclusion can cause undesirably high tree mortality rates following prescribed fires and wildfires. This is especially true for sugar pine (Pinus lambertiana Douglas), which is already negatively affected by the introduced pathogen white pine blister rust (Cronartium ribicola J.C. Fisch. ex Rabenh). We tested the efficacy of raking away fuels around the base of sugar pine to reduce mortality following prescribed fire in Sequoia and Kings Canyon national parks, California, USA. This study was conducted in three prescribed fires and included 457 trees, half of which had the fuels around their bases raked away to mineral soil to 0.5 m away from the stem. Fire effects were assessed and tree mortality was recorded for three years after prescribed fires. Overall, raking had no detectable effect on mortality: raked trees averaged 30% mortality compared to 36% for unraked trees. There was a significant effect, however, between the interaction of raking and average pre-treatment forest floor fuel depth: the predicted probability of survival of a 50 cm dbh tree was 0.94 vs. 0.96 when average pre-treatment fuel depth was 0 cm for a raked and unraked tree, respectively. When average pre-treatment forest floor fuel depth was 30 cm, the predicted probability of survival for a raked 50 cm dbh tree was 0.60 compared to only 0.07 for an unraked tree. Raking did not affect mortality when fire intensity, measured as percent crown volume scorched, was very low (0% scorch) or very high (>80% scorch), but the raking treatment significantly increased the proportion of trees that survived by 9.6% for trees that burned under moderate fire intensity (1% to 80% scorch). Raking significantly reduced the likelihood of bole charring and bark beetle activity three years post fire. Fuel depth and anticipated fire intensity need to be accounted for to maximize the effectiveness of the treatments. Raking is an important management option to reduce tree mortality from prescribed fire, but is most effective under specific fuel and burning conditions.

High Pressure Earth Storable Rocket Technology Program-Hipes Options 1/2 Report

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Chazen, M. L.; Sicher, D.; Calvignac, J.; Ono, D.

1999-01-01

Under the High Pressure Earth Storable Rocket Technology (HIPES) Program, TRW successfully completed testing of two 100 lbf thrust class rhenium chambers using N204-MMH. The first chamber was successfully fired for 4789 seconds of operating time with a maximum duration of 700 seconds. This chamber had been previously fired for 5230 seconds with N2O4-N2H4. The second chamber was successfully fired for 8085 seconds with a maximum firing duration of 1200 seconds. The Isp (specific impulse) for both chambers ranged from 323 lbf-sec/lbm to 330 lbf-sec/lbm.

PRELIMINARY PERFORMANCE AND COST ESTIMATES OF MERCURY EMISSION CONTROL OPTIONS FOR ELECTRIC UTILITY BOILERS

EPA Science Inventory

The paper discusses preliminary performance and cost estimates of mercury emission control options for electric utility boilers. Under the Clean Air Act Amendments of 1990, EPA had to determine whether mercury emissions from coal-fired power plants should be regulated. To a...

Uncertainty and risk in wildland fire management: A review

Treesearch

Matthew P. Thompson; Dave E. Calkin

2011-01-01

Wildland fire management is subject to manifold sources of uncertainty. Beyond the unpredictability of wildfire behavior, uncertainty stems from inaccurate/missing data, limited resource value measures to guide prioritization across fires and resources at risk, and an incomplete scientific understanding of ecological response to fire, of fire behavior response to...

Fire Safety. Managing School Facilities, Guide 6.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Department for Education and Employment, London (England). Architects and Building Branch.

This booklet discusses how United Kingdom schools can manage fire safety and minimize the risk of fire. The guide examines what legislation school buildings must comply with and covers the major risks. It also describes training and evacuation procedures and provides guidance on fire precautions, alarm systems, fire fighting equipment, and escape…

Chapter 14: Effects of fire suppression and postfire management activities on plant invasions

Treesearch

Matthew L. Brooks

2008-01-01

This chapter explains how various fire suppression and postfire management activities can increase or decrease the potential for plant invasions following fire. A conceptual model is used to summarize the basic processes associated with plant invasions and show how specific fire management activities can be designed to minimize the potential for invasion. The...

Modeling fuels and fire effects in 3D: Model description and applications

Treesearch

Francois Pimont; Russell Parsons; Eric Rigolot; Francois de Coligny; Jean-Luc Dupuy; Philippe Dreyfus; Rodman R. Linn

2016-01-01

Scientists and managers critically need ways to assess how fuel treatments alter fire behavior, yet few tools currently exist for this purpose.We present a spatially-explicit-fuel-modeling system, FuelManager, which models fuels, vegetation growth, fire behavior (using a physics-based model, FIRETEC), and fire effects. FuelManager's flexible approach facilitates...

Assessing the effects of fire disturbance on ecosystems: a scientific agenda for research and management.

Treesearch

Daniel L. Schmoldt; David L. Peterson; Robert E. Keane; James M. Lenihan; Donald McKenzie; David R. Weise; David V. Sandberg

1999-01-01

A team of fire scientists and resource managers convened 17-19 April 1996 in Seattle, Washington, to assess the effects of fire disturbance on ecosystems. Objectives of this workshop were to develop scientific recommendations for future fire research and management activities. These recommendations included a series of numerically ranked scientific and managerial...

A balanced approach: Dr. Biswell's solution to fire issues in urban interface and wildland ecosystems

Treesearch

Carol Rice

1995-01-01

Dr. Biswell's approach to fire management balanced fire prevention, suppression, and fuel management. Dr. Biswell maintained that with increased support for fire prevention and fuel management, several profound changes would be anticipated, including a decrease in the number of wildfires, as well as a decrease in requirements for suppression. Interested persons...

41 CFR 102-80.110 - What must an equivalent level of safety analysis indicate?

Code of Federal Regulations, 2014 CFR

2014-01-01

..., and reliability of all building systems impacting fire growth, occupant knowledge of the fire, and... Management Federal Property Management Regulations System (Continued) FEDERAL MANAGEMENT REGULATION REAL PROPERTY 80-SAFETY AND ENVIRONMENTAL MANAGEMENT Accident and Fire Prevention Equivalent Level of Safety...

41 CFR 102-80.110 - What must an equivalent level of safety analysis indicate?

Code of Federal Regulations, 2013 CFR

2013-07-01

..., and reliability of all building systems impacting fire growth, occupant knowledge of the fire, and... Management Federal Property Management Regulations System (Continued) FEDERAL MANAGEMENT REGULATION REAL PROPERTY 80-SAFETY AND ENVIRONMENTAL MANAGEMENT Accident and Fire Prevention Equivalent Level of Safety...

41 CFR 102-80.110 - What must an equivalent level of safety analysis indicate?

Code of Federal Regulations, 2011 CFR

2011-01-01

..., and reliability of all building systems impacting fire growth, occupant knowledge of the fire, and... Management Federal Property Management Regulations System (Continued) FEDERAL MANAGEMENT REGULATION REAL PROPERTY 80-SAFETY AND ENVIRONMENTAL MANAGEMENT Accident and Fire Prevention Equivalent Level of Safety...

41 CFR 102-80.110 - What must an equivalent level of safety analysis indicate?

Code of Federal Regulations, 2012 CFR

2012-01-01

..., and reliability of all building systems impacting fire growth, occupant knowledge of the fire, and... Management Federal Property Management Regulations System (Continued) FEDERAL MANAGEMENT REGULATION REAL PROPERTY 80-SAFETY AND ENVIRONMENTAL MANAGEMENT Accident and Fire Prevention Equivalent Level of Safety...

Introduction-2nd Fire Behavior and Fuels Conference: The fire environment-innovations, management, and policy

Treesearch

Wayne Cook; Bret W. Butler

2007-01-01

The 2nd Fire Behavior and Fuels Conference: Fire Environment -- Innovations, Management and Policy was held in Destin, FL, March 26-30, 2007. Following on the success of the 1st Fire Behavior and Fuels Conference, this conference was initiated in response to the needs of the National Wildfire Coordinating Group -- Fire Environment Working Team.

Wildland fire in ecosystems: effects of fire on soils and water

Treesearch

Daniel G. Neary; Kevin C. Ryan; Leonard F. DeBano

2005-01-01

This state-of-knowledge review about the effects of fire on soils and water can assist land and fire managers with information on the physical, chemical, and biological effects of fire needed to successfully conduct ecosystem management, and effectively inform others about the role and impacts of wildland fire. Chapter topics include the soil resource, soil physical...

Value and challenges of conducting rapid response research on wildland fires

Treesearch

L. Lentile; P. Morgan; C. Hardy; A. Hudak; R. Means; R. Ottmar; P. Robichaud; E. Kennedy Sutherland; J. Szymoniak; F. Way; J. Fites-Kaufman; S. Lewis; E. Mathews; H. Shovik; K. Ryan

2007-01-01

Rapid Response Research is conducted during and immediately after wildland fires, in coordination with fire management teams, in order to collect information that can best be garnered in situ and in real-time. This information often includes fire behavior and fire effects data, which can be used to generate practical tools such as predictive fire models for managers....

Assessing the accuracy of wildland fire situation analysis (WFSA) fire size and suppression cost estimates.

Treesearch

Geoffrey H. Donovan; Peter. Noordijk

2005-01-01

To determine the optimal suppression strategy for escaped wildfires, federal land managers are requiredto conduct a wildland fire situation analysis (WFSA). As part of the WFSA process, fire managers estimate final fire size and suppression costs. Estimates from 58 WFSAs conducted during the 2002 fire season are compared to actual outcomes. Results indicate that...

Predicting post-fire tree mortality for 12 western US conifers using the First-Order Fire Effects Model (FOFEM)

Treesearch

Sharon Hood; Duncan Lutes

2017-01-01

Accurate prediction of fire-caused tree mortality is critical for making sound land management decisions such as developing burning prescriptions and post-fire management guidelines. To improve efforts to predict post-fire tree mortality, we developed 3-year post-fire mortality models for 12 Western conifer species - white fir (Abies concolor [Gord. &...

Variation in fire regimes of the Rocky Mountains: implications for avian communities and fire management

Treesearch

Victoria A. Saab; Hugh D. W. Powell; Natasha B. Kotliar; Karen R. Newlon

2005-01-01

Information about avian responses to fire in the U.S. Rocky Mountains is based solely on studies of crown fires. However, fire management in this region is based primarily on studies of low-elevation ponderosa pine (Pinus ponderosa) forests maintained largely by frequent understory fires. In contrast to both of these trends, most Rocky Mountain...

The Joint Fire Science Program Fire Exchange Network: Facilitating Knowledge Exchange About Wildland Fire Science Across the U.S.

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

York, A.; Blocksome, C.; Cheng, T.; Creighton, J.; Edwards, G.; Frederick, S.; Giardina, C. P.; Goebel, P. C.; Gucker, C.; Kobziar, L.; Lane, E.; Leis, S.; Long, A.; Maier, C.; Marschall, J.; McGowan-Stinski, J.; Mohr, H.; MontBlanc, E.; Pellant, M.; Pickett, E.; Seesholtz, D.; Skowronski, N.; Stambaugh, M. C.; Stephens, S.; Thode, A.; Trainor, S. F.; Waldrop, T.; Wolfson, B.; Wright, V.; Zedler, P.

2014-12-01

The Joint Fire Science Program's (JFSP) Fire Exchange Network is actively working to accelerate the awareness, understanding, and adoption of wildland fire science information by federal, tribal, state, local, and private stakeholders within ecologically similar regions. Our network of 15 regional exchanges provides timely, accurate, and regionally relevant science-based information to assist with fire management challenges. Regional activities, through which we engage fire and resource managers, scientists, and private landowners, include online newsletters and announcements, social media, regionally focused web-based clearinghouses of relevant science, field trips and demonstration sites, workshops and conferences, webinars and online training, and syntheses and fact sheets. Exchanges also help investigators design research that is relevant to regional management needs and assist with technology transfer to management audiences. This poster provides an introduction to and map of the regional exchanges.

Airway fires during surgery: Management and prevention.

PubMed

Akhtar, Navaid; Ansar, Farrukh; Baig, Mirza Shahzad; Abbas, Akbar

2016-01-01

Airway fires pose a serious risk to surgical patients. Fires during surgery have been reported for many years with flammable anesthetic agents being the main culprits in the past. Association of airway fires with laser surgery is well-recognized, but there are reports of endotracheal tube fires ignited by electrocautery during pharyngeal surgery or tracheostomy or both. This uncommon complication has potentially grave consequences. While airway fires are relatively uncommon occurrences, they are very serious and can often be fatal. Success in preventing such events requires a thorough understanding of the components leading to a fire (fuel, oxidizer, and ignition source), as well as good communication between all members present to appropriately manage the fire and ensure patient safety. We present a case of fire in the airway during routine adenotonsillectomy. We will review the causes, preventive measures, and brief management for airway fires.

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Schwager, K.; Green, T. M.

The DOE policy for managing wildland fires requires that all areas managed by DOE and/or Its various contractors which can sustain fire must have a FMP that details fire management guidelines for operational procedures associated with wildland fire, operational, and prescribed fires. FMPs provide guidance on fire preparedness, fire prevention, wildfire suppression, and the use of controlled ''prescribed'' fires and mechanical means to control the amount of available combustible material. Values reflected in the BNL Wildland FMP include protecting life and public safety; Lab properties, structures and improvements; cultural and historical sites; neighboring private and public properties; and endangered, threatened,more » and species of concern. Other values supported by the plan include the enhancement of fire-dependent ecosystems at BNL. The plan will be reviewed periodically to ensure fire program advances and will evolve with the missions of DOE and BNL.« less

Climate change, fire management, and ecological services in the southwestern US

USGS Publications Warehouse

Hurteau, Matthew D.; Bradford, John B.; Fulé, Peter Z.; Taylor, Alan H.; Martin, Katherine L.

2014-01-01

The diverse forest types of the southwestern US are inseparable from fire. Across climate zones in California, Nevada, Arizona, and New Mexico, fire suppression has left many forest types out of sync with their historic fire regimes. As a result, high fuel loads place them at risk of severe fire, particularly as fire activity increases due to climate change. A legacy of fire exclusion coupled with a warming climate has led to increasingly large and severe wildfires in many southwest forest types. Climate change projections include an extended fire season length due to earlier snowmelt and a general drying trend due to rising temperatures. This suggests the future will be warmer and drier regardless of changes in precipitation. Hotter, drier conditions are likely to increase forest flammability, at least initially. Changes in climate alone have the potential to alter the distribution of vegetation types within the region, and climate-driven shifts in vegetation distribution are likely to be accelerated when coupled with stand-replacing fire. Regardless of the rate of change, the interaction of climate and fire and their effects on Southwest ecosystems will alter the provisioning of ecosystem services, including carbon storage and biodiversity. Interactions between climate, fire, and vegetation growth provide a source of great uncertainty in projecting future fire activity in the region, as post-fire forest recovery is strongly influenced by climate and subsequent fire frequency. Severe fire can be mitigated with fuels management including prescribed fire, thinning, and wildfire management, but new strategies are needed to ensure the effectiveness of treatments across landscapes. We review the current understanding of the relationship between fire and climate in the Southwest, both historical and projected. We then discuss the potential implications of climate change for fire management and examine the potential effects of climate change and fire on ecosystem services. We conclude with an assessment of the role of fire management in an increasingly flammable Southwest.

Post-fire logging produces minimal persistent impacts on understory vegetation in northeastern Oregon, USA

Treesearch

David W. Peterson; Erich Dodson

2016-01-01

Post-fire forest management commonly requires accepting some negative ecological impacts from management activities in order to achieve management objectives. Managers need to know, however, whether ecological impacts from post-fire management activities are transient or cause long-term ecosystem degradation. We studied the long-term response of understory vegetation...

Integrating fire management into land management planning for west-side forests

Treesearch

Peter D. Teensma

1996-01-01

Fire management's integration into land management planning is critical to the successful management of nearly all wildland ecosystems, including westside forests, which lie west of the Cascade crest in Oregon and the northern coastal ranges in California. Restoration and maintenance of fire as an ecosystem process is critical to retention of biological diversity...

Greater Huachuca Mountains Fire Management Group

Treesearch

Brooke S. Gebow; Carol Lambert

2005-01-01

The Greater Huachuca Mountains Fire Management Group is developing a fire management plan for 500,000 acres in southeast Arizona. Partner land managers include Arizona State Parks, Arizona State Lands, Audubon Research Ranch, Coronado National Forest, Coronado National Memorial, Fort Huachuca, The Nature Conservancy, San Pedro Riparian National Conservation Area, and...

Systems for animal exposure in full-scale fire tests

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Hilado, C. J.; Cumming, H. J.; Kourtides, D. A.; Parker, J. A.

1977-01-01

Two systems for exposing animals in full-scale fire tests are described. Both systems involve the simultaneous exposure of two animal species, mice and rats, in modular units; determination of mortality, morbidity, and behavioral response; and analysis of the blood for carboxyhemoglobin. The systems described represent two of many possible options for obtaining bioassay data from full-scale fire tests. In situations where the temperatures to which the test animals are exposed can not be controlled, analytical techniques may be more appropriate than bioassay techniques.

Enhancing fire science exchange: The Northern Rockies Fire Science Network [poster

Treesearch

Vita Wright

2011-01-01

The Joint Fire Science Program is developing a national network of knowledge exchange consortia comprised of interested management and science stakeholders working together to tailor and actively demonstrate existing fire science information to benefit management.

Integrated research to improve fire management decisionmaking.

Treesearch

Donald G. MacGregor; Richard W. Haynes

2005-01-01

The emergence of large fires of long duration (also known as siege fires) with their inherently high costs has raised numerous questions about the opportunities for cost containment. Cost reviews from the 2003 fire season have revealed how additional knowledge created through research can lead to better management and lower costs of fire incidents.

FOCUS: a fire management planning system -- final report

Treesearch

Frederick W. Bratten; James B. Davis; George T. Flatman; Jerold W. Keith; Stanley R. Rapp; Theodore G. Storey

1981-01-01

FOCUS (Fire Operational Characteristics Using Simulation) is a computer simulation model for evaluating alternative fire management plans. This final report provides a broad overview of the FOCUS system, describes two major modules-fire suppression and cost, explains the role in the system of gaming large fires, and outlines the support programs and ways of...

Effect of suppression strategies on federal wildland fire expenditures

Treesearch

Krista M. Gebert; Anne E. Black

2012-01-01

Policymakers and decisionmakers alike have suggested that the use of less aggressive suppression strategies for wildland fires might help stem the tide of rising emergency wildland fire expenditures. However, the interplay of wildland fire management decisions and expenditures is not well understood. In this study, we assess the effect of different fire management...

Fire in Wildland ecosystems—opening comments

Treesearch

Tom Nichols

1995-01-01

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,...

Managing the unexpected in prescribed fire and fire use operations: a workshop on the High Reliability Organization

Treesearch

Paul (tech. ed.) Keller

2004-01-01

Fire management, and forest and rangeland fuels management, over the past century have altered the wildland fire situation dramatically, thus also altering the institutional approach to how to deal with the changing landscape. Also, climate change, extended drought, increased insect and disease outbreaks, and invasions of exotic plant species have added complications...

Influence of landscape gradients in wilderness management and spatial climate on fire severity in the Northern Rockies USA, 1984 to 2010

Treesearch

Sandra L. Haire; Carol Miller; Kevin McGarigal

2015-01-01

Management activities, applied over broad scales, can potentially affect attributes of fire regimes including fire severity. Wilderness landscapes provide a natural laboratory for exploring effects of management because in some federally designated wilderness areas the burning of naturally ignited fires is promoted. In order to better understand the contribution of...

Fossils and fire: a study on the effects of fire on paleontological resources at Badlands National Park

Treesearch

Rachel Benton; James Reardon

2006-01-01

National Park Service policies stipulate that each park with vegetation capable of burning will prepare a fire management plan. Badlands National Park completed its fire management plan in 2004. Fossils are a principle resource of the park and the fire sensitivity of fossils is the focus of this study. The surface temperatures of fossil specimens and fire behavior...

The contribution of natural fire management to wilderness fire science

Treesearch

Carol Miller

2014-01-01

When the federal agencies established policies in the late 1960s and early 1970s to allow the use of natural fires in wilderness, they launched a natural fire management experiment in a handful of wilderness areas. As a result, wildland fire has played more of its natural role in wilderness than anywhere else. Much of what we understand about fire ecology comes from...

Effects of fire on fish populations: Landscape perspectives on persistence of native fishes and nonnative fish invasions

Treesearch

Jason B. Dunham; Michael K. Young; Robert E. Gresswell; Bruce E. Rieman

2003-01-01

Our limited understanding of the short and long-term effects of fire on fish contributes to considerable uncertainty in assessments of the risks and benefits of fire management alternatives. A primary concern among the many potential effects of fire is the effects of fire and fire management on persistence of native fish populations. Limited evidence suggests...

Predicting post-fire tree mortality for 14 conifers in the Pacific Northwest, USA: Model evaluation, development, and thresholds

Treesearch

Lindsay M. Grayson; Robert A. Progar; Sharon M. Hood

2017-01-01

Fire is a driving force in the North American landscape and predicting post-fire tree mortality is vital to land management. Post-fire tree mortality can have substantial economic and social impacts, and natural resource managers need reliable predictive methods to anticipate potential mortality following fire events. Current fire mortality models are limited to a few...

RETROFIT COSTS FOR SO2 AND NOX CONTROL OPTIONS AT 200 COAL-FIRED PLANTS, VOLUME I - INTRODUCTION AND METHODOLOGY

EPA Science Inventory

The report gives results of a study, the objective of which was to significantly improve engineering cost estimates currently being used to evaluate the economic effects of applying SO2 and NOx controls at 200 large SO2-emitting coal-fired utility plants. To accomplish the object...

Catching fire? Social interactions, beliefs, and wildfire risk mitigation behaviors

Treesearch

Katherine Dickinson; Hannah Brenkert-Smith; Patricia Champ; Nicholas Flores

2015-01-01

Social interactions are widely recognized as a potential influence on risk-related behaviors. We present a mediation model in which social interactions (classified as formal/informal and generic-fire-specific) are associated with beliefs about wildfire risk and mitigation options, which in turn shape wildfire mitigation behaviors. We test this model using survey data...

Future wildfire trends, impacts, and mitigation options in the Southern United States

Treesearch

Yongqiang Liu; Jeffrey P. Prestemon; Scott L. Goodrick; Thomas P. Holmes; John A. Stanturf; James M. Vose; Ge Sun

2014-01-01

Wildfire is among the most common forest disturbances, affecting the structure, composition, and functions of many ecosystems. The complex role that wildfire plays in shaping forests has been described in terms of vegetation responses, which are characterized as dependent on, sensitive to, independent of, or influenced by fire (Myers 2006). Fire is essential in areas...

Broad-Scale Assessment of Fuel Treatment Opportunities

Treesearch

Patrick D. Miles; Kenneth E. Skog; Wayne D. Shepperd; Elizabeth D. Reinhardt; Roger D. Fight

2006-01-01

The Forest Inventory and Analysis (FIA) program has produced estimates of the extent and composition of the Nation?s forests for several decades. FIA data have been used with a flexible silvicultural thinning option, a fire hazard model for preharvest and postharvest fire hazard assessment, a harvest economics model, and geospatial data to produce a Web-based tool to...

Measuring and modeling carbon balance in mountainous Northern Rocky mixed conifer forests

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Hudiburg, T. W.; Berardi, D.; Stenzel, J.

2016-12-01

Drought and wildfire caused by changing precipitation patterns, increased temperatures, increased fuel loads, and decades of fire suppression are reducing forest carbon uptake from local to continental scales. This trend is especially widespread in Idaho and the intermountain west and has important implications for climate change and forest management options. Given the key role of forests in climate regulation, understanding forest response to drought and the feedbacks to the atmosphere is a key research and policy-relevant priority globally. As temperature, fire, and precipitation regimes continue to change and there is increased risk of forest mortality, measurements and modeling at temporal and spatial scales that are conducive to understanding the impacts and underlying mechanisms of carbon and nutrient cycling become critically important. Until recently, sub-daily measurements of ecosystem carbon balance have been limited in remote, mountainous terrain (e.g Northern Rocky mountain forests). Here, we combine new measurement technology and state-of-the-art ecosystem modeling to determine the impact of drought on the total carbon balance of a mature, mixed-conifer forest in Northern Idaho. Our findings indicate that drought had no impact on aboveground NPP, despite early growing season reductions in soil moisture and fine root biomass compared to non-drought years in the past. Modeled estimates of net ecosystem production (NEP) suggest that a simultaneous reduction in heterotrophic respiration increased the carbon sink for this forest. This has important implications for forest management, such as thinning where the objectives are to increase forest resilience to fire and drought, but may decrease NEP.

Airway fires during surgery: Management and prevention

PubMed Central

Akhtar, Navaid; Ansar, Farrukh; Baig, Mirza Shahzad; Abbas, Akbar

2016-01-01

Airway fires pose a serious risk to surgical patients. Fires during surgery have been reported for many years with flammable anesthetic agents being the main culprits in the past. Association of airway fires with laser surgery is well-recognized, but there are reports of endotracheal tube fires ignited by electrocautery during pharyngeal surgery or tracheostomy or both. This uncommon complication has potentially grave consequences. While airway fires are relatively uncommon occurrences, they are very serious and can often be fatal. Success in preventing such events requires a thorough understanding of the components leading to a fire (fuel, oxidizer, and ignition source), as well as good communication between all members present to appropriately manage the fire and ensure patient safety. We present a case of fire in the airway during routine adenotonsillectomy. We will review the causes, preventive measures, and brief management for airway fires. PMID:27006554

A review of the relationships between drought and forest fire in the United States.

PubMed

Littell, Jeremy S; Peterson, David L; Riley, Karin L; Liu, Yongquiang; Luce, Charles H

2016-07-01

The historical and presettlement relationships between drought and wildfire are well documented in North America, with forest fire occurrence and area clearly increasing in response to drought. There is also evidence that drought interacts with other controls (forest productivity, topography, fire weather, management activities) to affect fire intensity, severity, extent, and frequency. Fire regime characteristics arise across many individual fires at a variety of spatial and temporal scales, so both weather and climate - including short- and long-term droughts - are important and influence several, but not all, aspects of fire regimes. We review relationships between drought and fire regimes in United States forests, fire-related drought metrics and expected changes in fire risk, and implications for fire management under climate change. Collectively, this points to a conceptual model of fire on real landscapes: fire regimes, and how they change through time, are products of fuels and how other factors affect their availability (abundance, arrangement, continuity) and flammability (moisture, chemical composition). Climate, management, and land use all affect availability, flammability, and probability of ignition differently in different parts of North America. From a fire ecology perspective, the concept of drought varies with scale, application, scientific or management objective, and ecosystem. Published 2016. This article is a U.S. Government work and is in the public domain in the USA.

Prescribed Fire Education at Oklahoma State University: Training Our Future Pyros

Treesearch

John R. Weir

2008-01-01

The Rangeland Ecology and Management program at Oklahoma State University recognized the need for a practical, hands-on course designed for undergraduate and graduate students, with instruction on conducting prescribed fires for vegetation management, wildlife management, and livestock management. Two separate prescribed fire courses were initiated in the spring of...

41 CFR 102-74.355 - With what accident and fire prevention standards must Federal facilities comply?

Code of Federal Regulations, 2010 CFR

2010-07-01

... MANAGEMENT REGULATION REAL PROPERTY 74-FACILITY MANAGEMENT Facility Management Accident and Fire Prevention... 41 Public Contracts and Property Management 3 2010-07-01 2010-07-01 false With what accident and fire prevention standards must Federal facilities comply? 102-74.355 Section 102-74.355 Public...

44 CFR 204.22 - Submitting a request for a fire management assistance declaration.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2014 CFR

2014-10-01

... ASSISTANCE GRANT PROGRAM Declaration Process § 204.22 Submitting a request for a fire management assistance.... To ensure that we can process a State's request for a fire management assistance declaration as... 44 Emergency Management and Assistance 1 2014-10-01 2014-10-01 false Submitting a request for a...

44 CFR 204.22 - Submitting a request for a fire management assistance declaration.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2011 CFR

2011-10-01

... ASSISTANCE GRANT PROGRAM Declaration Process § 204.22 Submitting a request for a fire management assistance.... To ensure that we can process a State's request for a fire management assistance declaration as... 44 Emergency Management and Assistance 1 2011-10-01 2011-10-01 false Submitting a request for a...

44 CFR 204.22 - Submitting a request for a fire management assistance declaration.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2012 CFR

2012-10-01

... ASSISTANCE GRANT PROGRAM Declaration Process § 204.22 Submitting a request for a fire management assistance.... To ensure that we can process a State's request for a fire management assistance declaration as... 44 Emergency Management and Assistance 1 2012-10-01 2011-10-01 true Submitting a request for a...

44 CFR 204.22 - Submitting a request for a fire management assistance declaration.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2013 CFR

2013-10-01

... ASSISTANCE GRANT PROGRAM Declaration Process § 204.22 Submitting a request for a fire management assistance.... To ensure that we can process a State's request for a fire management assistance declaration as... 44 Emergency Management and Assistance 1 2013-10-01 2013-10-01 false Submitting a request for a...

44 CFR 204.22 - Submitting a request for a fire management assistance declaration.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2010 CFR

2010-10-01

... ASSISTANCE GRANT PROGRAM Declaration Process § 204.22 Submitting a request for a fire management assistance.... To ensure that we can process a State's request for a fire management assistance declaration as... 44 Emergency Management and Assistance 1 2010-10-01 2010-10-01 false Submitting a request for a...

Maximizing vegetation response on management burns by identifying fire regimes

Treesearch

V. Thomas Parker

1989-01-01

Maintenance of vegetation is a central goal of watershed management. When prescribed burning of chaparral is included in management practice, then it is important for managers to understand and use the natural chaparral fire regime to maximize vegetation response. Variations from the natural fire regime in intensity, frequency, season, and environmental conditions at...

75 FR 55341 - Recovery Policy, RP 9523.6, Mutual Aid Agreements for Public Assistance and Fire Management...

Federal Register 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014

2010-09-10

... DEPARTMENT OF HOMELAND SECURITY Federal Emergency Management Agency [Docket ID FEMA-2010-0055] Recovery Policy, RP 9523.6, Mutual Aid Agreements for Public Assistance and Fire Management Assistance....6, Mutual Aid Agreements for Public Assistance and Fire Management Assistance. This is an existing...

Real options and asset valuation in competitive energy markets

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Oduntan, Adekunle Richard

The focus of this work is to develop a robust valuation framework for physical power assets operating in competitive markets such as peaking or mid-merit thermal power plants and baseload power plants. The goal is to develop a modeling framework that can be adapted to different energy assets with different types of operating flexibilities and technical constraints and which can be employed for various purposes such as capital budgeting, business planning, risk management and strategic bidding planning among others. The valuation framework must also be able to capture the reality of power market rules and opportunities, as well as technical constraints of different assets. The modeling framework developed conceptualizes operating flexibilities of power assets as "switching options' whereby the asset operator decides at every decision point whether to switch from one operating mode to another mutually exclusive mode, within the limits of the equipment constraints of the asset. As a current decision to switch operating modes may affect future operating flexibilities of the asset and hence cash flows, a dynamic optimization framework is employed. The developed framework accounts for the uncertain nature of key value drivers by representing them with appropriate stochastic processes. Specifically, the framework developed conceptualizes the operation of a power asset as a multi-stage decision making problem where the operator has to make a decision at every stage to alter operating mode given currently available information about key value drivers. The problem is then solved dynamically by decomposing it into a series of two-stage sub-problems according to Bellman's optimality principle. The solution algorithm employed is the Least Squares Monte Carlo (LSM) method. The developed valuation framework was adapted for a gas-fired thermal power plant, a peaking hydroelectric power plant and a baseload power plant. This work built on previously published real options valuation methodologies for gas-fired thermal power plants by factoring in uncertainty from gas supply/consumption imbalance which is usually faced by gas-fired power generators. This source of uncertainty arises because of mismatch between natural gas and electricity wholesale markets. Natural gas markets in North America operate on a day-ahead basis while power plants are dispatched in real time. Inability of a power generator to match its gas supply and consumption in real time, leading to unauthorized gas over-run or under-run, attracts penalty charges from the gas supplier to the extent that the generator can not manage the imbalance through other means. By considering an illustrative power plant operating in Ontario, we show effects of gas-imbalance on dispatch strategies on a daily cycling operation basis and the resulting impact on net revenue. Similarly, we employ the developed valuation framework to value a peaking hydroelectric power plant. This application also builds on previous real options valuation work for peaking hydroelectric power plants by considering their operations in a joint energy and ancillary services market. Specifically, the valuation model is developed to capture the value of a peaking power plant whose owner has the flexibility to participate in a joint operating reserve market and an energy market, which is currently the case in the Ontario wholesale power market. The model factors in water inflow uncertainty into the reservoir forebay of a hydroelectric facility and also considers uncertain energy and operating reserve prices. The switching options considered include (i) a joint energy and operating reserve bid (ii) an energy only bid and (iii) a do nothing (idle) strategy. Being an energy limited power plant, by doing nothing at a decision interval, the power asset operator is able to timeshift scarce water for use at a future period when market situations are expected to be better. Finally, the developed valuation framework was employed to optimize life-cycle management decisions of a baseload power plant, such as a nuclear power plant. Given uncertainty of long-term value drivers, including power prices, equipment performance and the relationship between current life cycle spending and future equipment degradation, optimization is carried out with the objective of minimizing overall life-cycle related costs. These life-cycle costs include (i) lost revenue during planned and unplanned outages, (ii) potential costs of future equipment degradation due to inadequate preventative maintenance, and (iii) the direct costs of implementing the life-cycle projects. The switching options in this context include the option to shutdown the power plant in order to execute a given preventative maintenance and inspection project and the option to keep the option "alive" by choosing to delay a planned life-cycle activity.

A new tool for fire managers: An electronic duff moisture meter

Treesearch

Peter R. Robichaud; Jim Bilskie

2004-01-01

Prescribed fires are increasingly being used to reduce hazardous fuels, a major objective of the National Fire Plan. Despite advancing technology and ever-improving models, fire managers still find it challenging to determine the right time for a prescribed burn.

Using an agent-based model to examine forest management outcomes in a fire-prone landscape in Oregon, USA

Treesearch

Thomas A. Spies; Eric White; Alan Ager; Jeffrey D. Kline; John P. Bolte; Emily K. Platt; Keith A. Olsen; Robert J. Pabst; Ana M. G. Barros; John D. Bailey; Susan Charnley; Anita T. Morzillo; Jennifer Koch; Michelle M. Steen-Adams; Peter H. Singleton; James Sulzman; Cynthia Schwartz; Blair Csuti

2017-01-01

Fire-prone landscapes present many challenges for both managers and policy makers in developing adaptive behaviors and institutions. We used a coupled human and natural systems framework and an agent-based landscape model to examine how alternative management scenarios affect fire and ecosystem services metrics in a fire-prone multiownership landscape in the eastern...

Canadian Wildland Fire Strategy: A vision for an innovative and integrated approach to managing the risks

Treesearch

Canadian Wildland Fire Strategy Project Management Team

2006-01-01

The Canadian Wildland Fire Strategy (CWFS) provides a vision for a new, innovative, and integrated approach to wildland fire management in Canada. It was developed under the auspices of the Canadian Council of Forest Ministers and seeks to balance the social, ecological, and economic aspects of wildland fire through a risk management framework that emphasizes hazard...

Evaluating the ecological benefits of wildfire by integrating fire and ecosystem simulation models

Treesearch

Robert E. Keane; Eva Karau

2010-01-01

Fire managers are now realizing that wildfires can be beneficial because they can reduce hazardous fuels and restore fire-dominated ecosystems. A software tool that assesses potential beneficial and detrimental ecological effects from wildfire would be helpful to fire management. This paper presents a simulation platform called FLEAT (Fire and Landscape Ecology...

The Fire Effects Information System - serving managers since before the Yellowstone fires

Treesearch

Jane Kapler Smith; Janet L. Fryer; Kristin Zouhar

2009-01-01

This presentation will describe the current status of the Fire Effects Information System (FEIS) and explore lessons learned from this 23-yearold project about the application of science to fire management issues. FEIS contains literature reviews covering biology and fire ecology for approximately 1,100 species in North America: plants and animals, native and nonnative...

Wildland fire in ecosystems: effects of fire on cultural resources and archaeology

Treesearch

Kevin C. Ryan; Ann Trinkle Jones; Cassandra L. Koerner; Kristine M. Lee

2012-01-01

This state-of-knowledge review provides a synthesis of the effects of fire on cultural resources, which can be used by fire managers, cultural resource (CR) specialists, and archaeologists to more effectively manage wildland vegetation, fuels, and fire. The goal of the volume is twofold: (1) to provide cultural resource/archaeological professionals and policy makers...

Smoke management guide for prescribed and wildland fire: 2001 edition.

Treesearch

Colin C. Hardy; Roger D. Ottmar; Janice L Peterson; John E. Core; Paula Seamon

2001-01-01

The National Wildfire Coordinating Group's (NWCG) Fire Use Working Team has assumed overall responsibility for sponsoring the development and production of this revised Smoke Management Guide for Prescribed and Wildland Fire (the "Guide"). The Mission Statement for the Fire Use Working Team includes the need to coordinate and advocate the use of fire to...

Development and demonstration of smoke plume, fire emissions, and pre- and postprescribed fire fuel models on North Carolina Coastal Plain forest ecosystems

Treesearch

Robert A. Mickler; Miriam Rorig; Christopher D. Geron; Gary L. Achtemier; Andrew D. Bailey; Candice Krull; David Brownlie

2007-01-01

Wildland fuels have been accumulating in the United States during at least the past half-century due to wildland fire management practices and policies. The additional fuels contribute to intense fire behavior, increase the costs of wildland fire control, and contribute to the degradation of local and regional air quality. The management of prescribed and wildland fire...

Utilization of geoinformation tools for the development of forest fire hazard mapping system: example of Pekan fire, Malaysia

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Mahmud, Ahmad Rodzi; Setiawan, Iwan; Mansor, Shattri; Shariff, Abdul Rashid Mohamed; Pradhan, Biswajeet; Nuruddin, Ahmed

2009-12-01

A study in modeling fire hazard assessment will be essential in establishing an effective forest fire management system especially in controlling and preventing peat fire. In this paper, we have used geographic information system (GIS), in combination with other geoinformation technologies such as remote sensing and computer modeling, for all aspects of wild land fire management. Identifying areas that have a high probability of burning is an important component of fire management planning. The development of spatially explicit GIS models has greatly facilitated this process by allowing managers to map and analyze variables contributing to fire occurrence across large, unique geographic units. Using the model and its associated software engine, the fire hazard map was produced. Extensive avenue programming scripts were written to provide additional capabilities in the development of these interfaces to meet the full complement of operational software considering various users requirements. The system developed not only possesses user friendly step by step operations to deliver the fire vulnerability mapping but also allows authorized users to edit, add or modify parameters whenever necessary. Results from the model can support fire hazard mapping in the forest and enhance alert system function by simulating and visualizing forest fire and helps for contingency planning.

Potential benefits of a ceramic thermal barrier coating on large power generation gas turbine

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Clark, J. S.; Nainiger, J. J.

1977-01-01

Thermal barrier coating design option offers benefit in terms of reduced electricity costs when used in utility gas turbines. Options considered include: increased firing temperature, increased component life, reduced cooling air requirements, and increased corrosion resistance (resulting in increased tolerance for dirty fuels). Performance and cost data were obtained. Simple, recuperated and combined cycle applications were considered, and distillate and residual fuels were assumed. The results indicate that thermal barrier coatings could produce large electricity cost savings if these coatings permit turbine operation with residual fuels at distillate-rated firing temperatures. The results also show that increased turbine inlet temperature can result in substantial savings in fuel and capital costs.

Deriving Multiple Benefits from Carbon Market-Based Savanna Fire Management: An Australian Example.

PubMed

Russell-Smith, Jeremy; Yates, Cameron P; Edwards, Andrew C; Whitehead, Peter J; Murphy, Brett P; Lawes, Michael J

2015-01-01

Carbon markets afford potentially useful opportunities for supporting socially and environmentally sustainable land management programs but, to date, have been little applied in globally significant fire-prone savanna settings. While fire is intrinsic to regulating the composition, structure and dynamics of savanna systems, in north Australian savannas frequent and extensive late dry season wildfires incur significant environmental, production and social impacts. Here we assess the potential of market-based savanna burning greenhouse gas emissions abatement and allied carbon biosequestration projects to deliver compatible environmental and broader socio-economic benefits in a highly biodiverse north Australian setting. Drawing on extensive regional ecological knowledge of fire regime effects on fire-vulnerable taxa and communities, we compare three fire regime metrics (seasonal fire frequency, proportion of long-unburnt vegetation, fire patch-size distribution) over a 15-year period for three national parks with an indigenously (Aboriginal) owned and managed market-based emissions abatement enterprise. Our assessment indicates improved fire management outcomes under the emissions abatement program, and mostly little change or declining outcomes on the parks. We attribute improved outcomes and putative biodiversity benefits under the abatement program to enhanced strategic management made possible by the market-based mitigation arrangement. For these same sites we estimate quanta of carbon credits that could be delivered under realistic enhanced fire management practice, using currently available and developing accredited Australian savanna burning accounting methods. We conclude that, in appropriate situations, market-based savanna burning activities can provide transformative climate change mitigation, ecosystem health, and community benefits in northern Australia, and, despite significant challenges, potentially in other fire-prone savanna settings.

Deriving Multiple Benefits from Carbon Market-Based Savanna Fire Management: An Australian Example

PubMed Central

Russell-Smith, Jeremy; Yates, Cameron P.; Edwards, Andrew C.; Whitehead, Peter J.; Murphy, Brett P.; Lawes, Michael J.

2015-01-01

Carbon markets afford potentially useful opportunities for supporting socially and environmentally sustainable land management programs but, to date, have been little applied in globally significant fire-prone savanna settings. While fire is intrinsic to regulating the composition, structure and dynamics of savanna systems, in north Australian savannas frequent and extensive late dry season wildfires incur significant environmental, production and social impacts. Here we assess the potential of market-based savanna burning greenhouse gas emissions abatement and allied carbon biosequestration projects to deliver compatible environmental and broader socio-economic benefits in a highly biodiverse north Australian setting. Drawing on extensive regional ecological knowledge of fire regime effects on fire-vulnerable taxa and communities, we compare three fire regime metrics (seasonal fire frequency, proportion of long-unburnt vegetation, fire patch-size distribution) over a 15-year period for three national parks with an indigenously (Aboriginal) owned and managed market-based emissions abatement enterprise. Our assessment indicates improved fire management outcomes under the emissions abatement program, and mostly little change or declining outcomes on the parks. We attribute improved outcomes and putative biodiversity benefits under the abatement program to enhanced strategic management made possible by the market-based mitigation arrangement. For these same sites we estimate quanta of carbon credits that could be delivered under realistic enhanced fire management practice, using currently available and developing accredited Australian savanna burning accounting methods. We conclude that, in appropriate situations, market-based savanna burning activities can provide transformative climate change mitigation, ecosystem health, and community benefits in northern Australia, and, despite significant challenges, potentially in other fire-prone savanna settings. PMID:26630453

Where there's smoking, there's fire: the effects of smoking policies on the incidence of fires in the USA.

PubMed

Markowitz, Sara

2014-11-01

Fires and burns are among the leading causes of unintentional death in the USA. Most of these deaths occur in residences, and cigarettes are a primary cause. In this paper, I explore the relationship between smoking, cigarette policies, and fires. As smoking rates decline, there are fewer opportunities for fires; however, the magnitude of any reduction is in question. Using a state-level panel, I find that increases in cigarette prices are associated with fewer residential fires and deaths. However, laws regulating indoor smoking are associated with more fires; in particular, restaurant and bar smoking bans are associated with an increase in fires at eating and drinking establishments. This increase is important given the growing popularity of smoking bans in the USA and around the world. As workplaces, schools, and businesses ban smoking and remove ashtrays, smokers who continue to smoke are left without safe options for disposal of cigarettes, leading to more opportunities for fires to start. Copyright © 2013 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

The selection of flying roller as an effort to increase the power of scooter-matic as the main power of centrifugal pump for fire fighter motor cycle

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Hadi Sutrisno, Himawan

2018-03-01

In densely populated settlements, fires often occur and cause losses. In some instances, the process of the occurrence of fires takes place so quickly that to reduce and avoid the occurrence of a fire disaster effort is required in accordance with the existing environmental condition. Fire fighter motorcycle by using motorcycle scooter-matic is considered suitable as one alternative to combating fire hazard in densely populated residential settlements. The use of motorcycle engines as the driving force of the pump often leads to unstable and not optimum power. Thus, the water spray on the centrifugal pump also becomes not maximum. To increase the engine power at scooter-matic engine idle rotation (700-2000 rpm), then the flying roller replacement with certain mass weight becomes an option. By selecting a 10 to 14 gram flying roller mass, the power analysis using a dynotest engine produces several variations. Of the calculation, the mass of a 14 gram flying roller provides a significant increase in motor power on the upper rotation. Meanwhile, on the lower power rotation using a flying roller with a mass of 10 grams provides an increase in power compared to a standard flying roller on a scooter matic motor engine. As a reference to the use of scooter-matic motor power as the pump power, the result of use of the flying roller with a mass of 10 grams becomes the best option.

Effects of fire on major forest ecosystem processes: an overview.

PubMed

Chen, Zhong

2006-09-01

Fire and fire ecology are among the best-studied topics in contemporary ecosystem ecology. The large body of existing literature on fire and fire ecology indicates an urgent need to synthesize the information on the pattern of fire effects on ecosystem composition, structure, and functions for application in fire and ecosystem management. Understanding fire effects and underlying principles are critical to reduce the risk of uncharacteristic wildfires and for proper use of fire as an effective management tool toward management goals. This overview is a synthesis of current knowledge on major effects of fire on fire-prone ecosystems, particularly those in the boreal and temperate regions of the North America. Four closely related ecosystem processes in vegetation dynamics, nutrient cycling, soil and belowground process and water relations were discussed with emphases on fire as the driving force. Clearly, fire can shape ecosystem composition, structure and functions by selecting fire adapted species and removing other susceptible species, releasing nutrients from the biomass and improving nutrient cycling, affecting soil properties through changing soil microbial activities and water relations, and creating heterogeneous mosaics, which in turn, can further influence fire behavior and ecological processes. Fire as a destructive force can rapidly consume large amount of biomass and cause negative impacts such as post-fire soil erosion and water runoff, and air pollution; however, as a constructive force fire is also responsible for maintaining the health and perpetuity of certain fire-dependent ecosystems. Considering the unique ecological roles of fire in mediating and regulating ecosystems, fire should be incorporated as an integral component of ecosystems and management. However, the effects of fire on an ecosystem depend on the fire regime, vegetation type, climate, physical environments, and the scale of time and space of assessment. More ecosystem-specific studies are needed in future, especially those focusing on temporal and spatial variations of fire effects through long-term experimental monitoring and modeling.

The role of fire in UK peatland and moorland management: the need for informed, unbiased debate

PubMed Central

Davies, G. Matt; Kettridge, Nicholas; Stoof, Cathelijne R.; Gray, Alan; Ascoli, Davide; Fernandes, Paulo M.; Marrs, Rob; Clay, Gareth D.; McMorrow, Julia; Vandvik, Vigdis

2016-01-01

Fire has been used for centuries to generate and manage some of the UK's cultural landscapes. Despite its complex role in the ecology of UK peatlands and moorlands, there has been a trend of simplifying the narrative around burning to present it as an only ecologically damaging practice. That fire modifies peatland characteristics at a range of scales is clearly understood. Whether these changes are perceived as positive or negative depends upon how trade-offs are made between ecosystem services and the spatial and temporal scales of concern. Here we explore the complex interactions and trade-offs in peatland fire management, evaluating the benefits and costs of managed fire as they are currently understood. We highlight the need for (i) distinguishing between the impacts of fires occurring with differing severity and frequency, and (ii) improved characterization of ecosystem health that incorporates the response and recovery of peatlands to fire. We also explore how recent research has been contextualized within both scientific publications and the wider media and how this can influence non-specialist perceptions. We emphasize the need for an informed, unbiased debate on fire as an ecological management tool that is separated from other aspects of moorland management and from political and economic opinions. This article is part of the themed issue ‘The interaction of fire and mankind’. PMID:27216512

The role of fire in UK peatland and moorland management: the need for informed, unbiased debate.

PubMed

Davies, G Matt; Kettridge, Nicholas; Stoof, Cathelijne R; Gray, Alan; Ascoli, Davide; Fernandes, Paulo M; Marrs, Rob; Allen, Katherine A; Doerr, Stefan H; Clay, Gareth D; McMorrow, Julia; Vandvik, Vigdis

2016-06-05

Fire has been used for centuries to generate and manage some of the UK's cultural landscapes. Despite its complex role in the ecology of UK peatlands and moorlands, there has been a trend of simplifying the narrative around burning to present it as an only ecologically damaging practice. That fire modifies peatland characteristics at a range of scales is clearly understood. Whether these changes are perceived as positive or negative depends upon how trade-offs are made between ecosystem services and the spatial and temporal scales of concern. Here we explore the complex interactions and trade-offs in peatland fire management, evaluating the benefits and costs of managed fire as they are currently understood. We highlight the need for (i) distinguishing between the impacts of fires occurring with differing severity and frequency, and (ii) improved characterization of ecosystem health that incorporates the response and recovery of peatlands to fire. We also explore how recent research has been contextualized within both scientific publications and the wider media and how this can influence non-specialist perceptions. We emphasize the need for an informed, unbiased debate on fire as an ecological management tool that is separated from other aspects of moorland management and from political and economic opinions.This article is part of the themed issue 'The interaction of fire and mankind'. © 2016 The Authors.

75 FR 2153 - National Fire Academy Board of Visitors

Federal Register 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014

2010-01-14

...] National Fire Academy Board of Visitors AGENCY: Federal Emergency Management Agency, DHS. ACTION: Committee Management; Notice of Open Teleconference Federal Advisory Committee Meeting. SUMMARY: The National Fire.... Docket: For access to the docket to read background documents or comments received by the National Fire...

Intercomparison of Fire Size, Fuel Loading, Fuel Consumption, and Smoke Emissions Estimates on the 2006 Tripod Fire, Washington, USA

Treesearch

Stacy A. Drury; Narasimhan Larkin; Tara T. Strand; ShihMing Huang; Scott J. Strenfel; Theresa E. O' Brien; Sean M. Raffuse

2014-01-01

Land managers rely on prescribed burning and naturally ignited wildfires for ecosystem management, and must balance trade-offs of air quality, carbon storage, and ecosystem health. A current challenge for land managers when using fire for ecosystem management is managing smoke production. Smoke emissions are a potential human health hazard due to the production of fine...

United States Fire Administration

MedlinePlus

... Vehicle Fire Safety flyer PDF 234 KB Publication Risk management practices This guide contains recommended approaches to manage organizational, operational and community risk. If you are a fire department leader, our ...

New perspectives in fire management in South American savannas: The importance of intercultural governance.

PubMed

Mistry, Jayalaxshmi; Schmidt, Isabel Belloni; Eloy, Ludivine; Bilbao, Bibiana

2018-05-11

Wildfires continue to cause damage to property, livelihoods and environments around the world. Acknowledging that dealing with wildfires has to go beyond fire-fighting, governments in countries with fire-prone ecosystems have begun to recognize the multiple perspectives of landscape burning and the need to engage with local communities and their practices. In this perspective, we outline the experiences of Brazil and Venezuela, two countries where fire management has been highly contested, but where there have been recent advances in fire management approaches. Success of these new initiatives have been measured by the reduction in wildfire extent through prescribed burning, and the opening of a dialogue on fire management between government agencies and local communities. Yet, it is clear that further developments in community participation need to take place in order to avoid the appropriation of local knowledge systems by institutions, and to better reflect more equitable fire governance.

PREFER: a European service providing forest fire management support products

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Eftychidis, George; Laneve, Giovanni; Ferrucci, Fabrizio; Sebastian Lopez, Ana; Lourenco, Louciano; Clandillon, Stephen; Tampellini, Lucia; Hirn, Barbara; Diagourtas, Dimitris; Leventakis, George

2015-06-01

PREFER is a Copernicus project of the EC-FP7 program which aims developing spatial information products that may support fire prevention and burned areas restoration decisions and establish a relevant web-based regional service for making these products available to fire management stakeholders. The service focuses to the Mediterranean region, where fire risk is high and damages from wildfires are quite important, and develop its products for pilot areas located in Spain, Portugal, Italy, France and Greece. PREFER aims to allow fire managers to have access to online resources, which shall facilitate fire prevention measures, fire hazard and risk assessment, estimation of fire impact and damages caused by wildfire as well as support monitoring of post-fire regeneration and vegetation recovery. It makes use of a variety of products delivered by space borne sensors and develop seasonal and daily products using multi-payload, multi-scale and multi-temporal analysis of EO data. The PREFER Service portfolio consists of two main suite of products. The first refers to mapping products for supporting decisions concerning the Preparedness/Prevention Phase (ISP Service). The service delivers Fuel, Hazard and Fire risk maps for this purpose. Furthermore the PREFER portfolio includes Post-fire vegetation recovery, burn scar maps, damage severity and 3D fire damage assessment products in order to support relative assessments required in context of the Recovery/Reconstruction Phase (ISR Service) of fire management.

Managing the risks of risk management on large fires

Treesearch

Donald G. MacGregor; Armando González-Cabán

2013-01-01

Large fires pose risks to a number of important values, including the ecology, property and the lives of incident responders. A relatively unstudied aspect of fire management is the risks to which incident managers are exposed due to organizational and sociopolitical factors that put them in a position of, for example, potential liability or degradation of their image...

43 CFR 9212.2 - Fire prevention orders.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2011 CFR

2011-10-01

... MANAGEMENT, DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR TECHNICAL SERVICES (9000) FIRE MANAGEMENT Wildfire Prevention § 9212.2 Fire prevention orders. (a) To prevent wildfire or facilitate its suppression, an authorized officer...

43 CFR 9212.2 - Fire prevention orders.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2013 CFR

2013-10-01

... MANAGEMENT, DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR TECHNICAL SERVICES (9000) FIRE MANAGEMENT Wildfire Prevention § 9212.2 Fire prevention orders. (a) To prevent wildfire or facilitate its suppression, an authorized officer...

43 CFR 9212.2 - Fire prevention orders.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2014 CFR

2014-10-01

... MANAGEMENT, DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR TECHNICAL SERVICES (9000) FIRE MANAGEMENT Wildfire Prevention § 9212.2 Fire prevention orders. (a) To prevent wildfire or facilitate its suppression, an authorized officer...

43 CFR 9212.2 - Fire prevention orders.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2012 CFR

2012-10-01

... MANAGEMENT, DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR TECHNICAL SERVICES (9000) FIRE MANAGEMENT Wildfire Prevention § 9212.2 Fire prevention orders. (a) To prevent wildfire or facilitate its suppression, an authorized officer...

A case study comparison of landfire fuel loading and emissions generation on a mixed conifer forest in northern Idaho, USA

Treesearch

Josh Hyde; Eva K. Strand; Andrew T. Hudak; Dale Hamilton

2015-01-01

The use of fire as a land management tool is well recognized for its ecological benefits in many natural systems. To continue to use fire while complying with air quality regulations, land managers are often tasked with modeling emissions from fire during the planning process. To populate such models, the Landscape Fire and Resource Management Planning Tools (...

Proceedings of the 2002 fire conference: managing fire and fuels in the remaining wildlands and open spaces of the Southwestern United States

Treesearch

Marcia G. Narog

2008-01-01

Many issues confront scientists, land managers, policymakers, and the public who deal with or are affected by management of fire and fuels across the southwestern United States (Utah, Colorado, Arizona, Nevada, New Mexico, and California). The 2002 Fire Conference was convened to tackle these concerns. It began with a plenary session addressing the central problems of...

Soils under fire: soils research and the Joint Fire Science Program.

Treesearch

Heather E. Erickson; Rachel White

2008-01-01

Soils are fundamental to a healthy and functioning ecosystem. Therefore, forest land managers can greatly benefit from a more thorough understanding of the ecological impacts of fire and fuel management activities on the vital services soils provide. We present a summary of new research on fire effects and soils made possible through the Joint Fire Science Program and...

Historical and cultural fires, tribal management and research issue in Northern California: Trails, fires and tribulations

Treesearch

Frank K. Lake

2013-01-01

Indigenous people’s detailed traditional knowledge about fire, although superficially referenced in various writings, has not for the most part been analyzed in detail or simulated by resource managers, wildlife biologists, and ecologists. . . . Instead, scientists have developed the principles and theories of fire ecology, fire behavior and effects models, and...

Fire in Ghana's dry forest: Causes, frequency, effects and management interventions

Treesearch

Sandra Opoku Agyemang; Michael Muller; Victor Rex Barnes

2015-01-01

This paper describes the number of fires, area burned, causes and seasonality of fires over a ten year period from 2002-2012 and investigates different fire management strategies and their effectiveness in the Afram headwaters forest reserve in Ghana. Data were collected from interviews of stakeholders in two communities adjacent to the reserve, and from 2002-2012 fire...

A review of challenges to determining and demonstrating efficiency of large fire management

Treesearch

Matthew P. Thompson; Francisco Rodriguez y Silva; David E. Calkin; Michael S. Hand

2017-01-01

Characterising the impacts of wildland fire and fire suppression is critical information for fire management decision-making. Here, we focus on decisions related to the rare larger and longer-duration fire events, where the scope and scale of decision-making can be far broader than initial response efforts, and where determining and demonstrating efficiency of...

Shared values and trust: the experience of community residents in a fire-prone ecosystem

Treesearch

Patricia L. Winter; George T. Cvetkovich

2010-01-01

The risk and impact of fires have been significant on the San Bernardino National Forest. It is important to understand how residents of areas surrounded by the forest perceive the impact of fires. If fire management agencies understand these perceptions, fire management agencies will be better equipped to communicate with publics about risk-reduction efforts that...

Fire management of California shrubland landscapes

USGS Publications Warehouse

Keeley, Jon E.

2002-01-01

Fire management of California shrublands has been heavily influenced by policies designed for coniferous forests, however, fire suppression has not effectively excluded fire from chaparral and coastal sage scrub landscapes and catastrophic wildfires are not the result of unnatural fuel accumulation. There is no evidence that prescribed burning in these shrublands provides any resource benefit and in some areas may negatively impact shrublands by increasing fire frequency. Therefore, fire hazard reduction is the primary justification for prescription burning, but it is doubtful that rotational burning to create landscape age mosaics is a cost effective method of controlling catastrophic wildfires. There are problems with prescription burning in this crown-fire ecosystem that are not shared by forests with a natural surface-fire regime. Prescription weather conditions preclude burning at rotation intervals sufficient to effect the control of fires ignited under severe weather conditions. Fire management should focus on strategic placement of prescription burns to both insure the most efficient fire hazard reduction and to minimize the amount of landscape exposed to unnaturally high fire frequency. A major contributor to increased fire suppression costs and increased loss of property and lives is the continued urban sprawl into wildlands naturally subjected to high intensity crown fires. Differences in shrubland fire history suggest there may be a need for different fire management tactics between central coastal and southern California. Much less is known about shrubland fire history in the Sierra Nevada foothills and interior North Coast Ranges, and thus it would be prudent to not transfer these ideas too broadly across the range of chaparral until we have a clearer understanding of the extent of regional variation in shrubland fire regimes.

Fire management of California shrubland landscapes.

PubMed

Keeley, Jon E

2002-03-01

Fire management of California shrublands has been heavily influenced by policies designed for coniferous forests, however, fire suppression has not effectively excluded fire from chaparral and coastal sage scrub landscapes and catastrophic wildfires are not the result of unnatural fuel accumulation. There is no evidence that prescribed burning in these shrublands provides any resource benefit and in some areas may negatively impact shrublands by increasing fire frequency. Therefore, fire hazard reduction is the primary justification for prescription burning, but it is doubtful that rotational burning to create landscape age mosaics is a cost effective method of controlling catastrophic wildfires. There are problems with prescription burning in this crown-fire ecosystem that are not shared by forests with a natural surface-fire regime. Prescription weather conditions preclude burning at rotation intervals sufficient to effect the control of fires ignited under severe weather conditions. Fire management should focus on strategic placement of prescription burns to both insure the most efficient fire hazard reduction and to minimize the amount of landscape exposed to unnaturally high fire frequency. A major contributor to increased fire suppression costs and increased loss of property and lives is the continued urban sprawl into wildlands naturally subjected to high intensity crown fires. Differences in shrubland fire history suggest there may be a need for different fire management tactics between central coastal and southern California. Much less is known about shrubland fire history in the Sierra Nevada foothills and interior North Coast Ranges, and thus it would be prudent to not transfer these ideas too broadly across the range of chaparral until we have a clearer understanding of the extent of regional variation in shrubland fire regimes.

A feasibility study: California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection utilization of infrared technologies for wildland fire suppression and management

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Nichols, J. D.; Britten, R. A.; Parks, G. S.; Voss, J. M.

1990-01-01

NASA's JPL has completed a feasibility study using infrared technologies for wildland fire suppression and management. The study surveyed user needs, examined available technologies, matched the user needs with technologies, and defined an integrated infrared wildland fire mapping concept system configuration. System component trade-offs were presented for evaluation in the concept system configuration. The economic benefits of using infrared technologies in fire suppression and management were examined. Follow-on concept system configuration development and implementation were proposed.

75 FR 39561 - National Fire Academy Board of Visitors

Federal Register 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014

2010-07-09

...] National Fire Academy Board of Visitors AGENCY: Federal Emergency Management Agency, DHS. ACTION: Committee Management; Notice of Open Federal Advisory Committee Meeting. SUMMARY: The National Fire Academy Board of... the docket to read background documents or comments received by the National Fire Academy Board of...

76 FR 17425 - National Fire Academy Board of Visitors

Federal Register 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014

2011-03-29

...] National Fire Academy Board of Visitors AGENCY: Federal Emergency Management Agency, DHS. ACTION: Committee Management; Notice of Open Federal Advisory Committee Meeting. SUMMARY: The National Fire Academy Board of... background documents or comments received by the National Fire Academy Board of Visitors, go to http://www...

40 CFR Appendix D to Part 75 - Optional SO2 Emissions Data Protocol for Gas-Fired and Oil-Fired Units

Code of Federal Regulations, 2012 CFR

2012-07-01

... one-quarter extension of the deadline for the next fuel flowmeter system accuracy test may be claimed... protocol no later than 45 days after the completion of all certification tests. 2. Procedure 2.1Fuel... applicable): by design (orifice, nozzle, and venturi-type flowmeters, only) or by measurement under...

40 CFR Appendix D to Part 75 - Optional SO2 Emissions Data Protocol for Gas-Fired and Oil-Fired Units

Code of Federal Regulations, 2010 CFR

2010-07-01

... one-quarter extension of the deadline for the next fuel flowmeter system accuracy test may be claimed... protocol no later than 45 days after the completion of all certification tests. 2. Procedure 2.1Fuel... applicable): by design (orifice, nozzle, and venturi-type flowmeters, only) or by measurement under...

40 CFR Appendix D to Part 75 - Optional SO2 Emissions Data Protocol for Gas-Fired and Oil-Fired Units

Code of Federal Regulations, 2013 CFR

2013-07-01

... one-quarter extension of the deadline for the next fuel flowmeter system accuracy test may be claimed... protocol no later than 45 days after the completion of all certification tests. 2. Procedure 2.1Fuel... applicable): by design (orifice, nozzle, and venturi-type flowmeters, only) or by measurement under...

Strengthening syntheses on fire: Increasing their usefulness for managers

Treesearch

Jane Kapler Smith

2015-01-01

A synthesis for fire managers summarizes and interprets a body of information, presents its meaning in an objective, unbiased way, and describes its implications for decisionmakers. Following are suggestions for ways to strengthen syntheses on fire and on other natural resource issues:Include managers, scientists, and...

Climate change and long-term fire management impacts on Australian savannas.

PubMed

Scheiter, Simon; Higgins, Steven I; Beringer, Jason; Hutley, Lindsay B

2015-02-01

Tropical savannas cover a large proportion of the Earth's land surface and many people are dependent on the ecosystem services that savannas supply. Their sustainable management is crucial. Owing to the complexity of savanna vegetation dynamics, climate change and land use impacts on savannas are highly uncertain. We used a dynamic vegetation model, the adaptive dynamic global vegetation model (aDGVM), to project how climate change and fire management might influence future vegetation in northern Australian savannas. Under future climate conditions, vegetation can store more carbon than under ambient conditions. Changes in rainfall seasonality influence future carbon storage but do not turn vegetation into a carbon source, suggesting that CO₂ fertilization is the main driver of vegetation change. The application of prescribed fires with varying return intervals and burning season influences vegetation and fire impacts. Carbon sequestration is maximized with early dry season fires and long fire return intervals, while grass productivity is maximized with late dry season fires and intermediate fire return intervals. The study has implications for management policy across Australian savannas because it identifies how fire management strategies may influence grazing yield, carbon sequestration and greenhouse gas emissions. This knowledge is crucial to maintaining important ecosystem services of Australian savannas. © 2014 The Authors. New Phytologist © 2014 New Phytologist Trust.

Black Carbon in the Arctic: Assessment of and efforts to reduce black carbon emissions from wildfires and agricultural burning in Russia

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Kinder, B.; Hao, W. M.; Larkin, N. K.; McCarty, G.; O'neal, K. J.; Gonzalez, O.; Luxenberg, J.; Rosenblum, M.; Petkov, A.

2011-12-01

Black carbon and other short-lived climate forcers exert a warming effect on the climate but remain in the atmosphere for short time periods when compared to carbon dioxide. Black carbon is a significant contributor to increasing temperatures in the Arctic region, which has warmed at twice the global rate over the past 100 years. Black carbon warms the Arctic by absorbing incoming solar radiation while in the atmosphere and, when deposited onto Arctic ice, leading to increased atmospheric temperatures and snow and ice melt. Black carbon remains in the atmosphere for a short time period ranging from days to weeks; therefore, local atmospheric conditions at the time of burning determine the amount of black carbon transport to the Arctic. Most black carbon transport and deposition in the Arctic results from the occurrence of wildfires, prescribed forest fires, and agricultural burning at latitudes greater than 40 degrees north latitude. Wildfire affects some 10-15 million hectares of forest, forest steppe, and grasslands in Russia each year. In addition to wildfire, there is widespread cropland burning in Russia occurring in the fall following harvest and in the spring prior to tilling. Agricultural burning is common practice for crop residue removal as well as suppression of weeds, insects and residue-borne diseases. The goal of the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) Black Carbon Initiative is to assess black carbon emissions from agricultural burning and wildfires in Russia and explore practical options and opportunities for reducing emissions from these two sources. The emissions assessment combines satellite-derived burned area measurements of forest and agricultural fires, burn severity information, ancillary geospatial data, vegetation and land cover maps, fuels data, fire emissions data, fire/weather relationship information, and smoke transport models to estimate black carbon transport and deposition in the Arctic. The assessment addresses necessary improvements to fire and burned area detection algorithms to improve agricultural burned area mapping accuracy. Efforts to explore practical options for reducing black carbon emissions from wildfires and agricultural burning in Russia have been focused on designing community-based fire prevention and education programs in Siberia and the Russia Far East, two regions prone to frequent human-caused fires. The initiative also seeks to identify practical alternatives to reduce black carbon emissions from agricultural burning and to help promote these alternatives through outreach to farmers and other agricultural organizations. This submission will explore the initial findings and results of the emissions assessment and discuss the progress and challenges associated with implementation of local-level fire prevention and mitigation efforts in Russia. The results of this initiative will help inform future policy and management tools to address black carbon emissions from wildfires and agricultural burning in Russia and perhaps additional interested countries.

An evaluation of the impact of Melaleuca quinquenervia invasion and managment on plant community structure after fire.

USDA-ARS?s Scientific Manuscript database

The successful management of invasive species can be particularly difficult in natural areas that depend on disturbances such as fire to maintain community structure and function. In these systems, fire-adapted invasive species may disproportionally benefit from post-fire resource availability, inc...

Wildland fire in ecosystems: fire and nonnative invasive plants

Treesearch

Kristin Zouhar; Jane Kapler Smith; Steve Sutherland; Matthew L. Brooks

2008-01-01

This state-of-knowledge review of information on relationships between wildland fire and nonnative invasive plants can assist fire managers and other land managers concerned with prevention, detection, and eradication or control of nonnative invasive plants. The 16 chapters in this volume synthesize ecological and botanical principles regarding relationships between...

Systems thinking and wildland fire management

Treesearch

Matthew P. Thompson; Christopher J. Dunn; David E. Calkin

2017-01-01

A changing climate, changing development and land use patterns, and increasing pressures on ecosystem services raise global concerns over growing losses associated with wildland fires. New management paradigms acknowledge that fire is inevitable and often uncontrollable, and focus on living with fire rather than attempting to eliminate it from the landscape. A notable...

77 FR 21576 - Board of Visitors for the National Fire Academy

Federal Register 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014

2012-04-10

...] Board of Visitors for the National Fire Academy AGENCY: Federal Emergency Management Agency, DHS. ACTION... of Visitors for the National Fire Academy (Board) will meet on April 25 and 26, 2012. The meeting... National Fire Academy (Academy) and advise the Administrator of the Federal Emergency Management Agency...

76 FR 20696 - National Fire Academy Board of Visitors

Federal Register 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014

2011-04-13

...] National Fire Academy Board of Visitors AGENCY: Federal Emergency Management Agency, DHS. ACTION: Committee... Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) announced in the Federal Register at 76 FR 17425 that the National Fire... supplements that original meeting notice. DATES: The National Fire Academy Board of Visitors meeting was held...

Fire In South Florida Ecosystems

Treesearch

Dale Wade; John Ewel; Ronald Hofstetter

1980-01-01

This compendium of tire information for selected south Florida vegetative communities will help resource managers and policymakers to better predict the consequences of their fire management decisions. Included is a brief history of fire in south Florida, along with some associated damages and benefits. Certain natural functions fulfilled by tire are outlined. Fire is...

Linking wilderness research and management-volume 1. Wilderness fire restoration and management: an annotated reading list

Treesearch

Marion Hourdequin; Vita Wright

2001-01-01

The Wilderness Act of 1964 designates wilderness areas as places where natural conditions prevail and humans leave landscapes untrammeled. Managers of wilderness and similarly protected areas have a mandate to maintain wildland fire as a natural ecological process. However, because fire suppression has dominated Federal land management for most of the past century, the...

Fire applications in ecosystem management

Treesearch

Michael G. Harrington

2000-01-01

Decades of fire absence from ponderosa pine/Douglas-fir forests has resulted in overstocked, unhealthy, and severe fireprone stands requiring management attention. Prescribed fire can be used in three general situations during restoration management. First is when fuel loadings are excessive from either natural accumulation or harvest slash. Second is when dense...

Wetland fire remote sensing research--The Greater Everglades example

USGS Publications Warehouse

Jones, John W.

2012-01-01

Fire is a major factor in the Everglades ecosystem. For thousands of years, lightning-strike fires from summer thunderstorms have helped create and maintain a dynamic landscape suited both to withstand fire and recover quickly in the wake of frequent fires. Today, managers in the Everglades National Park are implementing controlled burns to promote healthy, sustainable vegetation patterns and ecosystem functions. The U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) is using remote sensing to improve fire-management databases in the Everglades, gain insights into post-fire land-cover dynamics, and develop spatially and temporally explicit fire-scar data for habitat and hydrologic modeling.

Fire effects in southwestern forests: Proceedings of the Second La Mesa Fire symposium

USGS Publications Warehouse

Allen, Craig D.

1996-01-01

In 1977, the La Mesa Fire burned across 15,444 acres of ponderosa pine forests on the adjoining lands of Bandelier National Monument, the Santa Fe National Forest, and Los Alamos National Laboratory. Following this event, several fire effects studies were initiated. The 16 papers herein document longer-term knowledge gained about the ecological effects of the fire and about Southwestern fire ecology in general. The presentations are also designed to give resource managers practical information for managing fire in local landscapes. Studies presented range from fire histories and avifauna to geomorphology and arthropods.

Perceptions of Wildfire Threat and Mitigation Measures by Residents of Fire-Prone Communities in the Northeast: Survey Results and Wildland Fire Management Implications

Treesearch

Robert L. Ryan; Mark B. Wamsley

2006-01-01

We surveyed residents of fire-prone areas of the Central Pine Barrens of Long Island, New York, and the Plymouth Pine Barrens in Massachusetts to learn how they perceived wildland fire risk and management techniques for reducing fire hazard. We found that residents considered the fire threat to their own property to be relatively low in spite of first-hand experience...

Greenhouse gas emission reduction: A case study of Sri Lanka

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Meier, P.; Munasinghe, M.

1995-12-31

In this paper we describe a case study for Sri Lanka that explores a wide range of options for reducing greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. Options range from renewable technologies to carbon taxes and transportation sector initiatives. We find that setting electricity prices to reflect long-run marginal cost has a significant beneficial impact on the environment, and the expected benefits predicted on theoretical grounds are confirmed by the empirical results. Pricing reform also has a much broader impact than physical approaches to demand side management, although several options such as compact fluorescent lighting appear to have great potential. Options to reducemore » GHG emissions are limited as Sri Lanka lacks natural gas, and nuclear power is not practical until the system reaches a much larger size. Building the few remaining large hydro facilities would significantly reduce GHG emissions, but these would require costly resettlement programs. Given the inevitability for fossil-fuel base load generation, both clean coal technologies such as pressurized fluidized bed combustion, as well as steam-cycle residual oil fueled plants merit consideration as alternatives to the conventional pulverized coal-fired plants currently being considered. Transportation sector measures necessary to ameliorate local urban air pollution problems, such as vehicle inspection and maintenance programs, also bring about significant reductions of GHG emissions. 51 refs., 10 figs., 3 tabs.« less

A GIS-based framework for evaluating investments in fire management: Spatial allocation of recreation values

Treesearch

Kenneth A. Baerenklau; Armando González-Cabán; Catrina I. Páez; Edgard Chávez

2009-01-01

The U.S. Forest Service is responsible for developing tools to facilitate effective and efficient fire management on wildlands and urban-wildland interfaces. Existing GIS-based fire modeling software only permits estimation of the costs of fire prevention and mitigation efforts as well as the effects of those efforts on fire behavior. This research demonstrates how the...

Understanding the effects of fire management practices on forest health: implications for weeds and vegetation structure

Treesearch

Anne E. Black; Peter Landres

2012-01-01

Current fire policy to restore ecosystem function and resiliency and reduce buildup of hazardous fuels implies a larger future role for fire (both natural and human ignitions) (USDA Forest Service and U.S. Department of the Interior 2000). Yet some fire management (such as building fire line, spike camps, or helispots) potentially causes both short- and longterm...

The role of fire in managing for biological diversity on native rangelands of the Northern Great Plains

Treesearch

Carolyn Hull Sieg

1997-01-01

A strategy for using fire to manage for biological diversity on native rangelands in the Northern Great Plains incorporates an understanding of its past frequency, timing and intensity. Historically, lightning and humans were the major fire setters, and the role of fire varied both in space and time. A burning regime that includes fires at various intervals, seasons...

Validation of BEHAVE fire behavior predictions in oak savannas using five fuel models

Treesearch

Keith Grabner; John Dwyer; Bruce Cutter

1997-01-01

Prescribed fire is a valuable tool in the restoration and management of oak savannas. BEHAVE, a fire behavior prediction system developed by the United States Forest Service, can be a useful tool when managing oak savannas with prescribed fire. BEHAVE predictions of fire rate-of-spread and flame length were validated using four standardized fuel models: Fuel Model 1 (...

Understanding effects of fire suppression, fuels treatment, and wildfire on bird communities in the Klamath-Siskiyou ecoregion

Treesearch

John D. Alexander; C. John Ralph; Bill Hogoboom; Nathaniel E. Seavy; Stewart Janes

2004-01-01

Although fire management is increasingly recognized as an important component of conservation in Klamath-Siskiyou ecosystems, empirical evidence on the ecological effects of fire in this region is limited. Here we describe a conceptual model as a framework for understanding the effects of fire and fire management on bird abundance. This model identifies three major...

Fire history and fire management implications in the Yukon Flats National Wildlife Refuge, interior Alaska

Treesearch

S. A. Drury; P. J. Grissom

2008-01-01

We conducted this investigation in response to criticisms that the current Alaska Interagency Fire Management Plans are allowing too much of the landscape in interior Alaska to burn annually. To address this issue, we analyzed fire history patterns within the Yukon Flats National Wildlife Refuge, interior Alaska. We dated 40 fires on 27 landscape points within the...

Factors in United States Forest Service district rangers' decision to manage a fire for resource benefit

Treesearch

Martha A. Williamson

2007-01-01

United States wildland fire policy and program reviews in 1995 and 2000 required both the reduction of hazardous fuel and recognition of fire as a natural process. Despite the fact that existing policy permits managing natural ignitions to meet resource benefits, or Wildland Fire Use (WFU), most fuel reduction projects rely on mechanical treatments and prescribed fire...

The integrated rangeland fire management strategy actionable science plan

USGS Publications Warehouse

Aldridge, Cameron L.; Berg, Ken; Boyd, Chad S.; Boyte, Stephen P.; Bradford, John B.; Brunson, Ed; Cissel, John H.; Conway, Courtney J.; Chalfoun, Anna D.; Chambers, Jeanne C.; Clark, Patrick; Coates, Peter S.; Crist, Michele R.; Davis, Dawn M.; DeCrappeo, Nicole; Deibert, Patricia A.; Doherty, Kevin E.; Evers, Louisa B.; Finch, Deborah M.; Finn, Sean P.; Germino, Matthew J.; Glenn, Nancy F.; Gucker, Corey; Hall, John A.; Hanser, Steven E.; Havlina, Douglas W.; Heinrichs, Julie; Heller, Matt; Homer, Collin G.; Hunter, Molly E.; Jacobs, Ruth W.; Karl, Jason W.; Kearney, Richard; Kemp, Susan K; Kilkenny, Francis F.; Knick, Steven T.; Launchbaugh, Karen; Manier, Daniel J.; Mayer, Kenneth E.; Meyer, Susan E.; Monroe, Adrian; MontBlanc, Eugénie; Newingham, Beth A.; Pellant, Michael L.; Phillips, Susan L.; Pilliod, David S.; Ricca, Mark A.; Richardson, Bryce A.; Rose, Jeffrey A.; Shaw, Nancy; Sheley, Roger L.; Shinneman, Douglas J.; Wiechman , Lief A.; Wylie, Bruce K.

2016-01-01

The Integrated Rangeland Fire Management Strategy (hereafter Strategy, DOI 2015) outlined the need for coordinated, science-based adaptive management to achieve long-term protection, conservation, and restoration of the sagebrush (Artemisia spp.) ecosystem. A key component of this management approach is the identification of knowledge gaps that limit implementation of effective strategies to meet current management challenges. The tasks and actions identified in the Strategy address several broad topics related to management of the sagebrush ecosystem. This science plan is organized around these topics and specifically focuses on fire, invasive plant species and their effects on altering fire regimes, restoration, sagebrush and greater sage-grouse (Centrocercus urophasianus), and climate and weather.

Depopulation of rural landscapes exacerbates fire activity in the western Amazon.

PubMed

Uriarte, María; Pinedo-Vasquez, Miquel; DeFries, Ruth S; Fernandes, Katia; Gutierrez-Velez, Victor; Baethgen, Walter E; Padoch, Christine

2012-12-26

Destructive fires in Amazonia have occurred in the past decade, leading to forest degradation, carbon emissions, impaired air quality, and property damage. Here, we couple climate, geospatial, and province-level census data, with farmer surveys to examine the climatic, demographic, and land use factors associated with fire frequency in the Peruvian Amazon from 2000 to 2010. Although our results corroborate previous findings elsewhere that drought and proximity to roads increase fire frequency, the province-scale analysis further identifies decreases in rural populations as an additional factor. Farmer survey data suggest that increased burn scar frequency and size reflect increased flammability of emptying rural landscapes and reduced capacity to control fire. With rural populations projected to decline, more frequent drought, and expansion of road infrastructure, fire risk is likely to increase in western Amazonia. Damage from fire can be reduced through warning systems that target high-risk locations, coordinated fire fighting efforts, and initiatives that provide options for people to remain in rural landscapes.

Using fire dynamics simulator to reconstruct a hydroelectric power plant fire accident.

PubMed

Chi, Jen-Hao; Wu, Sheng-Hung; Shu, Chi-Min

2011-11-01

The location of the hydroelectric power plant poses a high risk to occupants seeking to escape in a fire accident. Calculating the heat release rate of transformer oil as 11.5 MW/m(2), the fire at the Taiwan Dajia-River hydroelectric power plant was reconstructed using the fire dynamics simulator (FDS). The variations at the escape route of the fire hazard factors temperature, radiant heat, carbon monoxide, and oxygen were collected during the simulation to verify the causes of the serious casualties resulting from the fire. The simulated safe escape time when taking temperature changes into account is about 236 sec, 155 sec for radiant heat changes, 260 sec for carbon monoxide changes, and 235-248 sec for oxygen changes. These escape times are far less than the actual escape time of 302 sec. The simulation thus demonstrated the urgent need to improve escape options for people escaping a hydroelectric power plant fire. © 2011 American Academy of Forensic Sciences.

Depopulation of rural landscapes exacerbates fire activity in the western Amazon

PubMed Central

Uriarte, María; Pinedo-Vasquez, Miquel; DeFries, Ruth S.; Fernandes, Katia; Gutierrez-Velez, Victor; Baethgen, Walter E.; Padoch, Christine

2012-01-01

Destructive fires in Amazonia have occurred in the past decade, leading to forest degradation, carbon emissions, impaired air quality, and property damage. Here, we couple climate, geospatial, and province-level census data, with farmer surveys to examine the climatic, demographic, and land use factors associated with fire frequency in the Peruvian Amazon from 2000 to 2010. Although our results corroborate previous findings elsewhere that drought and proximity to roads increase fire frequency, the province-scale analysis further identifies decreases in rural populations as an additional factor. Farmer survey data suggest that increased burn scar frequency and size reflect increased flammability of emptying rural landscapes and reduced capacity to control fire. With rural populations projected to decline, more frequent drought, and expansion of road infrastructure, fire risk is likely to increase in western Amazonia. Damage from fire can be reduced through warning systems that target high-risk locations, coordinated fire fighting efforts, and initiatives that provide options for people to remain in rural landscapes. PMID:23236144

Reconstructing past fire regimes: methods, applications, and relevance to fire management and conservation

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Conedera, Marco; Tinner, Willy; Neff, Christophe; Meurer, Manfred; Dickens, Angela F.; Krebs, Patrik

2009-03-01

Biomass burning and resulting fire regimes are major drivers of vegetation changes and of ecosystem dynamics. Understanding past fire dynamics and their relationship to these factors is thus a key factor in preserving and managing present biodiversity and ecosystem functions. Unfortunately, our understanding of the disturbance dynamics of past fires is incomplete, and many open questions exist relevant to these concepts and the related methods. In this paper we describe the present status of the fire-regime concept, discuss the notion of the fire continuum and related proxies, and review the most important existing approaches for reconstructing fire history at centennial to millennial scales. We conclude with a short discussion of selected directions for future research that may lead to a better understanding of past fire-regime dynamics. In particular, we suggest that emphasis should be laid on (1) discriminating natural from anthropogenic fire-regime types, (2) improving combined analysis of fire and vegetation reconstructions to study long-term fire ecology, and (3) overcoming problems in defining temporal and spatial scales of reference, which would allow better use of past records to gain important insights for landscape, fire and forest management.

Using NASA Satellite Observations to Map Wildfire Risk in the United States for Allocation of Fire Management Resources

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Farahmand, A.; Reager, J. T., II; Behrangi, A.; Stavros, E. N.; Randerson, J. T.

2017-12-01

Fires are a key disturbance globally acting as a catalyst for terrestrial ecosystem change and contributing significantly to both carbon emissions and changes in surface albedo. The socioeconomic impacts of wildfire activities are also significant with wildfire activity results in billions of dollars of losses every year. Fire size, area burned and frequency are increasing, thus the likelihood of fire danger, defined by United States National Interagency Fire Center (NFIC) as the demand of fire management resources as a function of how flammable fuels (a function of ignitability, consumability and availability) are from normal, is an important step toward reducing costs associated with wildfires. Numerous studies have aimed to predict the likelihood of fire danger, but few studies use remote sensing data to map fire danger at scales commensurate with regional management decisions (e.g., deployment of resources nationally throughout fire season with seasonal and monthly prediction). Here, we use NASA Gravity Recovery And Climate Experiment (GRACE) assimilated surface soil moisture, NASA Atmospheric Infrared Sounder (AIRS) vapor pressure deficit, NASA Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) enhanced vegetation index products and landcover products, along with US Forest Service historical fire activity data to generate probabilistic monthly fire potential maps in the United States. These maps can be useful in not only government operational allocation of fire management resources, but also improving understanding of the Earth System and how it is changing in order to refine predictions of fire extremes.

Formulation, Pretreatment, and Densification Options to Improve Biomass Specifications for Co-Firing High Percentages with Coal

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Jaya Shankar Tumuluru; J Richard Hess; Richard D. Boardman

2012-06-01

There is a growing interest internationally to use more biomass for power generation, given the potential for significant environmental benefits and long-term fuel sustainability. However, the use of biomass alone for power generation is subject to serious challenges, such as feedstock supply reliability, quality, and stability, as well as comparative cost, except in situations in which biomass is locally sourced. In most countries, only a limited biomass supply infrastructure exists. Alternatively, co-firing biomass alongwith coal offers several advantages; these include reducing challenges related to biomass quality, buffering the system against insufficient feedstock quantity, and mitigating the costs of adapting existingmore » coal power plants to feed biomass exclusively. There are some technical constraints, such as low heating values, low bulk density, and grindability or size-reduction challenges, as well as higher moisture, volatiles, and ash content, which limit the co-firing ratios in direct and indirect co-firing. To achieve successful co-firing of biomass with coal, biomass feedstock specifications must be established to direct pretreatment options in order to modify biomass materials into a format that is more compatible with coal co-firing. The impacts on particle transport systems, flame stability, pollutant formation, and boiler-tube fouling/corrosion must also be minimized by setting feedstock specifications, which may include developing new feedstock composition by formulation or blending. Some of the issues, like feeding, co-milling, and fouling, can be overcome by pretreatment methods including washing/leaching, steam explosion, hydrothermal carbonization, and torrefaction, and densification methods such as pelletizing and briquetting. Integrating formulation, pretreatment, and densification will help to overcome issues related to physical and chemical composition, storage, and logistics to successfully co-fire higher percentages of biomass ( > 40%) with coal.« less

Fire for restoration of communities and ecosystems

Treesearch

Donald I. Dickmann; Jeanette L. Rollinger

1998-01-01

The exclusion of fire from ecosystems to which it was a frequent visitor has produced profound alterations in historic ecological conditions; therefore, fire must be an integral component of ecosystem management. That was the overwhelming message conveyed by speakers at the symposium, Fire for Restoration of Communities and Ecosystems. Speakers from land management...

Evaluating spatially explicit burn probabilities for strategic fire management planning

Treesearch

C. Miller; M.-A. Parisien; A. A. Ager; M. A. Finney

2008-01-01

Spatially explicit information on the probability of burning is necessary for virtually all strategic fire and fuels management planning activities, including conducting wildland fire risk assessments, optimizing fuel treatments, and prevention planning. Predictive models providing a reliable estimate of the annual likelihood of fire at each point on the landscape have...

Refining the oak-fire hypothesis for management of oak-dominated forests of the eastern United States

Treesearch

Mary A. Arthur; Heather D. Alexander; Daniel C. Dey; Callie J. Schweitzer; David L. Loftis

2012-01-01

Prescribed fires are increasingly implemented throughout eastern deciduous forests to accomplish various management objectives, including maintenance of oak-dominated (Quercus spp.) forests. Despite a regional research-based understanding of prehistoric and historic fire regimes, a parallel understanding of contemporary fire use to preserve oak...

Fire weather technology for fire agrometeorology operations

Treesearch

Francis Fujioka

2008-01-01

Even as the magnitude of wildfire problems increases globally, United Nations agencies are acting to mitigate the risk of wildfire disasters to members. Fire management organizations worldwide may vary considerably in operational scope, depending on the number and type of resources an organization manages. In any case, good fire weather information is vital. This paper...

Social Science Research Related to Wildfire Management: An Overview of Recent Findings and Future Research Needs

Treesearch

Sarah M. McCaffrey; Eric Toman; Melanie Stidham; Bruce Shindler

2012-01-01

As with other aspects of natural-resource management, the approach to managing wildland fires has evolved over time as scientific understanding has advanced and the broader context surrounding management decisions has changed. Prior to 2000 the primary focus of most fire research was on the physical and ecological aspects of fire; social science research was limited to...

Using ecological forecasting of future vegetation transition and fire frequency change in the Sierra Nevada to assess fire management strategies

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Thorne, J. H.; Schwartz, M. W.; Holguin, A. J.; Moritz, M.; Batllori, E.; Folger, K.; Nydick, K.

2013-12-01

Ecological systems may respond in complex manners as climate change progresses. Among the responses, site-level climate conditions may cause a shift in vegetation due to the physiological tolerances of plant species, and the fire return interval may change. Natural resource managers challenged with maintaining ecosystem health need a way to forecast how these processes may affect every location, in order to determine appropriate management actions and prioritize locations for interventions. We integrated climate change-driven vegetation type transitions with projected change in fire frequency for 45,203 km2 of the southern Sierra Nevada, California, containing over 10 land management agencies as well as private lands. This Magnitude of Change (MOC) approach involves classing vegetation types in current time according to their climate envelopes, and identifying which sites will in the future have climates beyond what that vegetation currently occurs in. Independently, fire models are used to determine the change in fire frequency for each site. We examined 82 vegetation types with >50 grid cell occurrences. We found iconic resources such as the giant sequoia, lower slope oak woodlands, and high elevation conifer forests are projected as highly vulnerable by models that project a warmer drier future, but not as much by models that project a warmer future that is not drier than current conditions. Further, there were strongly divergent vulnerabilities of these forest types across land ownership (National Parks versus US Forest Service lands), and by GCM. For example, of 50 giant sequoia (Sequoiadendron giganteum) groves and complexes, all but 3 (on Sierra National Forest) were in the 2 highest levels of risk of climate and fire under the GFDL A2 projection, while 15 groves with low-to-moderate risk were found on both the National Parks and National Forests 18 in the 2 under PCM A2. Landscape projections of potential MOC suggest that the region is likely to experience strong upslope shifting of open grassland, chaparral and hardwood types, which may be initiated by increased fire frequencies, particularly where fires have not recently burned within normal fire recurrence interval departures (FRID). An evaluation of four fire management strategies (business as usual; resist change; foster orderly change; protect vital resources) across four combinations of future climate and fire frequency found that no single management strategy was uniformly successful in protecting critical resources across the range of future conditions examined. This limitation is somewhat driven by current management constraints on the amount of management available to resource managers, which suggests management will need to use a triage approach to application of proactive fire management strategies, wherein MOC landscape projections can be used in decision support.

Coarse woody debris: Managing benefits and fire hazard in the recovering forest

Treesearch

James K. Brown; Elizabeth D. Reinhardt; Kylie A. Kramer

2003-01-01

Management of coarse woody debris following fire requires consideration of its positive and negative values. The ecological benefits of coarse woody debris and fire hazard considerations are summarized. This paper presents recommendations for desired ranges of coarse woody debris. Example simulations illustrate changes in debris over time and with varying management....

Guidance on spatial wildland fire analysis: models, tools, and techniques

Treesearch

Richard D. Stratton

2006-01-01

There is an increasing need for spatial wildland fire analysis in support of incident management, fuel treatment planning, wildland-urban assessment, and land management plan development. However, little guidance has been provided to the field in the form of training, support, or research examples. This paper provides guidance to fire managers, planners, specialists,...

Legal barriers to effective ecosystem management: exploring linkages between liability, regulations, and prescribed fire.

PubMed

Wonkka, Carissa L; Rogers, William E; Kreuter, Urs P

2015-12-01

Resistance to the use of prescribed fire is strong among many private land managers despite the advantages it offers for maintaining fire-adapted ecosystems. Even managers who are aware of the benefits of using prescribed fire as a management tool avoid using it, citing potential liability as a major reason for their aversion. Recognizing the importance of prescribed fire for ecosystem management and the constraints current statutory schemes impose on its use, several states in the United States have undertaken prescribed burn statutory reform. The stated purpose of these statutory reforms, often called "right to burn" or "prescribed burning" acts, is to encourage prescribed burning for resource protection, public safety, and land management. Our research assessed the consequences of prescribed burn statutory reform by identifying legal incentives and impediments to prescribed fire application for ecosystem restoration and management, as well as fuel reduction. Specifically, we explored the relationship between prescribed burning laws and decisions made by land managers by exploiting a geographic-based natural experiment to compare landowner-prescribed fire use in contiguous counties with different regulations and legal liability standards. Controlling for potentially confounding variables, we found that private landowners in counties with gross negligence liability standards burn significantly more hectares than those in counties with simple negligence standards (F6,72 = 4.16, P = 0.046). There was no difference in hectares burned on private land between counties with additional statutorily mandated regulatory requirements and those requiring only a permit to complete a prescribed burn (F6,72 = 1.42, P = 0.24) or between counties with burn ban exemptions for certified prescribed burn managers and those with no exemptions during burn bans (F6,72 = 1.39, P = 0.24). Lawmakers attempting to develop prescribed burning statutes to promote the safe use of prescribed fire should consider the benefits of lower legal liability standards in conjunction with regulatory requirements that promote safety for those managing forests and rangelands with fire. Moreover, ecologists and land managers might be better prepared and motivated to educate stakeholder groups who influence prescribed fire policies if they are cognizant of the manner in which policy regulations and liability concerns create legal barriers that inhibit the implementation of effective ecosystem management strategies.

Fire management assessment of the Caribbean Pine (Pinus caribea) forest ecosystems on Andros and Abaco Islands, Bahamas

Treesearch

R. Myers; D. Wade; C. Bergh

2004-01-01

From 2-7 February 2003, a team of fire management and fire ecology experts visited the islands of Andros, Abaco, and New Providence in the Bahamas to gain insight into the fire issues facing the conservation of the Caribbean pine forests, which cover large percentages of each island. The objectives for the assessment were to: (1) Gather information on fire...

Management of fire regime, fuels, and fire effects in southern California chaparral: lessons from the past and thoughts for the future

Treesearch

Susan G. Conard; David R. Weise

1998-01-01

Chaparral is an intermediate fire-return interval (FRI) system, which typically bums with high-intensity crown fires. Although it covers only perhaps 10% of the state of California, and smaller areas in neighboring states, its importance in terms of fire management is disproportionately large, primarily because it occurs in the wildland-urban interface through much of...

The LANDFIRE Total Fuel Change Tool (ToFuΔ) user’s guide

USGS Publications Warehouse

Smail, Tobin; Martin, Charley; Napoli, Jim

2011-01-01

LANDFIRE fuel data were originally developed from coarse-scale existing vegetation type, existing vegetation cover, existing vegetation height, and biophysical setting layers. Fire and fuel specialists from across the country provided input to the original LANDFIRE National (LF_1.0.0) fuel layers to help calibrate fuel characteristics on a more localized scale. The LANDFIRE Total Fuel Change Tool (ToFu∆) was developed from this calibration process. Vegetation is subject to constant change – and fuels are therefore also dynamic, necessitating a systematic method for reflecting changes spatially so that fire behavior can be accurately accessed. ToFuΔ allows local experts to quickly produce maps that spatially display any proposed fuel characteristics changes. ToFu∆ works through a Microsoft Access database to produce spatial results in ArcMap based on rule sets devised by the user that take into account the existing vegetation type (EVT), existing vegetation cover (EVC), existing vegetation height (EVH), and biophysical setting (BpS) from the LANDFIRE grid data. There are also options within ToFu∆ to add discrete variables in grid format through use of the wildcard option and for subdividing specific areas for different fuel characteristic assignments through the BpS grid. The ToFu∆ user determines the size of the area for assessment by defining a Management Unit, or “MU.” User-defined rule sets made up of EVT, EVC, EVH, and BpS layers, as well as any wildcard selections, are used to change or refine fuel characteristics within the MU. Once these changes have been made to the fuel characteristics, new grids are created for fire behavior analysis or planning. These grids represent the most common ToFu∆ output. ToFuΔ is currently under development and will continue to be updated in the future. The current beta version (0.12), released in March 2011, is compatible with Windows 7 and will be the last release until the fall of 2011.

RETROFIT COSTS FOR SO2 AND NOX CONTROL OPTIONS AT 200 COAL-FIRED PLANTS, VOLUME IV - SITE SPECIFIC STUDIES FOR MO, MS, NC, NH, NJ, NY, OH

EPA Science Inventory

The report gives results of a study, the objective of which was to significantly improve engineering cost estimates currently being used to evaluate the economic effects of applying SO2 and NOx controls at 200 large SO2-emitting coal-fired utility plants. To accomplish the object...

RETROFIT COSTS FOR SO2 AND NOX CONTROL OPTIONS AT 200 COAL-FIRED PLANTS, VOLUME V - SITE SPECIFIC STUDIES FOR PA, SC, TN, VA, WI, WV

EPA Science Inventory

The report gives results of a study, the objective of which was to significantly improve engineering cost estimates currently being used to evaluate the economic effects of applying SO2 and NOx controls at 200 large SO2-emitting coal-fired utility plants. To accomplish the object...

RETROFIT COSTS FOR SO2 AND NOX CONTROL OPTIONS AT 200 COAL-FIRED PLANTS, VOLUME II - SITE SPECIFIC STUDIES FOR AL, DE. FL, GA, IL

EPA Science Inventory

The report gives results of a study, the objective of which was to significantly improve engineering cost estimates currently being used to evaluate the economic effects of applying SO2 and NOx controls at 200 large SO2-emitting coal-fired utility plants. To accomplish the object...

RETROFIT COSTS FOR SO2 AND NOX CONTROL OPTIONS AT 200 COAL-FIRED PLANTS, VOLUME III - SITE SPECIFIC STUDIES FOR IN, KY, MA, MD, MI, MN

EPA Science Inventory

The report gives results of a study, the objective of which was to significantly improve engineering cost estimates currently being used to evaluate the economic effects of applying SO2 and NOx controls at 200 large SO2-emitting coal-fired utility plants. To accomplish the object...

40 CFR Appendix E to Part 75 - Optional NOX Emissions Estimation Protocol for Gas-Fired Peaking Units and Oil-Fired Peaking Units

Code of Federal Regulations, 2011 CFR

2011-07-01

... according to the following procedures. 2.1.6.1Plot the heat input rate (mmBtu/hr) as the independent (or x... stationary gas turbine, select at least four operating parameters indicative of the turbine's NOX formation... least four operating parameters indicative of the engine's NOX formation characteristics, and define in...

40 CFR Appendix D to Part 75 - Optional SO2 Emissions Data Protocol for Gas-Fired and Oil-Fired Peaking Units

Code of Federal Regulations, 2011 CFR

2011-07-01

... one-quarter extension of the deadline for the next fuel flowmeter system accuracy test may be claimed... certification to use this protocol no later than 45 days after the completion of all certification tests. 2... certification in any of the following ways (as applicable): by design (orifice, nozzle, and venturi-type...

Fire patterns in the range of the greater sage-grouse, 1984-2013 — Implications for conservation and management

USGS Publications Warehouse

Brooks, Matthew L.; Matchett, John R.; Shinneman, Douglas J.; Coates, Peter S.

2015-09-10

The results indicate that fire threats are higher in the four western than in the three eastern management zones. Among the four western management zones, the Snake River Plain and the Columbia Basin ranked somewhat higher than the Southern Great Basin and Northern Great Basin in terms of fire effects on sage-grouse habitat. These results support the previous high ranking of fire as a threat to the greater sage-grouse in the western region. In contrast, considering the low rankings for fire threats in the eastern region, it may be useful to reconsider the relative importance of wildfire as a threat to greater sage-grouse in those three management zones.

Improving the Interoperability of Disaster Models: a Case Study of Proposing Fireml for Forest Fire Model

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Jiang, W.; Wang, F.; Meng, Q.; Li, Z.; Liu, B.; Zheng, X.

2018-04-01

This paper presents a new standardized data format named Fire Markup Language (FireML), extended by the Geography Markup Language (GML) of OGC, to elaborate upon the fire hazard model. The proposed FireML is able to standardize the input and output documents of a fire model for effectively communicating with different disaster management systems to ensure a good interoperability. To demonstrate the usage of FireML and testify its feasibility, an adopted forest fire spread model being compatible with FireML is described. And a 3DGIS disaster management system is developed to simulate the dynamic procedure of forest fire spread with the defined FireML documents. The proposed approach will enlighten ones who work on other disaster models' standardization work.

Risks and issues in fire safety on the Space Station

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Friedman, Robert

1993-01-01

A fire in the inhabited portion of a spacecraft is a greatly feared hazard, but fire protection in space operations is complicated by two factors. First, the spacecraft cabin is an enclosed volume, which limits the resources for fire fighting and the options for crew escape. Second, an orbiting spacecraft experiences a balance of forces, creating a near-zero-gravity (microgravity) environment that profoundly affects the characteristics of fire initiation, spread, and suppression. The current Shuttle Orbiter is protected by a fire-detection and suppression system whose requirements are derived of necessity from accepted terrestrial and aircraft standards. While experience has shown that Shuttle fire safety is adequate, designers recognize that improved systems to respond specifically to microgravity fire characteristics are highly desirable. Innovative technology is particularly advisable for the Space Station, a forthcoming space community with a complex configuration and long-duration orbital missions, in which the effectiveness of current fire-protection systems is unpredictable. The development of risk assessments to evaluate the probabilities and consequences of fire incidents in spacecraft are briefly reviewed. It further discusses the important unresolved issues and needs for improved fire safety in the Space Station, including those of material selection, spacecraft atmospheres, fire detection, fire suppression, and post-fire restoration.

Assessing Potential Future Carbon Dynamics with Climate Change and Fire Management in a Mountainous Landscape on the Olympic Peninsula, Washington, USA

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Kennedy, R. S.

2010-12-01

Forests of the mountainous landscapes of the maritime Pacific Northwestern USA may have high carbon sequestration potential via their high productivity and moderate to infrequent fire regimes. With climate change, there may be shifts in incidence and severity of fire, especially in the drier areas of the region, via changes to forest productivity and hydrology, and consequent effects to C sequestration and forest structure. To explore this issue, I assessed potential effects of fire management (little fire suppression/wildland fire management/highly effective fire suppression) under two climate change scenarios on future C sequestration dynamics (amounts and spatial pattern) in Olympic National Park, WA, over a 500-year simulation period. I used the simulation platform FireBGCv2, which contains a mechanistic, individual tree succession model, a spatially explicit climate-based biophysical model that uses daily weather data, and a spatially explicit fire model incorporating ignition, spread, and effects on ecosystem components. C sequestration patterns varied over time and spatial and temporal patterns differed somewhat depending on the climate change scenario applied and the fire management methods employed. Under the more extreme climate change scenario with little fire suppression, fires were most frequent and severe and C sequestration decreased. General trends were similar under the more moderate climate change scenario, as compared to current climate, but spatial patterns differed. Both climate change scenarios under highly effective fire suppression showed about 50% of starting total C after the initial transition phase, whereas with 10% fire suppression both scenarios exhibited about 10% of starting amounts. Areas of the landscape that served as refugia for older forest under increasing frequency of high severity fire were also hotspots for C sequestration in a landscape experiencing increasing frequency of disturbance with climate change.

Fire Island National Seashore : alternative transportation study.

DOT National Transportation Integrated Search

2011-12-31

As part of its General Management Plan (GMP) process, Fire Island National Seashore (FIIS) seeks to develop a long-term management model to protect Fire Islands resources, while facilitating a safe, rewarding, and relevant experience for the publi...

LANDFIRE: Collaboration for National Fire Fuel Assessment

USGS Publications Warehouse

Zhu, Zhi-Liang

2006-01-01

The implementation of national fire management policies, such as the National Fire Plan and the Healthy Forest Restoration Act, requires geospatial data of vegetation types and structure, wildland fuels, fire risks, and ecosystem fire regime conditions. Presently, no such data sets are available that can meet these requirements. As a result, the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) Forest Service and the Department of the Interior's land management bureaus (Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA), Bureau of Land Management (BLM), Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS), and National Park Service (NPS)) have jointly sponsored LANDFIRE, a new research and development project. The primary objective of the project is to develop an integrated and repeatable methodology and produce vegetation, fire, and ecosystem information and predictive models for cost-effective national land management applications. The project is conducted collaboratively by the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS), the USDA Forest Service, and The Nature Conservancy.

Testing a basic assumption of shrubland fire management: Does the hazard of burning increase with the age of fuels?

USGS Publications Warehouse

Moritz, Max A.; Keeley, Jon E.; Johnson, Edward A.; Schaffner, Andrew A.

2004-01-01

This year's catastrophic wildfires in southern California highlight the need for effective planning and management for fire-prone landscapes. Fire frequency analysis of several hundred wildfires over a broad expanse of California shrublands reveals that there is generally not, as is commonly assumed, a strong relationship between fuel age and fire probabilities. Instead, the hazard of burning in most locations increases only moderately with time since the last fire, and a marked age effect of fuels is observed only in limited areas. Results indicate a serious need for a re-evaluation of current fire management and policy, which is based largely on eliminating older stands of shrubland vegetation. In many shrubland ecosystems exposed to extreme fire weather, large and intense wildfires may need to be factored in as inevitable events.

Public acceptance of wildland fire and fuel management: Panel responses in seven locations

Treesearch

Eric Toman; Bruce Shindler; Sarah McCaffrey; James Bennett

2014-01-01

Wildland fire affects both public and private resources throughout the United States. A century of fire suppression has contributed to changing ecological conditions and accumulated fuel loads. Managers have used a variety of approaches to address these conditions and reduce the likelihood of wildland fires that may result in adverse ecological impacts and threaten...

Resource values in analyzing fire management programs for economic efficiency

Treesearch

Irene A. Althaus; Thomas J. Mills

1982-01-01

In analyzing fire management programs for their economic efficiency, it is necessary to assign monetary values to the changes in resource outputs caused by, fire. The derivation of resource values is complicated by imperfect or nonexistent commercial market structures. The valuation concept recommended for fire program analyses is willingness-to-pay because it permits...

Fire regimes, forest change, and self-organization in an old-growth mixed-conifer forest, Yosemite National Park, USA.

PubMed

Scholl, Andrew E; Taylor, Alan H

2010-03-01

Fire is recognized as a keystone process in dry mixed-conifer forests that have been altered by decades of fire suppression, Restoration of fire disturbance to these forests is a guiding principle of resource management in the U.S. National Park Service. Policy implementation is often hindered by a poor understanding of forest conditions before fire exclusion, the characteristics of forest changes since excluding fire, and the influence of topographic or self-organizing controls on forest structure. In this study the spatial and temporal characteristics of fire regimes and forest structure are reconstructed in a 2125-ha mixed-conifer forest. Forests were multi-aged, burned frequently at low severity and fire-return interval, and forest structure did not vary with slope aspect, elevation, or slope position. Fire exclusion has caused an increase in forest density and basal area and a compositional shift to shade-tolerant and fire-intolerant species. The median point fire-return interval and extent of a fire was 10 yr and 115 ha, respectively. The pre-Euro-American settlement fire rotation of 13 yr increased to 378 yr after 1905. The position of fire scars within tree rings indicates that 79% of fires burned in the midsummer to fall period. The spatial pattern of burns exhibited self-organizing behavior. Area burned was 10-fold greater when an area had not been burned by the previous fire. Fires were frequent and widespread, but patches of similar aged trees were < 0.2 ha, suggesting small fire-caused canopy openings. Managers need to apply multiple burns at short intervals for a sustained period to reduce surface fuels and create small canopy openings characteristic of the reference forest. By coupling explicit reference conditions with consideration of current conditions and projected climate change, management activities can balance restoration and risk management.

Understanding the effects of fire management practices on forest health: Implications for weeds and vegetation structure (Project INT-F-04-01) [Chapter 14

Treesearch

Anne E. Black; Peter Landres

2011-01-01

Current fire policy to restore ecosystem function and resiliency and reduce buildup of hazardous fuels implies a larger future role for fire (both natural and human ignitions) (USDA and USDOI 2000). Yet some fire management (such as building fire line, spike camps, or heli-spots) potentially causes both short- and long-term impacts to forest health. In the short run,...

Impacts of fire exclusion and recent managed fire on forest structure in old growth Sierra Nevada mixed-conifer forests

Treesearch

Brandon M. Collins; Richard G. Everett; Scott L. Stephens

2011-01-01

We re-sampled areas included in an unbiased 1911 timber inventory conducted by the U.S. Forest Service over a 4000 ha study area. Over half of the re-sampled area burned in relatively recent management- and lightning-ignited fires. This allowed for comparisons of both areas that have experienced recent fire and areas with no recent fire, to the same areas historically...

New and revised fire effects tools for fire management

Treesearch

Robert E. Keane; Greg Dillon; Stacy Drury; Robin Innes; Penny Morgan; Duncan Lutes; Susan J. Prichard; Jane Smith; Eva Strand

2014-01-01

Announcing the release of new software packages for application in wildland fire science and management, two fields that are already fully saturated with computer technology, may seem a bit too much to many managers. However, there have been some recent releases of new computer programs and revisions of existing software and information tools that deserve mention...

Biological and Management Implications of Fire-Pathogen Interactions in the Giant Sequoia Ecosystem

Treesearch

Douglas D. Piirto; John R. Parmeter; Fields W. Cobb; Kevin L. Piper; Amy C. Workinger; William J. Otrosina

1998-01-01

An overriding management goal for national parks is the maintenance or, where necessary, the restoration of natural ecological processes. In Sequoia-Kings Canyon and Yosemite National Parks, there is concern about the effects of fire suppression on the giant sequoia-mixed conifer forest ecosystem. The National Park Service is currently using prescribed fire management...

A Landscape-Scale, Applied Fire Management Experiment Promotes Recovery of a Population of the Threatened Gouldian Finch, Erythrura gouldiae, in Australia's Tropical Savannas.

PubMed

Legge, Sarah; Garnett, Stephen; Maute, Kim; Heathcote, Joanne; Murphy, Steve; Woinarski, John C Z; Astheimer, Lee

2015-01-01

Fire is an integral part of savanna ecology and changes in fire patterns are linked to biodiversity loss in savannas worldwide. In Australia, changed fire regimes are implicated in the contemporary declines of small mammals, riparian species, obligate-seeding plants and grass seed-eating birds. Translating this knowledge into management to recover threatened species has proved elusive. We report here on a landscape-scale experiment carried out by the Australian Wildlife Conservancy (AWC) on Mornington Wildlife Sanctuary in northwest Australia. The experiment was designed to understand the response of a key savanna bird guild to fire, and to use that information to manage fire with the aim of recovering a threatened species population. We compared condition indices among three seed-eating bird species--one endangered (Gouldian finch) and two non-threatened (long-tailed finch and double-barred finch)--from two large areas (> 2,830 km2) with initial contrasting fire regimes ('extreme': frequent, extensive, intense fire; versus 'benign': less frequent, smaller, lower intensity fires). Populations of all three species living with the extreme fire regime had condition indices that differed from their counterparts living with the benign fire regime, including higher haematocrit levels in some seasons (suggesting higher levels of activity required to find food), different seasonal haematocrit profiles, higher fat scores in the early wet season (suggesting greater food uncertainty), and then lower muscle scores later in the wet season (suggesting prolonged food deprivation). Gouldian finches also showed seasonally increasing stress hormone concentrations with the extreme fire regime. Cumulatively, these patterns indicated greater nutritional stress over many months for seed-eating birds exposed to extreme fire regimes. We tested these relationships by monitoring finch condition over the following years, as AWC implemented fire management to produce the 'benign' fire regime throughout the property. The condition indices of finch populations originally living with the extreme fire regime shifted to resemble those of their counterparts living with the benign fire regime. This research supports the hypothesis that fire regimes affect food resources for savanna seed-eating birds, with this impact mediated through a range of grass species utilised by the birds over different seasons, and that fire management can effectively moderate that impact. This work provides a rare example of applied research supporting the recovery of a population of a threatened species.

Abrupt and severe 20th Century changes in the fire regimes of southeastern Australia: Evidence from a 3000 year multi-proxy analysis

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Baker, Patrick; Mooney, Scott; Allen, Kathryn; Willersdorf, Timothy

2015-04-01

Fire is the dominant natural disturbance in southeastern Australia. For millennia it has been the driving force shaping terrestrial ecosystems in the region -- simultaneously killing vegetation and initiating regeneration across whole landscapes. Fire regimes across the region are driven by several factors including climate, vegetation, and ignition sources. Humans have been a significant contributing factor to past and present fire regimes. Prior to European settlement in the late 1700s, Aboriginal Australians used frequent, low-intensity fires to manage vegetation across much of the landscape. European settlement led to the displacement of Aboriginal communities and a shift to active fire suppression and control. This changing approach to fire management is widely believed to have initiated a fundamental shift towards extreme, high-intensity fire events as fuel loads increased. In addition, during the 20th Century prolonged periods of warm, dry conditions have occurred with greater frequency and intensity. The relative importance of climate and fire management practices on contemporary fire regimes is vigorously debated in Australia and is directly relevant to land management policies and their implementation. To put the current fire regime into historical context, we used a multi-proxy approach combining palaeo-charcoal and tree-ring analyses to assess how fire regimes have changed over the last 3000 years in the Snowy Mountains region of southeastern Australia. We found almost no evidence of high-intensity fires in the 3000 years that preceded the 20th Century. However, in the mid-20th Century there is a sudden and dramatic increase in the presence of charcoal and the pulsed establishment of trees across the landscape, suggesting a recent shift from low-intensity fires with minimal charcoal signatures to moderate- to high-intensity fires with substantial charcoal inputs. Importantly, the tree-ring data demonstrate that most of these fires were not stand-replacing and led to the establishment of multiple-age cohorts. While there is a clear shift in the fire regime in the 20th Century, the intensification of fire occurs nearly 150 years after European settlement in this area and has led to the establishment of complex, multi-aged forests across the landscape, suggesting an important interaction between fire management practices associated with European settlement and changing climatic conditions.

Fire characteristics associated with firefighter injury on large federal wildland fires.

PubMed

Britton, Carla; Lynch, Charles F; Torner, James; Peek-Asa, Corinne

2013-02-01

Wildland fires present many injury hazards to firefighters. We estimate injury rates and identify fire-related factors associated with injury. Data from the National Interagency Fire Center from 2003 to 2007 provided the number of injuries in which the firefighter could not return to his or her job assignment, person-days worked, and fire characteristics (year, region, season, cause, fuel type, resistance to control, and structures destroyed). We assessed fire-level risk factors of having at least one reported injury using logistic regression. Negative binomial regression was used to examine incidence rate ratios associated with fire-level risk factors. Of 867 fires, 9.5% required the most complex management and 24.7% required the next-highest level of management. Fires most often occurred in the western United States (82.8%), during the summer (69.6%), caused by lightening (54.9%). Timber was the most frequent fuel source (40.2%). Peak incident management level, person-days of exposure, and the fire's resistance to control were significantly related to the odds of a fire having at least one reported injury. However, the most complex fires had a lower injury incidence rate than less complex fires. Although fire complexity and the number of firefighters were associated with the risk for at least one reported injury, the more experienced and specialized firefighting teams had lower injury incidence. Copyright © 2013 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

A new website with real-time dissemination of information on fire activity and meteorological fire danger in Portugal

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

DaCamara, Carlos; Trigo, Ricardo; Nunes, Sílvia; Pinto, Miguel; Oliveira, Tiago; Almeida, Rui

2017-04-01

In Portugal, like in Mediterranean Europe, fire activity is a natural phenomenon linking climate, humans and vegetation and is therefore conditioned by natural and anthropogenic factors. Natural factors include topography, vegetation cover and prevailing weather conditions whereas anthropogenic factors encompass land management practices and fire prevention policies. Land management practices, in particular the inadequate use of fire, is a crucial anthropogenic factor that accounts for about 90% of fire ignitions. Fire prevention policies require adequate and timely information about wildfire potential assessment, which is usually based on fire danger rating systems that provide indices to be used on an operational and tactical basis in decision support systems. We present a new website designed to provide the user community with relevant real-time information on fire activity and meteorological fire danger that will allow adopting the adequate measures to mitigate fire damage. The fire danger product consists of forecasts of fire danger over Portugal based on a statistical procedure that combines information about fire history derived from the Fire Radiative Power product disseminated by the Land Surface Analysis Satellite Application Facility (LSA SAF) with daily meteorological forecasts provided by the European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts (ECMWF). The aim of the website is fourfold; 1) to concentrate all information available (databases and maps) relevant to fire management in a unique platform so that access by end users becomes easier, faster and friendlier; 2) to supervise the access of users to the different products available; 3) to control and assist the access to the platform and obtain feedbacks from users for further improvements; 4) to outreach the operational community and foster the use of better information that increase efficiency in risk management. The website is sponsored by The Navigator Company, a leading force in the global pulp and paper market. Since the operational start of the website, the number of registered users has been steadily increasing up to a total of 300 users from a wide community that encompasses forest managers, firemen and civil protection officers, personnel from municipalities, academic researchers and private owners.

Management and climate contributions to satellite-derived active fire trends in the contiguous United States

PubMed Central

Lin, Hsiao-Wen; McCarty, Jessica L; Wang, Dongdong; Rogers, Brendan M; Morton, Douglas C; Collatz, G James; Jin, Yufang; Randerson, James T

2014-01-01

Fires in croplands, plantations, and rangelands contribute significantly to fire emissions in the United States, yet are often overshadowed by wildland fires in efforts to develop inventories or estimate responses to climate change. Here we quantified decadal trends, interannual variability, and seasonality of Terra Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) observations of active fires (thermal anomalies) as a function of management type in the contiguous U.S. during 2001–2010. We used the Monitoring Trends in Burn Severity database to identify active fires within the perimeter of large wildland fires and land cover maps to identify active fires in croplands. A third class of fires defined as prescribed/other included all residual satellite active fire detections. Large wildland fires were the most variable of all three fire types and had no significant annual trend in the contiguous U.S. during 2001–2010. Active fires in croplands, in contrast, increased at a rate of 3.4% per year. Cropland and prescribed/other fire types combined were responsible for 77% of the total active fire detections within the U.S and were most abundant in the south and southeast. In the west, cropland active fires decreased at a rate of 5.9% per year, likely in response to intensive air quality policies. Potential evaporation was a dominant regulator of the interannual variability of large wildland fires, but had a weaker influence on the other two fire types. Our analysis suggests it may be possible to modify landscape fire emissions within the U.S. by influencing the way fires are used in managed ecosystems. Key Points Wildland, cropland, and prescribed fires had different trends and patterns Sensitivity to climate varied with fire type Intensity of air quality regulation influenced cropland burning trends PMID:26213662

Management and climate contributions to satellite-derived active fire trends in the contiguous United States.

PubMed

Lin, Hsiao-Wen; McCarty, Jessica L; Wang, Dongdong; Rogers, Brendan M; Morton, Douglas C; Collatz, G James; Jin, Yufang; Randerson, James T

2014-04-01

Fires in croplands, plantations, and rangelands contribute significantly to fire emissions in the United States, yet are often overshadowed by wildland fires in efforts to develop inventories or estimate responses to climate change. Here we quantified decadal trends, interannual variability, and seasonality of Terra Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) observations of active fires (thermal anomalies) as a function of management type in the contiguous U.S. during 2001-2010. We used the Monitoring Trends in Burn Severity database to identify active fires within the perimeter of large wildland fires and land cover maps to identify active fires in croplands. A third class of fires defined as prescribed/other included all residual satellite active fire detections. Large wildland fires were the most variable of all three fire types and had no significant annual trend in the contiguous U.S. during 2001-2010. Active fires in croplands, in contrast, increased at a rate of 3.4% per year. Cropland and prescribed/other fire types combined were responsible for 77% of the total active fire detections within the U.S and were most abundant in the south and southeast. In the west, cropland active fires decreased at a rate of 5.9% per year, likely in response to intensive air quality policies. Potential evaporation was a dominant regulator of the interannual variability of large wildland fires, but had a weaker influence on the other two fire types. Our analysis suggests it may be possible to modify landscape fire emissions within the U.S. by influencing the way fires are used in managed ecosystems. Wildland, cropland, and prescribed fires had different trends and patternsSensitivity to climate varied with fire typeIntensity of air quality regulation influenced cropland burning trends.

Wetland fire scar monitoring and analysis using archival Landsat data for the Everglades

USGS Publications Warehouse

Jones, John W.; Hall, Annette E.; Foster, Ann M.; Smith, Thomas J.

2013-01-01

The ability to document the frequency, extent, and severity of fires in wetlands, as well as the dynamics of post-fire wetland land cover, informs fire and wetland science, resource management, and ecosystem protection. Available information on Everglades burn history has been based on field data collection methods that evolved through time and differ by land management unit. Our objectives were to (1) design and test broadly applicable and repeatable metrics of not only fire scar delineation but also post-fire land cover dynamics through exhaustive use of the Landsat satellite data archives, and then (2) explore how those metrics relate to various hydrologic and anthropogenic factors that may influence post-fire land cover dynamics. Visual interpretation of every Landsat scene collected over the study region during the study time frame produced a new, detailed database of burn scars greater than 1.6 ha in size in the Water Conservation Areas and post-fire land cover dynamics for Everglades National Park fires greater than 1.6 ha in area. Median burn areas were compared across several landscape units of the Greater Everglades and found to differ as a function of administrative unit and fire history. Some burned areas transitioned to open water, exhibiting water depths and dynamics that support transition mechanisms proposed in the literature. Classification tree techniques showed that time to green-up and return to pre-burn character were largely explained by fire management practices and hydrology. Broadly applicable as they use data from the global, nearly 30-year-old Landsat archive, these methods for documenting wetland burn extent and post-fire land cover change enable cost-effective collection of new data on wetland fire ecology and independent assessment of fire management practice effectiveness.

A decision support system for managing forest fire casualties.

PubMed

Bonazountas, Marc; Kallidromitou, Despina; Kassomenos, Pavlos; Passas, Nikos

2007-09-01

Southern Europe is exposed to anthropogenic and natural forest fires. These result in loss of lives, goods and infrastructure, but also deteriorate the natural environment and degrade ecosystems. The early detection and combating of such catastrophes requires the use of a decision support system (DSS) for emergency management. The current literature reports on a series of efforts aimed to deliver DSSs for the management of the forest fires by utilising technologies like remote sensing and geographical information systems (GIS), yet no integrated system exists. This manuscript presents the results of scientific research aiming to the development of a DSS for managing forest fires. The system provides a series of software tools for the assessment of the propagation and combating of forest fires based on Arc/Info, ArcView, Arc Spatial Analyst, Arc Avenue, and Visual C++ technologies. The system integrates GIS technologies under the same data environment and utilises a common user interface to produce an integrated computer system based on semi-automatic satellite image processing (fuel maps), socio-economic risk modelling and probabilistic models that would serve as a useful tool for forest fire prevention, planning and management. Its performance has been demonstrated via real time up-to-date accurate information on the position and evolution of the fire. The system can assist emergency assessment, management and combating of the incident. A site demonstration and validation has been accomplished for the island of Evoia, Greece, an area particularly vulnerable to forest fires due to its ecological characteristics and prevailing wind patterns.

Proceedings: workshop on fire, people, and the central hardwoods landscape

Treesearch

Daniel A. Yaussy; [comp.

2000-01-01

Contains 18 papers and 16 poster abstracts on the history of fire, fire ecology, fire and ecosystem management, and fire and the future presented at the workshop on fire, people, and the central hardwoods landscape.

Investing in rangeland restoration in the Arid West, USA: countering the effects of an invasive weed on the long-term fire cycle.

PubMed

Epanchin-Niell, Rebecca; Englin, Jeffrey; Nalle, Darek

2009-01-01

In large areas of the arid western United States, much of which are federally managed, fire frequencies and associated management costs are escalating as flammable, invasive cheatgrass (Bromus tectorum) increases its stronghold. Cheatgrass invasion and the subsequent increase in fire frequency result in the loss of native vegetation, less predictable forage availability for livestock and wildlife, and increased costs and risk associated with firefighting. Revegetation following fire on land that is partially invaded by cheatgrass can reduce both the dominance of cheatgrass and its associated high fire rate. Thus restoration can be viewed as an investment in fire-prevention and, if native seed is used, an investment in maintaining native vegetation on the landscape. Here we develop and employ a Markov model of vegetation dynamics for the sagebrush steppe ecosystem to predict vegetation change and management costs under different intensities and types of post-fire revegetation. We use the results to estimate the minimum total cost curves for maintaining native vegetation on the landscape and for preventing cheatgrass dominance. Our results show that across a variety of model parameter possibilities, increased investment in post-fire revegetation reduces long-term fire management costs by more than enough to offset the costs of revegetation. These results support that a policy of intensive post-fire revegetation will reduce long-term management costs for this ecosystem, in addition to providing environmental benefits. This information may help justify costs associated with revegetation and raise the priority of restoration in federal land budgets.

Wildland fire management and air quality in the southern Sierra Nevada: using the Lion Fire as a case study with a multi-year perspective on PM(2.5) impacts and fire policy.

PubMed

Schweizer, Don; Cisneros, Ricardo

2014-11-01

Management of fire is an important and controversial policy issue. Active fire suppression has led to a backlog of fuels, limited the ecological benefits of fire, and reduced short-term smoke impacts likely delaying these emissions to future generations over a larger spatial extent. Smoke impacts can be expected to increase as fire size and intensity increase and the fuel backlog is consumed; whether through reintroduction of fire under desirable conditions or through stand replacing fire. Land Management Agencies would like to increase the use of naturally ignited fires to burn during favorable conditions as a way to reduce catastrophic fires. This study provides information about the levels of air quality impacts expected from these types of fires and discusses some of the policy controversies of managed fire that propagate inconsistencies between agencies and enter the public discourse. The Lion Fire, a primarily low intensity 8,370 ha fire that was extensively monitored for Particulate Matter less than 2.5 microns (PM2.5), is used to quantify impacts to air quality. PM2.5 monitoring sites are used to assess exposure, public health impacts, and subsequently quantify annual air quality during a year with a fire that is within the historic normal fire size and intensity for this area. Ground level PM2.5 impacts were found to be localized with 99% of the hourly Air Quality Index readings in the moderate or good category for the sites impacted by the fire. PM2.5 concentrations at sites nearest the fire were below annual federal air quality standards for PM2.5 with annual 98th percentile at the most impacted sites (Johnsondale, Kernville, and Camp Nelson) of 35.0, 34.0, and 28.0 μg m(-3) respectively. Smoke impacts to PM2.5 concentrations were not found to reach the populated Central Valley. The findings suggest that this type of fire can be implemented with minimal public health impacts thus allowing an opportunity for air and fire managers to alter policy to allow additional burning in an area with severe anthropogenic air pollution and where frequent widespread fire is both beneficial and inevitable. The more extensive air quality impacts documented with large high intensity fire may be averted by embracing the use of fire to prevent unwanted high intensity burns. A widespread increase in the use of fire for ecological benefit may provide the resiliency needed in Sierra Nevada forests as well as be the most beneficial to public health through the reduction of single dose exposure to smoke and limiting impacts spatially. Copyright © 2014 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Scientific and social challenges for the management of fire-prone wildland-urban interfaces

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Gill, A. Malcolm; Stephens, Scott L.

2009-09-01

At their worst, fires at the rural-urban or wildland-urban interface cause tragic loss of human lives and homes, but mitigating these fire effects through management elicits many social and scientific challenges. This paper addresses four interconnected management challenges posed by socially disastrous landscape fires. The issues concern various assets (particularly houses, human life and biodiversity), fuel treatments, and fire and human behaviours. The topics considered are: 'asset protection zones'; 'defensible space' and urban fire spread in relation to house ignition and loss; 'stay-or-go' policy and the prediction of time available for safe egress and the possible conflict between the creation of defensible space and wildland management objectives. The first scientific challenge is to model the effective width of an asset protection zone of an urban area. The second is to consider the effect of vegetation around a house, potentially defensible space, on fire arrival at the structure. The third scientific challenge is to present stakeholders with accurate information on rates of spread, and where the fire front is located, so as to allow them to plan safe egress or preparation time in their particular circumstances. The fourth scientific challenge is to be able to predict the effects of fires on wildland species composition. Associated with each scientific challenge is a social challenge: for the first two scientific challenges the social challenge is to co-ordinate fuel management within and between the urban and rural or wildland sides of the interface. For the third scientific challenge, the social challenge is to be aware of, and appropriately use, fire danger information so that the potential for safe egress from a home can be estimated most accurately. Finally, the fourth social challenge is to for local residents of wildland-urban interfaces with an interest in biodiversity conservation to understand the effects of fire regimes on biodiversity, thereby assisting hard-pressed wildland managers to make informed choices.

A systematic conservation planning approach to fire risk management in Natura 2000 sites.

PubMed

Foresta, Massimiliano; Carranza, Maria Laura; Garfì, Vittorio; Di Febbraro, Mirko; Marchetti, Marco; Loy, Anna

2016-10-01

A primary challenge in conservation biology is to preserve the most representative biodiversity while simultaneously optimizing the efforts associated with conservation. In Europe, the implementation of the Natura 2000 network requires protocols to recognize and map threats to biodiversity and to identify specific mitigation actions. We propose a systematic conservation planning approach to optimize management actions against specific threats based on two fundamental parameters: biodiversity values and threat pressure. We used the conservation planning software Marxan to optimize a fire management plan in a Natura 2000 coastal network in southern Italy. We address three primary questions: i) Which areas are at high fire risk? ii) Which areas are the most valuable for threatened biodiversity? iii) Which areas should receive priority risk-mitigation actions for the optimal effect?, iv) which fire-prevention actions are feasible in the management areas?. The biodiversity values for the Natura 2000 spatial units were derived from the distribution maps of 18 habitats and 89 vertebrate species of concern in Europe (Habitat Directive 92/43/EEC). The threat pressure map, defined as fire probability, was obtained from digital layers of fire risk and of fire frequency. Marxan settings were defined as follows: a) planning units of 40 × 40 m, b) conservation features defined as all habitats and vertebrate species of European concern occurring in the study area, c) conservation targets defined according with fire sensitivity and extinction risk of conservation features, and d) costs determined as the complement of fire probabilities. We identified 23 management areas in which to concentrate efforts for the optimal reduction of fire-induced effects. Because traditional fire prevention is not feasible for most of policy habitats included in the management areas, alternative prevention practices were identified that allows the conservation of the vegetation structure. The proposed approach has potential applications for multiple landscapes, threats and spatial scales and could be extended to other valuable natural areas, including protected areas. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Prescribed fire and its impacts on ecosystem services in the UK.

PubMed

Harper, Ashleigh R; Doerr, Stefan H; Santin, Cristina; Froyd, Cynthia A; Sinnadurai, Paul

2018-05-15

The impacts of vegetation fires on ecosystems are complex and varied affecting a range of important ecosystem services. Fire has the potential to affect the physicochemical and ecological status of water systems, alter several aspects of the carbon cycle (e.g. above- and below-ground carbon storage) and trigger changes in vegetation type and structure. Globally, fire is an essential part of land management in fire-prone regions in, e.g. Australia, the USA and some Mediterranean countries to mitigate the likelihood of catastrophic wildfires and sustain healthy ecosystems. In the less-fire prone UK, fire has a long history of usage in management for enhancing the productivity of heather, red grouse and sheep. This distinctly different socioeconomic tradition of burning underlies some of the controversy in recent decades in the UK around the use of fire. Negative public opinion and opposition from popular media have highlighted concerns around the detrimental impacts burning can have on the health and diversity of upland habitats. It is evident there are many gaps in the current knowledge around the environmental impacts of prescribed burning in less fire-prone regions (e.g. UK). Land owners and managers require a greater level of certainty on the advantages and disadvantages of prescribed burning in comparison to other techniques to better inform management practices. This paper addresses this gap by providing a critical review of published work and future research directions related to the impacts of prescribed fire on three key aspects of ecosystem services: (i) water quality, (ii) carbon dynamics and (iii) habitat composition and structure (biodiversity). Its overall aims are to provide guidance based on the current state-of-the-art for researchers, land owners, managers and policy makers on the potential effects of the use of burning and to inform the wider debate about the place of fire in modern conservation and land management in humid temperate ecosystems. Copyright © 2018 The Authors. Published by Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Managing Fire in the Northern Chihuahuan Desert: A Review and Analysis of the Literature

USGS Publications Warehouse

Gebow, Brooke S.; Halvorson, William L.

2005-01-01

Executive Summary This report began as a literature review (Gebow and Halvorson 2001) conducted for fire planners at Carlsbad Caverns National Park who were seeking information about (1) the natural state of park vegetation, (2) northern Chihuahuan Desert natural fire regimes, and (3) fire effects on park plant species. It is the goal of managers there to continue to refine the wildland and prescribed fire program as they learn more about the ecosystems at the park.The park has a history of grazing and then fire suppression in the 20th century. The current effort revisits questions asked by earlier workers at the park, Walter Kittams and Gary Ahlstrand, who began fire studies in the 1970s. This document addresses ecosystems and historical change to those systems in Chihuahuan Desert areas of southeast Arizona, southern New Mexico, west Texas, or in neighboring regions that share the same plant species. It examines fire literature for situations possibly analogous to those at Carlsbad Caverns. It also includes papers that offer advice on extrapolating future ecological trends from past ones (Swetnam et al. 1999) and on resource management decision-making (Grumbine 1997), and other pieces that address broader aspects of fire or landscape change (Goldman 1994; Marston 1996; Mutch 1994, 1995). These more philosophical works were included in the original review at the park's request and have been retained here because they discuss other issues relevant to fire management. Individual reviews of 35 papers, as requested originally by Carlsbad Caverns, appear in Appendix 1. The results section-summary of key findings-discusses historical changes to plant communities then focuses on burn intervals observed or recommended by workers for particular plant communities. Results from a search of the USDA Forest Service's Fire Effects Information System (www.fs.fed.us/database/feis) are also included in this report, supplemented with information from a review conducted by Ahlstrand (1981b) that included much of his own work. This database contains comprehensive plant species accounts and fire effects data. Entries are available for a number of the dominant species at Carlsbad Caverns, though the information frequently applies to the plants in other parts of their ranges. The literature presents highly variable fire effects and observed/recommended burn intervals for similar plant communities in the northern Chihuahuan Desert region. While local and longer-term fire-effects studies are still needed to guide resource managers, the variability seen in the literature itself translates into a fire management goal. Preserving the irregularity in time and space of fires would likely best replicate 'natural' fire regimes.

An integrated appraisal of energy recovery options in the United Kingdom using solid recovered fuel derived from municipal solid waste.

PubMed

Garg, A; Smith, R; Hill, D; Longhurst, P J; Pollard, S J T; Simms, N J

2009-08-01

This paper reports an integrated appraisal of options for utilising solid recovered fuels (SRF) (derived from municipal solid waste, MSW) in energy intensive industries within the United Kingdom (UK). Four potential co-combustion scenarios have been identified following discussions with industry stakeholders. These scenarios have been evaluated using (a) an existing energy and mass flow framework model, (b) a semi-quantitative risk analysis, (c) an environmental assessment and (d) a financial assessment. A summary of results from these evaluations for the four different scenarios is presented. For the given ranges of assumptions; SRF co-combustion with coal in cement kilns was found to be the optimal scenario followed by co-combustion of SRF in coal-fired power plants. The biogenic fraction in SRF (ca. 70%) reduces greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions significantly ( approximately 2500 g CO(2) eqvt./kg DS SRF in co-fired cement kilns and approximately 1500 g CO(2) eqvt./kg DS SRF in co-fired power plants). Potential reductions in electricity or heat production occurred through using a lower calorific value (CV) fuel. This could be compensated for by savings in fuel costs (from SRF having a gate fee) and grants aimed at reducing GHG emission to encourage the use of fuels with high biomass fractions. Total revenues generated from coal-fired power plants appear to be the highest ( 95 pounds/t SRF) from the four scenarios. However overall, cement kilns appear to be the best option due to the low technological risks, environmental emissions and fuel cost. Additionally, cement kiln operators have good experience of handling waste derived fuels. The scenarios involving co-combustion of SRF with MSW and biomass were less favourable due to higher environmental risks and technical issues.

Wildfire effects on source-water quality--Lessons from Fourmile Canyon fire, Colorado, and implications for drinking-water treatment

USGS Publications Warehouse

Writer, Jeffrey H.; Murphy, Sheila F.

2012-01-01

Forested watersheds provide high-quality source water for many communities in the western United States. These watersheds are vulnerable to wildfires, and wildfire size, fire severity, and length of fire season have increased since the middle 1980s (Westerling and others, 2006). Burned watersheds are prone to increased flooding and erosion, which can impair water-supply reservoirs, water quality, and drinking-water treatment processes. Limited information exists on the degree, timing, and duration of the effects of wildfire on water quality, making it difficult for drinking-water providers to evaluate the risk and develop management options. In order to evaluate the effects of wildfire on water quality and downstream ecosystems in the Colorado Front Range, the U.S. Geological Survey initiated a study after the 2010 Fourmile Canyon fire near Boulder, Colorado. Hydrologists frequently sampled Fourmile Creek at monitoring sites upstream and downstream of the burned area to study water-quality changes during hydrologic conditions such as base flow, spring snowmelt, and summer thunderstorms. This fact sheet summarizes principal findings from the first year of research. Stream discharge and nitrate concentrations increased downstream of the burned area during snowmelt runoff, but increases were probably within the treatment capacity of most drinking-water plants, and limited changes were observed in downstream ecosystems. During and after high-intensity thunderstorms, however, turbidity, dissolved organic carbon, nitrate, and some metals increased by 1 to 4 orders of magnitude within and downstream of the burned area. Increases of such magnitude can pose problems for water-supply reservoirs, drinking-water treatment plants, and downstream aquatic ecosystems.

Evaluation of silvicultural treatments and biomass use for reducing fire hazard in western states

Treesearch

Kenneth E. Skog; R. James Barbour; Karen L. Abt; E.M. (Ted) Bilek; Frank Burch; Roger D. Fight; Robert J. Hugget; Patrick D. Miles; Elizabeth D. Reinhardt; Wayne D. Shepperd

2006-01-01

Several analyses have shown that fire hazard is a concern for substantial areas of forestland, shrubland, grassland, and range in the western United States. In response, broadscale management strategies, such as the National Fire Plan, established actions to reduce the threat of undesirable fire. Available budgets are insufficient to pay for vegetative management on...

Planning for prescribed burning in the inland northwest.

Treesearch

Robert E. Martin; John D. Dell

1978-01-01

Fire has historically played a role in forests and ranges of the inland Northwest. This guide has been prepared to help managers understand the role of fire and the potential uses of fire and to plan for fire use in managing these lands. Sections deal with these topics, and steps in planning a prescribed burn are outlined. A sample burning situation illustrates the...

Building Fire Behavior Analyst (FBAN) capability and capacity: Lessons learned From Victoria, Australia's Bushfire Behavior Predictive Services Strategy

Treesearch

K. E. Gibos; A. Slijepcevic; T. Wells; L. Fogarty

2015-01-01

Wildland fire managers must frequently make meaning from chaos in order to protect communities and infrastructure from the negative impacts of fire. Fire management personnel are increasingly turning to science to support their experience-based decision-making processes and to provide clear, confident leadership for communities frequently exposed to risk from wildfire...

Using social science to understand and improve wildland fire organizations: an annotated reading list

Treesearch

Gregory Larson; Vita Wright; Cade Spaulding; Kelly Rossetto; Georgi Rausch; Andrea Richards; Stephanie Durnford

2007-01-01

The wildland fire community has spent the past decade trying to understand and account for the role of human factors in wildland fire organizations. Social research that is relevant to managing fire organizations can be found in disciplines such as social psychology, management, and communication. However, such research has been published primarily for scientific and...

Modeling tree-level fuel connectivity to evaluate the effectiveness of thinning treatments for reducing crown fire potential

Treesearch

Marco A. Contreras; Russell A. Parsons; Woodam Chung

2012-01-01

Land managers have been using fire behavior and simulation models to assist in several fire management tasks. These widely-used models use average attributes to make stand-level predictions without considering spatial variability of fuels within a stand. Consequently, as the existing models have limitations in adequately modeling crown fire initiation and propagation,...

Exploring information needs for wildland fire and fuels management

Treesearch

Carol Miller; Peter Landres

2004-01-01

We report the results of a questionnaire and workshop that sought to gain a better and deeper understanding of the contemporary information needs of wildland fire and fuels managers. Results from the questionnaire indicated that the decision to suppress a wildland fire was most often influenced by factors related to safety and that the decision to allow a fire to burn...

San Diego Declaration on Climate Change and Fire Management: Ramifications for fuels management

Treesearch

Brian P. Oswald

2007-01-01

Climate plays a central role in shaping fire regimes over long time scales and in generating short-term weather that drives fire events. Recent research suggests that the increasing numbers of large and severe wildfires, lengthened wildfire seasons, and increased area burned are, in part, related to shifts in climate. The historical fire regimes in many ecosystems have...

First-order fire effects models for land Management: Overview and issues

Treesearch

Elizabeth D. Reinhardt; Matthew B. Dickinson

2010-01-01

We give an overview of the science application process at work in supporting fire management. First-order fire effects models, such as those discussed in accompanying papers, are the building blocks of software systems designed for application to landscapes over time scales from days to centuries. Fire effects may be modeled using empirical, rule based, or process...

A statistical model for forecasting hourly ozone levels during fire season

Treesearch

Haiganoush K. Preisler; Shiyuan (Sharon) Zhong; Annie Esperanza; Leland Tarnay; Julide Kahyaoglu-Koracin

2009-01-01

Concerns about smoke from large high-intensity and managed low intensity fires have been increasing during the past decade. Because smoke from large high-intensity fires are known to contain and generate secondary fine particles (PM2.5) and ozone precursors, the effect of fires on air quality in the southern Sierra Nevada is a serious management...

A prescribed fire emission factors database for land management and air quality applications

Treesearch

E. Lincoln; WeiMin Hao; S. Baker; R. J. Yokelson; I. R. Burling; Shawn Urbanski; W. Miller; D. R. Weise; T. J. Johnson

2010-01-01

Prescribed fire is a significant emissions source in the U.S. and that needs to be adequately characterized in atmospheric transport/chemistry models. In addition, the Clean Air Act, its amendments, and air quality regulations require that prescribed fire managers estimate the quantity of emissions that a prescribed fire will produce. Several published papers contain a...

Fire history, effects and management in southern Nevada [Chapter 5

Treesearch

Mathew L. Brooks; Jeanne C. Chambers; Randy A. McKinley

2013-01-01

Fire can be both an ecosystem stressor (Chapter 2) and a critical ecosystem process, depending on when, where, and under what conditions it occurs on the southern Nevada landscape. Fire can also pose hazards to human life and property, particularly in the wildland/urban interface (WUI). The challenge faced by land managers is to prevent fires from occurring where they...

A framework for developing safe and effective large-fire response in a new fire management paradigm

Treesearch

Christopher J. Dunn; Matthew P. Thompson; David E. Calkin

2017-01-01

The impacts of wildfires have increased in recent decades because of historical forest and fire management, a rapidly changing climate, and an increasingly populated wildland urban interface. This increasingly complex fire environment highlights the importance of developing robust tools to support risk-informed decision making. While tools have been developed to aid...

Thermal remote sensing of active vegetation fires and biomass burning events [Chapter 18

Treesearch

Martin J. Wooster; Gareth Roberts; Alistair M.S. Smith; Joshua Johnston; Patrick Freeborn; Stefania Amici; Andrew T. Hudak

2013-01-01

Thermal remote sensing is widely used in the detection, study, and management of biomass burning occurring in open vegetation fires. Such fires may be planned for land management purposes, may occur as a result of a malicious or accidental ignition by humans, or may result from lightning or other natural phenomena. Under suitable conditions, fires may spread rapidly...

Repeated fire effects on soil physical properties in two young longleaf pine stands on the west gulf coastal plain

Treesearch

Mary Anne Sword Sayer

2007-01-01

Repeated prescribed fire is a valuable tool for the management of longleaf and loblolly pine. When applied every two to ten years, for example, prescribed fire perpetuates existing longleaf pine ecosystems (Outcalt 1997). Furthermore, the acceptance of fire as a management tool, together with recent improvements in longleaf pine...

Ecological foundations for fire management in North American forest and shrubland ecosystems

Treesearch

J.E. Keeley; G.H. Aplet; N.L. Christensen; S.G. Conard; E.A. Johnson; P.N. Omi; D.L. Peterson; T.W. Swetnam

2009-01-01

This synthesis provides an ecological foundation for management of the diverse ecosystems and fire regimes of North America based on scientific principles of fire interactions with vegetation, fuels, and biophysical processes. Although a large amount of scientific data on fire exists, most of those data have been collected at small spatial and temporal scales. Thus, it...

40 CFR Appendix E to Part 75 - Optional NOX Emissions Estimation Protocol for Gas-Fired Peaking Units and Oil-Fired Peaking Units

Code of Federal Regulations, 2010 CFR

2010-07-01

... the boiler at a normal or conservatively high excess oxygen level in conjunction with these tests....2Substitute 1.25 times the highest NOX emission rate from the baseline correlation tests for the fuel (or fuel... potential NOX emission rate (MER) (as defined in § 72.2 of this chapter) for each unit operating hour...

40 CFR Appendix E to Part 75 - Optional NOX Emissions Estimation Protocol for Gas-Fired Peaking Units and Oil-Fired Peaking Units

Code of Federal Regulations, 2012 CFR

2012-07-01

... the boiler at a normal or conservatively high excess oxygen level in conjunction with these tests....2Substitute 1.25 times the highest NOX emission rate from the baseline correlation tests for the fuel (or fuel... potential NOX emission rate (MER) (as defined in § 72.2 of this chapter) for each unit operating hour...

Policy Options Analysis of Assistance to Firefighters Grant Program

DTIC Science & Technology

2014-03-01

services in the grant process. The funding level, however, has been insufficient to address the unmet needs of fire services across the nation. The policy...capability, increasing regional capabilities and retaining local support for the AFG. The current approach to grant distribution was determined to provide the...The Assistance to Firefighters Grant Program (AFG) is a direct federal grant program, administered by the Department of Homeland Security, for fire

Effects of prescribed fire in giant sequoia-mixed conifer stands in Sequoia and Kings Canyon National Parks

Treesearch

Sally M. Haase; Stephen S. Sackett

1998-01-01

Many national parks have incorporated the use of management-ignited prescribed fire in their management plans. Soil and cambium heating, forest floor fuel reduction, and soil nutrient increases have been measured on eight independent, planned management fires over a 9-year period in Sequoia and Kings Canyon National Parks. Findings show that instantaneous lethal...

Fuels planning: science synthesis and integration; economic uses fact sheet 08: prescribed fire costs

Treesearch

Rocky Mountain Research Station USDA Forest Service

2004-01-01

Although the use of prescribed fire as a management tool is widespread, there is great variability and uncertainty in the treatment costs. Given specific site variables and management objectives, how much will it cost to use prescribed fire? This paper describes the FASTRACS database, a tool that has been developed to aid managers in addressing this question.

The importance of traditional fire use and management practices for contemporary land managers in the American Southwest

Treesearch

Carol Raish; Armando Gonzalez-Caban; Carol J. Condie

2005-01-01

Indigenous and traditional peoples worldwide have used fire to manipulate their environment for thousands of years. These longstanding practices still continue and have considerable relevance for today’s land managers. This discussion explores the value of documenting and understanding historic and contemporary fire use attitudes and practices of the varied cultural/...

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Lin, Rod

FIRETEC presents a new way of studying fire and learning how to better manage and cope with it. The model provides additional scientific input for decisions by policymakers working in land management, water resources and energy. The team hopes it will eventually assist fire and fuel management operations. This research is done in partnership with the USDA Forest Service, Air Force Wildland Fire Center, INRA and Canadian Forest Service.

Crisis management with applicability on fire fighting plants

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Panaitescu, M.; Panaitescu, F. V.; Voicu, I.; Dumitrescu, L. G.

2017-08-01

The paper presents a case study for a crisis management analysis which address to fire fighting plants. The procedures include the steps of FTA (Failure tree analysis). The purpose of the present paper is to describe this crisis management plan with tools of FTA. The crisis management procedures have applicability on anticipated and emergency situations and help to describe and planning a worst-case scenario plan. For this issue must calculate the probabilities in different situations for fire fighting plants. In the conclusions of paper is analised the block diagram with components of fire fighting plant and are presented the solutions for each possible risk situations.

Bottlenecks in Geospatial Data-Driven Decision-Making for Natural Disaster Management: A Case Study of Forest Fire Prevention and Control in Guatemala's Maya Biosphere Reserve

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Berenter, J. S.; Mueller, J. M.; Morrison, I.

2016-12-01

Annual forest fires are a source of great economic and environmental cost in the Maya Biosphere Reserve (MBR), a region of high ecological and historical value in Guatemala's department of Petén. Scarce institutional resources, limited local response capacity, and difficult terrain place a premium on the use of Earth observation data for forest fire management in the MBR, but also present significant institutional barriers to optimizing the value of this data. Drawing upon key informant interviews and a contingent valuation survey of national and local actors conducted during a three-year performance evaluation of the USAID/NASA Regional Visualization and Monitoring System (SERVIR), this paper traces the flow of SERVIR data from acquisition to decision in order to assess the institutional and contextual factors affecting the value of Earth observation data for forest fire management in the MBR. Findings indicate that the use of satellite data for forest fire management in the MBR is widespread and multi-dimensional: historical assessments of land use and land cover, fire scarring, and climate data help central-level fire management agencies identify and regulate fire-sensitive areas; regular monitoring and dissemination of climate data enables coordination between agricultural burning activities and fire early warning systems; and daily satellite detection of thermal anomalies in land surface temperature permits first responders to monitor and react to "hotspot" activity. Findings also suggest, however, that while the decentralized operations of Petén's fire management systems foster the use of Earth observation data, systemic bottlenecks, including budgetary constraints, inadequate data infrastructure and interpretation capacity, and obstacles to regulatory enforcement, impede the flow of information and use of technology and thus impact the value of that data, particularly in remote and under-resourced areas of the MBR. A geographic expansion and fortification of support systems for use of Earth observation data is thus required to maximize the value of data-driven forest fire management in the MBR. Findings further validate a need for continued cooperation between scientific and governance institutions to disseminate and integrate geospatial data into environmental decision-making.

Impact of postfire management on soil respiration and C concentration in a managed hemiboreal forest

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Köster, Kajar; Seglinš, Katrin; Parro, Kristi; Metslaid, Marek

2017-04-01

Fire is the main natural disturbance in boreal forests and it is expected that its frequency will increase as a result of climate change. Fire is the primary process which organizes the physical and biological attributes of the boreal biome and influences energy flows and biogeochemical cycles, particularly the carbon (C) cycle. The objective of this study was to assess the impact of forest fire and time since forest fire on soil respiration and soil C concentrations in scenarios where the area was managed or was not managed after fire disturbance. This study was carried out in two permanent research areas in northwestern Estonia (hemiboreal forest zone) that were damaged by fire: Vihterpalu (59o13' N 23o49' E) and Nõva (59o10' N 23o45' E). Fire occurred in Vihterpalu in year 1992 (550 ha burned), when the forest was 52 years old, and in Nõva in year 2008 (800 ha burned), when the forest was 70 years old. Before the fire disturbance both sites were covered with planted or sown Scots pine (Pinus sylvestris L.) forests originally regenerated after heavy fires in 1940 (Nõva) and 1951 (Vihterpalu). In all areas we are dealing with stand replacing fires where all (or almost all) of the stand was destroyed by fire. In both study areas three different types of sample areas were set up: 1) control areas (CO), that are unburned and no management activities carried out; 2) burned and cleared (BC) with salvage logging, areas in which all dead and live trees were harvested from the plot after fire; 3) burned and uncleared areas (BU), areas without management in which both dead and live trees were left on the plots after fire disturbance. On every area three measuring transects (40 m long) were established where soil respiration (g CO2 m-2h-1) was measured on five collars, and five soil samples (0.5 m long and 0.05 m in diameter) were taken to estimate soil C (kg m-2) content. In our study, highest soil respiration values were recorded in control (CO) areas, which are not affected by forest fires. In the fire areas (BC and BU) the average soil respiration values were more than two times lower than in the areas which were not affected by forest fires. Different post-fire management activities (removing or leaving damaged trees) did not affect the soil respiration values. Soil temperature had a significant impact on the CO2 flows. The recorded average soil temperature was lowest in CO and highest in BU areas, respectively. In spring and autumn soil temperatures in disturbed areas, as well as in cleared areas, were rising faster than in CO areas. In our study, 1992 fire areas had thicker litter and organic layer compared to 2008 fire areas. Most of the litter and organic matter was found in CO areas, followed by BU and BC areas. The highest C concentrations were found in CO areas. In the fire areas C concentration was also affected by the post-disturbance management, as in BC areas soil C concentration was lower compared to BU areas.

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Spoerri, Andy, E-mail: andy.spoerri@env.ethz.c; Lang, Daniel J.; Staeubli, Beat

Understanding technological change provides a crucial basis for governing sustainability transitions. In this paper we present an analysis of technological change using the example of Swiss thermal waste processing. In recent years, increased concerns about the low quality of residues from grate-firing systems led to the examination of alternative technologies. Yet despite clear indications of a potential better performance with respect to residue quality, none of these alternatives has been adopted. Based on a two-stage knowledge integration among 15 leading experts, in a retrospective analysis we identified factors that have significantly affected technological change in Swiss thermal waste processing. Thesemore » factors were then related to three technological options representing different types of technological change, i.e., from incremental improvements of the existing to the implementation of a new technology. The results indicate that technological change is currently in a technological lock-in and provide detailed insights on the causes. The lock-in results in the step-wise further development of the status quo grate-firing system despite its limitations for improving the residue qualities. Almost all factors (legal, economic, societal, technological) of the existing 'thermal waste management' system have been well adapted to the cost- and energy-efficient grate-firing technology, blocking innovative technologies from entering the Swiss market. In addition, pressures from the context, e.g., societal pressure related to landfill risks, have not been strong enough to promote non-incremental change.« less

Avian response to fire in pine–oak forests of Great Smoky Mountains National Park following decades of fire suppression

USGS Publications Warehouse

Rose, Eli T.; Simons, Theodore R.

2016-01-01

Fire suppression in southern Appalachian pine–oak forests during the past century dramatically altered the bird community. Fire return intervals decreased, resulting in local extirpation or population declines of many bird species adapted to post-fire plant communities. Within Great Smoky Mountains National Park, declines have been strongest for birds inhabiting xeric pine–oak forests that depend on frequent fire. The buildup of fuels after decades of fire suppression led to changes in the 1996 Great Smoky Mountains Fire Management Plan. Although fire return intervals remain well below historic levels, management changes have helped increase the amount of fire within the park over the past 20 years, providing an opportunity to study patterns of fire severity, time since burn, and bird occurrence. We combined avian point counts in burned and unburned areas with remote sensing indices of fire severity to infer temporal changes in bird occurrence for up to 28 years following fire. Using hierarchical linear models that account for the possibility of a species presence at a site when no individuals are detected, we developed occurrence models for 24 species: 13 occurred more frequently in burned areas, 2 occurred less frequently, and 9 showed no significant difference between burned and unburned areas. Within burned areas, the top models for each species included fire severity, time since burn, or both, suggesting that fire influenced patterns of species occurrence for all 24 species. Our findings suggest that no single fire management strategy will suit all species. To capture peak occupancy for the entire bird community within xeric pine–oak forests, at least 3 fire regimes may be necessary; one applying frequent low severity fire, another using infrequent low severity fire, and a third using infrequently applied high severity fire.

Effects of biotic feedback and harvest management on boreal forest fire activity under climate change.

PubMed

Krawchuk, Meg A; Cumming, Steve G

2011-01-01

Predictions of future fire activity over Canada's boreal forests have primarily been generated from climate data following assumptions that direct effects of weather will stand alone in contributing to changes in burning. However, this assumption needs explicit testing. First, areas recently burned can be less likely to burn again in the near term, and this endogenous regulation suggests the potential for self-limiting, negative biotic feedback to regional climate-driven increases in fire. Second, forest harvest is ongoing, and resulting changes in vegetation structure have been shown to affect fire activity. Consequently, we tested the assumption that fire activity will be driven by changes in fire weather without regulation by biotic feedback or regional harvest-driven changes in vegetation structure in the mixedwood boreal forest of Alberta, Canada, using a simulation experiment that includes the interaction of fire, stand dynamics, climate change, and clear cut harvest management. We found that climate change projected with fire weather indices calculated from the Canadian Regional Climate Model increased fire activity, as expected, and our simulations established evidence that the magnitude of regional increase in fire was sufficient to generate negative feedback to subsequent fire activity. We illustrate a 39% (1.39-fold) increase in fire initiation and 47% (1.47-fold) increase in area burned when climate and stand dynamics were included in simulations, yet 48% (1.48-fold) and 61% (1.61-fold) increases, respectively, when climate was considered alone. Thus, although biotic feedbacks reduced burned area estimates in important ways, they were secondary to the direct effect of climate on fire. We then show that ongoing harvest management in this region changed landscape composition in a way that led to reduced fire activity, even in the context of climate change. Although forest harvesting resulted in decreased regional fire activity when compared to unharvested conditions, forest composition and age structure was shifted substantially, illustrating a trade-off between management goals to minimize fire and conservation goals to emulate natural disturbance.

Monitoring Fires from Space and Getting Data in to the hands of Users: An Example from NASA's Fire Information for Resource Management System (FIRMS)

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Davies, D.; Wong, M.; Ilavajhala, S.; Molinario, G.; Justice, C. O.

2012-12-01

This paper discusses the broad uptake of MODIS near-real-time (NRT) active fire data for applications. Prior to the launch of MODIS most real-time satellite-derived fire information was obtained from NOAA AVHRR via direct broadcast (DB) systems. Whilst there were efforts to make direct broadcast stations affordable in developing countries, such as through the Local Applications of Satellite Remote Technologies (LARST), these systems were relatively few and far between and required expertise to manage and operate. One such system was in Etosha National Park (ENP) in Namibia. Prior to the installation of the AVHRR DB system in ENP, fires were reported by rangers and the quality, accuracy and timing of reports was variable. With the introduction of the DB station, early warning of fires improved and fire maps could be produced for park managers within 2-3 hours by staff trained to process data, interpret images and produce maps. Up keep and maintenance of such systems was relatively costly for parks with limited resources therefore when global fire data from MODIS became available uptake was widespread. NRT data from MODIS became availalbe through a collaboration between the MODIS Fire Team and the US Forest Service (USFS) Remote Sensing Applications Center to provide rapid access to imagery to help fight the Montana wildfires of 2001. This prompted the development of a Rapid Response System for fire data that eventually led to the operational use of MODIS data by the USFS for fire monitoring. Building on this success, the Fire Information for Resource Management System (FIRMS) project was funded by NASA Applications, and developed under the umbrella of the GOFC-GOLD Fire program, to further improve products and services for the global fire information community. FIRMS was developed as a web-based geospatial tool, offering a range of geospatial data services, including a fire email alert service which is widely used around the world. FIRMS was initially developed to meet the needs of protected area managers, who like the managers in ENP had limited resources to cover large, remote areas. It was quickly realized that these data could be used for a wide range of applications beyond wildfire management including ecological studies, informing fire policy and public outreach. Today, FIRMS sends approximately 2000 email alerts daily to users in over 120 countries. In addition to the direct users of the MODIS fire data, there are a growing number of brokers who add value to the data, by combining them with targeted geospatial information and re-distribute the information. In addition to the English, French and Spanish fire notifications sent out by FIRMS, some brokers translate the alerts in to local languages and distribute them in Thailand, Indonesia, Russia and India.

Determining relative contributions of vegetation and topography to burn severity from LANDSAT imagery.

PubMed

Wu, Zhiwei; He, Hong S; Liang, Yu; Cai, Longyan; Lewis, Bernard J

2013-10-01

Fire is a dominant process in boreal forest landscapes and creates a spatial patch mosaic with different burn severities and age classes. Quantifying effects of vegetation and topography on burn severity provides a scientific basis on which forest fire management plans are developed to reduce catastrophic fires. However, the relative contribution of vegetation and topography to burn severity is highly debated especially under extreme weather conditions. In this study, we hypothesized that relationships of vegetation and topography to burn severity vary with fire size. We examined this hypothesis in a boreal forest landscape of northeastern China by computing the burn severity of 24 fire patches as the difference between the pre- and post-fire Normalized Difference Vegetation Index obtained from two Landsat TM images. The vegetation and topography to burn severity relationships were evaluated at three fire-size levels of small (<100 ha, n = 12), moderate (100-1,000 ha, n = 9), and large (>1,000 ha, n = 3). Our results showed that vegetation and topography to burn severity relationships were fire-size-dependent. The burn severity of small fires was primary controlled by vegetation conditions (e.g., understory cover), and the burn severity of large fires was strongly influenced by topographic conditions (e.g., elevation). For moderate fires, the relationships were complex and indistinguishable. Our results also indicated that the pattern trends of relative importance for both vegetation and topography factors were not dependent on fire size. Our study can help managers to design fire management plans according to vegetation characteristics that are found important in controlling burn severity and prioritize management locations based on the relative importance of vegetation and topography.

Towards Experimental Operational Fire Weather Prediction at Subseasonal to Seasonal Scales for Alaska Using the NMME Hindcasts and Realtime Forecasts.

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Sampath, A.; Bhatt, U. S.; Bieniek, P.; York, A.; Peng, P.; Brettschneider, B.; Thoman, R.; Jandt, R.; Ziel, R.; Branson, G.; Strader, M. H.; Alden, M. S.

2017-12-01

The summer 2004 and 2015 wildfires in Alaska were the two largest fire seasons on record since 1950 where approximately the land area of Massachusetts burned. The record fire year of 2004 resulted in 6.5 million acres burned while the 2015 wildfire season resulted in 5.2 million acres burned. In addition to the logistical cost of fighting fires and the loss of infrastructure, wildfires also lead to dangerous air quality in Alaska. Fires in Alaska result from lightning strikes coupled with persistent (extreme) dry warm conditions in remote areas with limited fire management and the seasonal climate/weather determine the extent of the fire season in Alaska. Advanced weather/climate outlooks for allocating staff and resources from days to a season are particularly needed by fire managers. However, there are no operational seasonal products currently for the Alaska region. Probabilistic forecasts of the expected seasonal climate/weather would aid tremendously in the planning process. Earlier insight of both lightening and fuel conditions would assist fire managers in planning resource allocation for the upcoming season. For fuel conditions, the state-of-the-art NMME (1982-2017) climate predictions were used to compute the Canadian Forest Fire Weather Index System (CFFWIS). The CFFWIS is used by fire managers to forecast forest fires in Alaska. NMME forecast (March and May) based Buildup Index (BUI) values were underestimated compared to BUI based on reanalysis and station data, demonstrating the necessity for bias correction. Post processing of NMME data will include bias correction using the quantile mapping technique. This study will provide guidance as to the what are the best available products for anticipating the fire season.

Determining Relative Contributions of Vegetation and Topography to Burn Severity from LANDSAT Imagery

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Wu, Zhiwei; He, Hong S.; Liang, Yu; Cai, Longyan; Lewis, Bernard J.

2013-10-01

Fire is a dominant process in boreal forest landscapes and creates a spatial patch mosaic with different burn severities and age classes. Quantifying effects of vegetation and topography on burn severity provides a scientific basis on which forest fire management plans are developed to reduce catastrophic fires. However, the relative contribution of vegetation and topography to burn severity is highly debated especially under extreme weather conditions. In this study, we hypothesized that relationships of vegetation and topography to burn severity vary with fire size. We examined this hypothesis in a boreal forest landscape of northeastern China by computing the burn severity of 24 fire patches as the difference between the pre- and post-fire Normalized Difference Vegetation Index obtained from two Landsat TM images. The vegetation and topography to burn severity relationships were evaluated at three fire-size levels of small (<100 ha, n = 12), moderate (100-1,000 ha, n = 9), and large (>1,000 ha, n = 3). Our results showed that vegetation and topography to burn severity relationships were fire-size-dependent. The burn severity of small fires was primary controlled by vegetation conditions (e.g., understory cover), and the burn severity of large fires was strongly influenced by topographic conditions (e.g., elevation). For moderate fires, the relationships were complex and indistinguishable. Our results also indicated that the pattern trends of relative importance for both vegetation and topography factors were not dependent on fire size. Our study can help managers to design fire management plans according to vegetation characteristics that are found important in controlling burn severity and prioritize management locations based on the relative importance of vegetation and topography.

Public acceptance of wildland fire and fuel management: panel responses in seven locations.

PubMed

Toman, Eric; Shindler, Bruce; McCaffrey, Sarah; Bennett, James

2014-09-01

Wildland fire affects both public and private resources throughout the United States. A century of fire suppression has contributed to changing ecological conditions and accumulated fuel loads. Managers have used a variety of approaches to address these conditions and reduce the likelihood of wildland fires that may result in adverse ecological impacts and threaten communities. Public acceptance is a critical component of developing and implementing successful management programs. This study examines the factors that influence citizen support for agency fuel reduction treatments over time-particularly prescribed fire and mechanical vegetation removal. This paper presents findings from a longitudinal study examining resident beliefs and attitudes regarding fire management and fuels treatments in seven states: Arizona, Colorado, Oregon, Utah, Michigan, Minnesota, and Wisconsin. The study was implemented in two phases over a 6-year period using mail surveys to residents of communities adjacent to federal lands in each location. Questions replicated measures from the original project as well as some new items to allow a more in-depth analysis of key concepts. The study design enables comparisons over time as well as between locations. We also assess the factors that influence acceptance of both prescribed fire and mechanical vegetation removal. Findings demonstrate a relative stability of attitudes toward fuels management approaches over time and suggest that this acceptance is strongly influenced by confidence in resource managers and beliefs that the treatments would result in positive outcomes.

Coordination through databases can improve prescribed burning as a conservation tool to promote forest biodiversity.

PubMed

Ramberg, Ellinor; Strengbom, Joachim; Granath, Gustaf

2018-04-01

Prescribed fires are a common nature conservation practice. They are executed by several parties with limited coordination among them, and little consideration for wildfire occurrences and habitat requirements of fire-dependent species. Here, we gathered data on prescribed fires and wildfires in Sweden during 2011-2015 to (i) evaluate the importance and spatial extent of prescribed fires compared to wildfires and (ii) illustrate how a database can be used as a management tool for prescribed fires. We found that on average only 0.006% (prescribed 65%, wildfires 35%) of the Swedish forest burns per year, with 58% of the prescribed fires occurring on clearcuts. Also, both wildfires and prescribed fires seem to be important for the survival of fire-dependent species. A national fire database would simplify coordination and make planning and evaluation of prescribed fires more efficient. We propose an adaptive management strategy to improve the outcome of prescribed fires.

Characterization of potential fire regimes: applying landscape ecology to fire management in Mexico

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Jardel, E.; Alvarado, E.; Perez-Salicrup, D.; Morfín-Rios, J.

2013-05-01

Knowledge and understanding of fire regimes is fundamental to design sound fire management practices. The high ecosystem diversity of Mexico offers a great challenge to characterize the fire regime variation at the landscape level. A conceptual model was developed considering the main factors controlling fire regimes: climate and vegetation cover. We classified landscape units combining bioclimatic zones from the Holdridge life-zone system and actual vegetation cover. Since bioclimatic conditions control primary productivity and biomass accumulation (potential fuel), each landscape unit was considered as a fuel bed with a particular fire intensity and behavior potential. Climate is also a determinant factor of post-fire recovery rates of fuel beds, and climate seasonality (length of the dry and wet seasons) influences fire probability (available fuel and ignition efficiency). These two factors influence potential fire frequency. Potential fire severity can be inferred from fire frequency, fire intensity and behavior, and vegetation composition and structure. Based in the conceptual model, an exhaustive literature review and expert opinion, we developed rules to assign a potential fire regime (PFR) defined by frequency, intensity and severity (i.e. fire regime) to each bioclimatic-vegetation landscape unit. Three groups and eight types of potential fire regimes were identified. In Group A are fire-prone ecosystems with frequent low severity surface fires in grasslands (PFR type I) or forests with long dry season (II) and infrequent high-severity fires in chaparral (III), wet temperate forests (IV, fire restricted by humidity), and dry temperate forests (V, fire restricted by fuel recovery rate). Group B includes fire-reluctant ecosystems with very infrequent or occasional mixed severity surface fires limited by moisture in tropical rain forests (VI) or fuel availability in seasonally dry tropical forests (VII). Group C and PFR VIII include fire-free environments that correspond to deserts. Application of PFR model to fire management is discussed.

Fire management strategies to maintain species population processes in a fragmented landscape of fire-interval extremes.

PubMed

Tulloch, Ayesha I T; Pichancourt, Jean-Baptiste; Gosper, Carl R; Sanders, Angela; Chadès, Iadine

2016-10-01

Changed fire regimes have led to declines of fire-regime-adapted species and loss of biodiversity globally. Fire affects population processes of growth, reproduction, and dispersal in different ways, but there is little guidance about the best fire regime(s) to maintain species population processes in fire-prone ecosystems. We use a process-based approach to determine the best range of fire intervals for keystone plant species in a highly modified Mediterranean ecosystem in southwestern Australia where current fire regimes vary. In highly fragmented areas, fires are few due to limited ignitions and active suppression of wildfire on private land, while in highly connected protected areas fires are frequent and extensive. Using matrix population models, we predict population growth of seven Banksia species under different environmental conditions and patch connectivity, and evaluate the sensitivity of species survival to different fire management strategies and burning intervals. We discover that contrasting, complementary patterns of species life-histories with time since fire result in no single best fire regime. All strategies result in the local patch extinction of at least one species. A small number of burning strategies secure complementary species sets depending on connectivity and post-fire growing conditions. A strategy of no fire always leads to fewer species persisting than prescribed fire or random wildfire, while too-frequent or too-rare burning regimes lead to the possible local extinction of all species. In low landscape connectivity, we find a smaller range of suitable fire intervals, and strategies of prescribed or random burning result in a lower number of species with positive growth rates after 100 years on average compared with burning high connectivity patches. Prescribed fire may reduce or increase extinction risk when applied in combination with wildfire depending on patch connectivity. Poor growing conditions result in a significantly reduced number of species exhibiting positive growth rates after 100 years of management. By exploring the consequences of managing fire, we are able to identify which species are likely to disappear under a given fire regime. Identifying the appropriate complementarity of fire intervals, and their species-specific as well as community-level consequences, is crucial to reduce local extinctions of species in fragmented fire-prone landscapes. © 2016 by the Ecological Society of America.

A synopsis of large or disastrous wildland fires

Treesearch

Robert E. Martin; David B. Sapsis

1995-01-01

Wildland fires have occurred for centuries in North America and other selected countries and can be segregated into three periods: prehistoric (presuppression) fires, suppression period fires, and fire management period fires. Prehistoric fires varied in size and damage but were probably viewed fatalistically. Suppression period fires were based on policy that excluded...

Remote sensing information for fire management and fire effects assessment

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Chuvieco, Emilio; Kasischke, Eric S.

2007-03-01

Over the past decade, much research has been carried out on the utilization of advanced geospatial technologies (remote sensing and geographic information systems) in the fire science and fire management disciplines. Recent advances in these technologies were the focus of a workshop sponsored by the EARSEL special interest group (SIG) on forest fires (FF-SIG) and the Global Observation of Forest and Land Cover Dynamics (GOFC-GOLD) fire implementation team. Here we summarize the framework and the key findings of papers submitted from this meeting and presented in this special section. These papers focus on the latest advances for near real-time monitoring of active fires, prediction of fire hazards and danger, monitoring of fuel moisture, mapping of fuel types, and postfire assessment of the impacts from fires.

Fire history of Everglades National Park and Big Cypress National Preserve, southern Florida

USGS Publications Warehouse

Smith, Thomas J.; Foster, Ann M.; Jones, John W.

2015-01-01

Fire has been used as a management tool in various ecosystems around the world. Prairies, grasslands, and savannas are fire-maintained ecosystems where fire is used to deter invasion by shrubs and trees (Grant and others, 2009; Scheintaub and others, 2009). Similarly, fire plays an important role in woodlands and forests by influencing species composition and succession such, as the use of fire in coniferous forests to prevent encroachment by hardwoods (Phillippe and others, 2011). Fire also has been used to manage wetland ecosystems for more than 50 years (Lynch, 1941; Frost, 1995). Uses have included returning marshes to early successional states, increasing forage for wildlife (Lynch, 1941). In all fire-influenced ecosystems, prescribed burns are routinely used to reduce fuel loads, reducing the possibility of catastrophic fires.

Bridging the worlds of fire managers and researchers: lessons and opportunities from the Wildland Fire Workshops.

Treesearch

Seth M. White

2004-01-01

In March and April of 2003, over 250 managers, researchers, and other participants gathered for a series of workshops at Oregon State University, the University of Arizona, and Colorado State University, near the largest wildfires of 2002. In response to the need for better understanding of large fires, the Wildland Fire Workshops were designed to create an atmosphere...

Living with fire: Fire ecology and policy for the twenty-first century [book review

Treesearch

Carol Miller

2010-01-01

This is a well-written polemic about the failure of fire policy and management in the United States. The book contains enough ecology and history for nonspecialists to understand the complexities of the policy and management dilemmas that we face today. The authors provide a particularly good treatment of the diversity of roles that fire plays in different ecosystems,...

Differences in wildfires among ecoregions and land management agencies in the Sierra Nevada region, California, USA

Treesearch

Jay D. Miller; Brandom M. Collins; James A. Lutz; Scott L. Stephens; Jan W. van Wagtendonk; Donald A. Yasuda

2012-01-01

Recent research has indicated that in most of the western United States, fire size is increasing, large fires are becoming more frequent, and in at least some locations percentage of high-severity fire is also increasing. These changes in the contemporary fire regime are largely attributed to both changing climate and land management practices, including suppression of...

Effects of controlled burns on the bulk density and thermal conductivity of soils at a southern Colorado site

Treesearch

W. J. Massman; J. M. Frank

2006-01-01

Throughout the world fire plays an important role in the management and maintenance of ecosystems. However, if a fire is sufficiently intense, soil can be irreversibly altered and the ability of vegetation, particularly forests, to recover after a fire can be seriously compromised. Because fire is frequently used by land managers to reduce surface fuels, it is...

Bridging EOS remote sensing measurements and fire emissions, smoke dispersion, and air quality DSS in the Eastern US

Treesearch

John J. Qu; Xianjun Hao; Ruixin Yang; Swarvanu Dasgupta; Sanjeeb Bhoi; Menas Kafatos

1999-01-01

Fire eniissions, smoke dispersiotl. ancl air quality are very important for fire fighting and planing of prescribed burning. BlueskyRATNS (BSR) is a comprehenisive and state-of-the-art Decision Support System (DSS) for fire managers and air quality managers to plan fiiels treatments and support state air qiiality smoke regulatory actions, especially related to...

Influence of forest management alternatives and land type on susceptibility to fire in northern Wisconsin, USA

Treesearch

Eric J. Gustafson; Patrick A. Zollner; Brian R. Sturtevant; S. He Hong; David J. Mladenoff

2004-01-01

We used the LANDIS disturbance and succession model to study the effects of six alternative vegetation management scenarios on forest succession and the subsequent risk of canopy fire on a 2791 km2 landscape in northern Wisconsin, USA. The study area is a mix of fire-prone and fire-resistant land types. The alternatives vary the spatial...

Fire history, effects, and management in southern Nevada [Chapter 5] (Executive Summary)

Treesearch

Matthew L. Brooks; Jeanne C. Chambers; Randy A. McKinley

2013-01-01

Fire can be both an ecosystem stressor and a critical ecosystem process, depending on when, where, and under what conditions it occurs on the southern Nevada landscape. Fire can also pose hazards to human life and property, particularly in the wildland/ urban interface (WUI). The challenge faced by land managers is to prevent fires from occurring where they are likely...

Pre-wildfire management treatments interact with fire severity to have lasting effects on post-wildfire vegetation response

Treesearch

Kristen L. Shive; Carolyn H. Sieg; Peter Z. Fule

2013-01-01

Land managers are routinely applying fuel reduction treatments to mitigate the risk of severe, stand-replacing fire in ponderosa pine communities of the southwestern US. When these treatments are burned by wildfire they generally reduce fire severity, but less is known about how they influence post-wildfire vegetation recovery, as compared to pre-fire untreated areas....

The Future of wildland fire management in a world of rapid change and great uncertainty: Overview of a futures research project

Treesearch

David N. Bengston; Robert L. Olson; Leif A. DeVaney

2012-01-01

Past efforts to examine the future of wildland fire management have relied heavily on expertise from within the wildfire community. But changes in seemingly unrelated external factors - outside of the world of wildfire and fire management - can have unexpected and profound effects. This paper describes an ongoing sh1dy of the...

Quantifying the threat of unsuppressed wildfires reaching the adjacent wildland-urban interface on the Bridger-Teton National Forest, Wyoming

Treesearch

Joe H. Scott; Donald J. Helmbrecht; Sean A. Parks; Carol Miller

2012-01-01

An important objective for many federal land management agencies is to restore fire to ecosystems that have experienced fire suppression or exclusion over the last century. Managing wildfires for resource objectives (i.e., allowing wildfires to burn in the absence of suppression) is an important tool for restoring such fire-adapted ecosystems. To support management...

Wildland fire management policy: Learning from the past and present and responding to future challenges

Treesearch

Tom Zimmerman

2009-01-01

Wildland fire is one of the most important vegetation- shaping factors that land managers deal with. It is our highest risk, most complex, and potentially highest consequence program. Wildland fire management policy is the most important element in defining the direction, scope, and focus of the program. What is policy? If we look it up in Merriam-Webster's...

Burning for conservation values: should the goal be to mimic a natural fire regime?

Treesearch

Sharon M. Hermann; John S. Kush; John C. Gilbert; Rebecca J. Barlow

2015-01-01

Managers are often asked to include conservation values in forest management plans. In the upland coastal plain of the southeastern United States, fire is an important natural process and a vital land management tool. Many native ecosystems are dependent on frequent burns. It is often suggested that mimicking a natural fire regime is the best way to improve and...

Identifying the location of fire refuges in wet forest ecosystems.

PubMed

Berry, Laurence E; Driscoll, Don A; Stein, John A; Blanchard, Wade; Banks, Sam C; Bradstock, Ross A; Lindenmayer, David B

2015-12-01

The increasing frequency of large, high-severity fires threatens the survival of old-growth specialist fauna in fire-prone forests. Within topographically diverse montane forests, areas that experience less severe or fewer fires compared with those prevailing in the landscape may present unique resource opportunities enabling old-growth specialist fauna to survive. Statistical landscape models that identify the extent and distribution of potential fire refuges may assist land managers to incorporate these areas into relevant biodiversity conservation strategies. We used a case study in an Australian wet montane forest to establish how predictive fire simulation models can be interpreted as management tools to identify potential fire refuges. We examined the relationship between the probability of fire refuge occurrence as predicted by an existing fire refuge model and fire severity experienced during a large wildfire. We also examined the extent to which local fire severity was influenced by fire severity in the surrounding landscape. We used a combination of statistical approaches, including generalized linear modeling, variogram analysis, and receiver operating characteristics and area under the curve analysis (ROC AUC). We found that the amount of unburned habitat and the factors influencing the retention and location of fire refuges varied with fire conditions. Under extreme fire conditions, the distribution of fire refuges was limited to only extremely sheltered, fire-resistant regions of the landscape. During extreme fire conditions, fire severity patterns were largely determined by stochastic factors that could not be predicted by the model. When fire conditions were moderate, physical landscape properties appeared to mediate fire severity distribution. Our study demonstrates that land managers can employ predictive landscape fire models to identify the broader climatic and spatial domain within which fire refuges are likely to be present. It is essential that within these envelopes, forest is protected from logging, roads, and other developments so that the ecological processes related to the establishment and subsequent use of fire refuges are maintained.

Near-Real-Time Earth Observation Data Supporting Wildfire Management

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Ambrosia, V. G.; Zajkowski, T.; Quayle, B.

2013-12-01

During disaster events, the most critical element needed by responding personnel and management teams is situational intelligence / awareness. During rapidly-evolving events such as wildfires, the need for timely information is critical to save lives, property and resources. The wildfire management agencies in the US rely heavily on remote sensing information both from airborne platforms as well as from orbital assets. The ability to readily have information from those systems, not just data, is critical to effective control and damage mitigation. NASA has been collaborating with the USFS to mature and operationalize various asset-information capabilities to effect improved knowledge of fire-prone areas, monitor wildfire events in real-time, assess effectiveness of fire management strategies, and provide rapid, post-fire assessment for recovery operations. Specific examples of near-real-time remote sensing asset utility include daily MODIS data employed to assess fire potential / wildfire hazard areas, and national-scale hot-spot detection, airborne thermal sensor collected during wildfire events to effect management strategies, EO-1 ALI 'pointable' satellite sensor data to assess fire-retardant application effectiveness, and Landsat 8 and other sensor data to derive burn severity indices for post-fire remediation work. These cases of where near-real-time data is used operationally during the previous few fire seasons will be presented.

Fire ecology of the forest habitat types of central Idaho

Treesearch

M. F. Crane; William C. Fischer

1986-01-01

Discusses fire as an ecological factor for forest habitat types occurring in central Idaho. Identifies "Fire Groups" of habitat types based on fire's role in forest succession. Considerations for fire management are suggested.