Measures known as fuel treatments aim to:
- Reduce and rearrange combustible material, also known as fuel
- Reduce the probability of high-severity wildfire in forest types that did not historically experience stand-replacing fire
- Reduce the intensity and severity of wildfires when they do occur
- Promote healthy forests by creating fire-resilient landscapes
How about a fuel reduction program for forests?
Any fuel reduction program considered at that scale would probably involve large program outlays for participating government agencies and (or) a system of incentives for private landowners. Price reductions arising from such a program would negatively impact non-participating forestland owners through lower timber prices, as well.
How are fuels removed from a forest?
It can be accomplished using fire, biological methods, and mechanical treatments to remove or modify fuels in forested areas. Thinning trees, removing underbrush, and limbing trees are done using hand crews or machines. Cut material is ground into chips or piled and burned during the winter.
Does treating surface fuels improve or aggravate forest damage?
harvest history. Yet, where logging had beenfollowed by treating the surface fuels, the damageclasses were not statistically different from the uncutstands (Weatherspoon and Skinner, 1995; Weath-erspoon, 1996). The lesson here is that treatmentwithout regard to residual fuel and forest structure,may exacerbatefire severity rather than ameliorate it.
How effective are alternative fuel treatments for Western ecoregions affected by wildfire?
Three alternative fuel treatments were compared across western ecoregions using the Disturbed WEPP erosion prediction model (Elliot and Miller 2002). On a per unit area affected basis, wildfire is predicted to produce Fig. 12. Manual chainsaw work--WY 15 nearly 70 times as much sediment as a thinning treatment (Table 6).
How do forests provide fuel?
Fuel is the combustible biomass found in forests. Fuels include everything from needles, grasses, and small twigs (“fine fuels”) to progressively larger fuels such as shrubs, branches on the ground, downed trees, and logs.
What is hazardous fuel treatment?
Mechanical treatment of hazardous fuels means reducing the amount of vegetation which has built up to dangerous levels, or changing the arrangement of these fuels in the environment.
What is mechanical fuel treatment?
Mechanical fuel treatments are machine activities designed to change the size and arrangement of forest biomass by either severing stems and creating smaller fragments (mastication) or by removing these stems from the site (bundling, baling, biomass harvesting) for disposal or utilization.
What is the solution of fire forest?
Select a flat, open location away from flammable materials such as logs, brush or decaying leaves and needles. Scrape away grass, leaves and needles down to the mineral soil. Cut wood in short lengths, pile it within the cleared area and then light the fire.
What is fire fuel reduction?
Fuels reduction activities are a key tool for firefighters, land managers, and property owners. These activities include the removal or reduction of overgrown vegetation through the use of prescribed fire, tree thinning, pruning, chipping, androadway clearance, among others.
What is mechanical thinning of the forest?
Mechanical thinning is the removal of trees in rows or strips at fixed spacing intervals throughout the stand. This method is commonly applied as the first thinning in red pine stands that are densely crowded and have a relatively uniform crown class.
What is fuel reduction?
Fuel reduction removes vegetation to lessen threat of wildfire. NPS. Fuel reduction projects and vegetation treatments have been proven as a means of lessening wildfire hazards, catastrophic fire and its threat to public and firefighter safety, and damage to property.
What is the ladder effect in wildfires?
As forest fuels accumulate, the forest structure changes, leading to greater continuity of fuels between the ground surface and the upper tree canopies. This altered structure provides “ladders” for wildfire to climb up into the tree tops.
What is fuel fire?
Fuel is any kind of combustible material, including paper, oils, wood, gases, fabrics, liquids, plastics and rubber. The fuel for a fire is usually characterised by its moisture content, size, shape and quantity and this will determine how easily the fuel will burn and at what temperature.
How can forest management prevent fires?
Forest management that selectively removes trees to reduce fire risk, among other objectives (a practice referred to as “fuel treatments”), can maintain uneven-aged forest structure and create small openings in the forest. Under some conditions, this practice can help prevent large wildfires from spreading.
How is Bush burning controlled?
Bush burning management strategies This might involve controlling the area that the fire can spread to by clearing control lines. Here the land is cleared of any vegetation either by controlled burning or digging a ditch. This takes time and does not happen often.
How can we protect forest?
In this article we'll discuss these 5 ways that you can preserve our forest:Plant New Trees.Buy Rain Forest Alliance Certified Products.Support Conversation Organizations.Use Tree-Free Products.Enjoy Forests Responsibly.
How does fuel treatment affect carbon?
Fuel treatments involve tradeoffs between reducing the risk of carbon loss due to wildfires and increasing carbon emissions due to the fuel treatments themselves. Whether or not fuel treatments safeguard enough carbon to offset their carbon cost depends on many factors including forest structure, existing fuel loads, expected wildfire frequency and severity, fuel treatment type and intensity, and the fate of merchantable forest products. In general, overstory thinning plus prescribed fire removes more carbon than other common fuel treatment types, while prescribed fire-only or understory thinning-only removes the least. North and Hurteau (2009) found that roughly 30-40% of tree carbon was removed by a variety of fuel treatment types. Carlson et al. (2012) found that fuel treatments can help maintain potential carbon sequestration, particularly by reducing tree mortality. Winford and Gaither (2012) point out that fuel treatments can result in a net increase in carbon stocks, but this result is highly dependent on fire rotation. Safford et al. (2012) found that, in general, at least 50% of surface fuels were removed by various types of fuel treatments. Typically, fuel treatments increase carbon emissions in the short-term, but they may reduce carbon losses when wildfires occur. A key issue is the probability of fire occurring after treatment implementation; treatments that are not impacted by wildfire do not mitigate potential emissions and can represent carbon sources as opposed to sinks (Campbell et al. 2012).
What are the pools of carbon sequestered in forests?
Carbon sequestered in forests can be divided into the following pools: 1) standing live and dead trees, 2) understory vegetation, 3) down dead wood, 4) forest floor, and 5) soil organic matter. Biomass that is removed from forests as part of fuel treatments also needs to be considered when tracking carbon and other greenhouse gas emissions. Pools that best resist losses due to decomposition and burning include live (large-diameter) trees (aboveground and belowground), dead trees (snags/stump, both above and belowground), coarse wood, and organic matter in mineral soil (e.g., Boerner et al. 2008; Campbell et al. 2007). Other pools decompose or are volatilized more rapidly, including foliage, litter, duff, twigs, and understory plants (e.g., Boerner et al. 2008).
How many trees were killed by bark beetles in the Tahoe National Forest?
For the duration of the study, only 107 trees were killed by bark-beetles across all treatments. Treatments were implemented using thinning from below prescriptions and were comprised of an untreated control and low density, medium density, and high density thinnings to a targeted residual basal area. The untreated control was the only treatment in which bark beetle-caused tree mortality was recorded for every year measured. In the low density thin treatments, there were no bark beetle-killed pines throughout the 10-year period. Significantly fewer trees (ha/year) were killed in the low density thinning treatments than in the high density thinning treatments or untreated control. Mortality was very low for Jeffrey pine (<0.2% per year), while the majority of mortality was concentrated in white fir (75 trees, 71% total mortality). Additionally, Egan et al. (2010) examined bark beetle-caused conifer mortality within forested areas of the Warner Mountains located in the Modoc National Forest (CA) that were thinned from 1985 to 1998 prior to a period of high levels of tree mortality from 2001 through 2007 which resulted from drought and bark beetle incidence. These density-thinning prescriptions included pre-commercial, commercial, and insect salvage thinning. Results indicated that density of bark beetle-caused mortality was reduced in pre-commercially-thinned areas within ponderosa and Jeffrey pine plantations and correlated with measures of stand density including trees per area, basal area, and stand density index (SDI). Both the density and percent of bark beetle-caused mortality and percent mortality were significantly less in the pre-commercially-thinned stands compared to the non-thinned stands. There was no detectable difference in percent of bark beetle-caused mortality between commercially thinned and unthinned mixed conifer stands. Density of bark beetle-caused mortality was reduced, although not significantly, between these stands. Findings from this study support thinning ponderosa pine plantations to reduce bark beetle-caused mortality, especially during periods of drought.
Do forests with fuel treatments have more carbon?
If wildfire occurs, forests with a proportion of its stands treated could retain more live and dead carbon than untreated forests . This effect is highly influenced by assumptions on fire probability. A meaningful carbon analysis of fuel treatments has to therefore include fire probability, treatment longevity, and, preferably, follow-up treatments as well as fossil fuel emissions associated with treatments in its system boundaries.
Is burning forest residues hazardous?
To the extent that the fate of forest biomass is to be burned, science suggests that the global warming effects can be minimized through controlled combustion in a biomass facility rather than in open burning. In wetter forest environments, decomposition might be a more effective means of mitigating global warming potential than burning, but leaving forest residues such as slash piles in forests is generally considered hazardous because of the potential for wildfires.
How to make a forest more resilient to fire?
Reducing fuel load is one strategy forest owners can use to make their forests more resilient to fire. Moreover, the practices used to reduce fuel load also tend to make the forest more resistant to mortality from drought and bark beetles.
How to reduce fire risk?
Reduce the amount of fuel on the ground. Reducing excessive downed trees and other fuels diminishes fire risk. Removing slash from a site also limits the refuges available for bark beetles. Large logs typically contribute little to fire spread, so leaving two or three large logs or dead trees per acre can benefit wildlife and soils without tipping the wildfire equation toward high risk. Also, leaving a cover of some leaves and twigs can help retain soil moisture and nutrients.
How does light affect understory fuels?
Increasing light to the understory also may accelerate the decay of understory fuels. When selecting which trees to keep in the forest, favor the tallest, most structurally sound trees of those species most adapted to the site for the long term. Trees with forked tops, for instance, tend to be less structurally sound.
How to reduce the risk of a surface fire?
Clear small trees out of dense areas. Increase the height from the forest floor to the base of tree crowns by pruning branches, reducing the amount of debris directly below trees, and removing small trees that could otherwise carry fire into tree crowns. Taking these actions helps lessen the risk of a surface fire intensifying into a crown fire. ...
How to reduce the chance of a fire that reaches the canopy?
Increase the spacing between trees. Thinning some of the existing trees out of overt dense forest stands reduces the chance that a fire that reaches the canopy will be able to spread through the tree crowns. Increasing light to the understory also may accelerate the decay of understory fuels.
What trees are fire resistant?
Fire-resistant species vary by location. In western dry forests, ponderosa pines, western larches, and Douglas firs all have adaptations, such as thick bark and deep roots, that allow them to thrive under conditions of frequent surface fires. In contrast, lodgepole pines, spruces, true firs, and hemlock species have thin bark and shallow roots ...
Where is fuel reduction focused?
Much of the effort in fuels reduction is focused in and around wildland urban interface (WUI) developments both inside and outside of parks. Effective fuels mitigation treatments are implemented across jurisdictional boundaries, on adjoining private lands, or within the respective communities with coordination, collaboration, and partnering on these projects. Projects of this type include fuel breaks, thinning, pruning, landscape modifications, etc.
What is fuel reduction?
Fuel reduction removes vegetation to lessen threat of wildfire. Fuel reduction projects and vegetation treatments have been proven as a means of lessening wildfire hazards, catastrophic fire and its threat to public and firefighter safety, and damage to property.
Why is it important to remove vegetation from a wildfire?
The objective is to remove enough vegetation (fuel) so that when a wildfire burns, it is less severe and can be more easily managed. When vegetation, or fuels, accumulate, they allow fires to burn hotter, faster, and with higher flame lengths.
How to reduce hazardous fuels?
Hazard fuel reduction generally requires the reduction of surface and ladder fuels. It may also require thinning out dense tree stands, preserving mature-sized trees in some instances. It can be accomplished using fire, biological methods, and mechanical treatments to remove or modify fuels in forested areas. Thinning trees, removing underbrush, and limbing trees are done using hand crews or machines. Cut material is ground into chips or piled and burned during the winter. Biological methods include grazing and are usually not used in national parks.
What is the process of thinning trees?
Thinning trees, removing underbrush, and limbing trees are done using hand crews or machines. Cut material is ground into chips or piled and burned during the winter. Biological methods include grazing and are usually not used in national parks.
How can fire be used in a park?
Fire can be used to meet management goals, either by setting prescribed fires or using natural lightning ignitions. Before fire can be used, the park must have an approved fire management plan and the fire must meet established criteria. Using fire to reduce fuel hazards is prohibited in many areas. In these instances treatments, generally mechanical, are used to prepare an area so that prescribed fire can be used safely.
Can you use fire to reduce fuel hazards?
Using fire to reduce fuel hazards is prohibited in many areas. In these instances treatments, generally mechanical, are used to prepare an area so that prescribed fire can be used safely. Pre-burn and post-burn photo points in the Bill’s Hill burn unit at Canaveral National Seashore. NPS photos by Shanna Ramsey.
How can we reduce forest fires?
Reduce hazardous forest fuels that can cause devastating forest fires. Reduce the risk of disease and harmful fuels. Protect fire-resilient species of tree. Preserve air-quality by reducing fire risk. Improve the soil and organic matter. Encourage natural regeneration and healthy understory growth. Enhance aesthetics.
What is firewise program?
Washington’s Firewise program – Firewise is a nation-wide organization that provides cost-share incentives for fire prevention, holds community workshops and trainings, and develops county-wide wildfire protection plans. The Firewise grants are administered to individual conservation districts who then choose landowners. Learn more about the Firewise Incentive Program in WA here, or contact your local conservation district to learn more.
Why do we need slash treatments?
Forest slash treatment is becoming a necessity in many forests due to historic fire suppression and the trees and vegetation that have grown since (more dense, often comprised of more species less resistant to fire). Fire suppression has led to many overstocked forests that become serious fire hazards during the increasingly dry summer season. Methods to reduce fire fuels range from removal of problematic understory vegetation by hand, thinning your forest, or even prescribed fire. Applying slash treatments as a means to reduce forest fuel can be very successful.
How to reduce hazardous fuels?
While managing fire-adapted forests with prescribed fire is often the least expensive option to reduce hazardous fuels when utilization opportunities are limited, there are many areas and times where prescribed fire cannot be used. High fuel loadings, air quality restrictions, short windows of appropriate weather, and risk of escaped fire in the wildland-urban interface are some of the factors that limit application of prescribed fire. Thus, mechanical treatments remain an indispensable tool for land managers. However, to implement National Fire Plan objectives using mechanical treatments a significant barrier must be overcome--the disposal and/or utilization of significant quantities of small trees.
What is the objective of the assessment of forest biomass?
The objective of this assessment is to characterize, at a regional scale, forest biomass that can potentially be removed to implement the fuel reduction and ecosystem restoration objectives of the National Fire Plan for the western U.S. The assessment area covers forests on both public and private ownerships in the region and describes all standing tree volume including stems, limbs, and tops. The assessment includes analysis of treatment areas and potential removals. Additionally, the operational systems necessary to effect the treatments as well as potential erosion impacts and utilization opportunities were examined.
What is biomass used for?
Biomass (tops, limbs, and saplings) from thinning operations as well as hog fuel produced during the manufacture of lumber, chips, and Oriented Strand Board (OSB) could be used for cogeneration of electricity for sale into the power grid and process steam useful in manufacturing operations or other applications.
How are treatable areas classified?
Treatable areas were further classified by Fire Regime Condition Class (FRCC) --a measure of how much a forest has departed from natural wildland fire conditions (Schmidt et al. 2002). The fire regime in Class 2 areas is moderately altered from the historical range. Moderate levels of restoration treatments such as fire or mechanical treatments would be required to begin managing a more natural fire cycle. In Class 3 areas, fire regimes have been significantly altered and there is a high risk of losing key ecosystem components in a wildfire. Due to high fuel loadings, mechanical treatments are expected to be needed before the reintroduction of fire. This assessment estimates a total of 67 million treatable acres in FRCCs 2 and 3. About half of those acres (28.5 million) are in the high-risk FRCC 3.
What percentage of the North American temperate forest is considered accessible?
According to a global analysis (FAO 2001) about 60 percent of the North American temperate forest is considered accessible (not reserved or high elevation and within 15 mi of major transportation infrastructure). A summary of National Forest land management plans from 1995 also found that about 60 percent of the western National Forest timberland baseis considered “suitable” for timber production operations (this is only 37 percent of the forestland base). The determination of “suitable” indicates that current forest
What is the objective of the National Fire Plan assessment?
The objective of this assessment is to characterize, at a regional scale , forest biomass that can potentially be removed to implement the fuel reduction and ecosystem restoration objectives of the National Fire Plan for the western U.S. The assessment area covers forests on both public and private ownerships in the region and describes all standing tree volume including stems, limbs, and tops. The assessment includes analysis of treatment areas and potential removals. Additionally, the operational systems necessary to effect the treatments as well as potential erosion impacts and utilization opportunities were examined.
What is FIA in forest?
1The Forest Inventory and Analysis (FIA) program of the USDA Forest Service has been in continuous operation since 1930. FIA collects, analyzes, and reports information on the status and trends of Fig. 3. Thinning slash pile, Coconino National Forest
