Many managers and policymakers guided by the National Environmental Policy Act process want to understand the scientific principles on which they can base fuel treatments for reducing the size and severity of wildfires. These Forest Structure and Fire Hazard fact sheets discuss how to estimate fire hazard, how to visualize fuel treatments, and how the role of...
Res. Note RMRS-RN-22-1. Fort Collins, CO: U.S. Department of Agriculture, Rocky Mountain Research Station. 2 p.
Surface and crown fuels were measured in 186 stands ranging in age from 0 years after clearcutting to old-growth forests > 300 years old in Douglas-fir (Pseudotsuga menziesii) â western hemlock (Tsuga heterophylla) â western redcedar (Thuja plicata) â dominated forests in southwestern British Columbia. Indexes...
This paper presents modeling methods for mapping fire hazard and fire risk using a research model called FIREHARM (FIRE Hazard and Risk Model) that computes common measures of fire behavior, fire danger, and fire effects to spatially portray fire hazard over space. FIREHARM can compute a measure of risk associated with the distribution of these measures over time using...
Ecological Modelling. 221: 2-18.
Fire hazard reflects the potential fire behavior and magnitude of effects as a function of fuel conditions. This fact sheet discusses crown fuels, surface fuels, and ground fuels and their contribution and involvement in wildland fire.
Other publications in this series...
Res. Note RMRS-RN-22-2. Fort Collins, CO: U.S. Department of Agriculture, Rocky Mountain Research Station. 2 p.
Reducing fire hazard: balancing costs and outcomes.
Massive wildfires in recent years have given urgency to questions of how to reduce fire hazard in Western forests, how to finance the work, and how to use the wood, especially in forests crowded with small trees. Scientists have already developed tools that estimate fire hazard in a forest stand. But hazard is more difficult to estimate at a landscape scale, involving...
The Guide to Fuel Treatments analyzes a range of potential silvicultural thinnings and surface fuel treatments for 25 representative dry-forest stands in the Western United States. The guide provides quantitative guidelines and visualization for treatment based on scientific principles identified for reducing potential crown fires. This fact sheet identifies the...
Res. Note RMRS-RN-22-6. Fort Collins, CO: U.S. Department of Agriculture, Rocky Mountain Research Station. 2 p.
Precommercial thinning in ponderosa pine stands in the Western United States is a growing practice. Thinning slash can, however, be a serious fire hazard in dry areas. Crushing and compacting this slash may be one way of reducing the hazard. Three types of mechanical crushers were tested on the Deschutes National Forest, Oregon. Results indicate that at least one of...
Res. Paper PSW-RP-57. Berkeley, CA: Pacific Southwest Forest & Range Experiment Station, Forest Service, U. S. Department of Agriculture; 9 p.
To assess effectiveness of fire hazard inspection procedures in securing compliance with fire safety requirements, effects of different types and combinations of contacts and timing were determined, and the production capacity of inspectors measured. It was demonstrated that fire law inspection is as much fire prevention education and engineering as it is law...
Fire prevention, fi re hazard inspection, fire law violation, California, Butte County, fire prevention education, forest fire prevention, forest fire risk, Line Project: 2105.
Res. Note PSW-RN-145. Berkeley, CA: U.S. Department of Agriculture, Forest Service, Pacific Southwest Forest and Range Experiment Station. 10 p.
Information describing spatial and temporal variability of forest fuel conditions is essential to assessing overall fire hazard and risk. Limited information exists describing spatial characteristics of fuels in the eastern deciduous forest region, particularly in dry oak-dominated regions that historically burned relatively frequently. From an extensive fuels survey...
Landscape Ecology. 26: 923-935.
Forest owners worldwide are increasingly interested in managing forests to provide a broad suite of Ecosystem services, balancing multiple objectives and evaluating management activities in terms of Potential tradeoffs. We describe a multi-objective mathematical programming model to quantify tradeoffs in expected sediment delivery and the preservation of Northern...
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...
Information on the effects of management activities such as fuel reduction treatments and of processes such as vegetation growth and disturbance on fire hazard can help land managers prioritize treatments across a landscape to best meet management goals. State-and-transition models (STMs) allow landscape-scale simulations that incorporate effects of succession,...
Landscapes, state-and-transition modeling, vegetation mapping, fuels, wildfire hazard, treatment costs, biomass, wildlife habitat, decision support, climate change, watersheds, community economics, all ownerships, geographic information systems, landscape assessment.
In: Halofsky, Jessica E.; Creutzburg, Megan K.; Hemstrom, Miles A., eds. 2014. Integrating social, economic, and ecological values across large landscapes. Gen.Tech. Rep. PNW-GTR-896. Portland, OR: U.S. Department of Agriculture, Forest Service, Pacific Northwest Research Station: 71-110.
Paying our way: thinking strategically to offset the cost of reducing fire hazard in western forests.
The fire hazard in many western forests is unacceptably high, posing risks to human health and property, wildlife habitat, and air and water quality. Cost is an inhibiting factor for reducing hazardous fuel, given the amount of acreage needing treatment. Thinning overly dense forests is one way to reduce fuel loads. Much of the product removed during these treatments...
Financial analysis of fuel treatments.
The purpose of this paper is to provide information and discussion that will be helpful in promoting thoughtful design of fire hazard reduction treatments to meet the full range of management objectives. Thoughtful design requires an understanding of the costs and potential revenues of applying variations of fire hazard reduction treatments in a wide range of stand...
Appropriate types of thinning and surface fuel treatments are clearly useful in reducing surface and crown fire hazards under a wide range of fuels and topographic situations. This paper provides well-established scientific principles and simulation tools that can be used to adjust fuel treatments to attain specific risk levels.
Res. Note RMRS-RN-22-5. Fort Collins, CO: U.S. Department of Agriculture, Forest Service, Rocky Mountain Research Station. 2 p.
This study compares pre-fire field inventory data (collected from 1993 to 1997) in relation to post-fire mapped fire severity classes and the Fire and Fuels Extension of the Forest Vegetation Simulator growth and yield model measures of fire hazard for the portion of the Siskiyou National Forest in the 2002 Biscuit fire perimeter of southwestern Oregon. Post-fire...
In: Proceedings of the fifth annual forest inventory and analysis symposium; 2003 November 18-20; New Orleans, LA. Gen. Tech. Rep. WO-69. Washington, DC: U.S. Department of Agriculture Forest Service. 222p.
Financial analysis of fuel treatments on national forests in the Western United States.
The purpose of this note is to provide a starting point for discussion of fire hazard reduction treatments that meet the full range of management objectives, including budget priorities. Thoughtful design requires an understanding not only of the physical and biological outcomes, but also the costs and potential revenues of applying variations of fire hazard reduction...
Within the past 10 years, breakthrough research has identified factors that are most important for effectively communicating about wildland fire hazards. This fact sheet discusses seven "Laws" of effective public communication that should be considered in any state-of-the-art education campaign.
Res. Note RMRS-RN-21-7. Fort Collins, CO: U.S. Department of Agriculture, Rocky Mountain Research Station. 2 p.
