Fuels & Fuel Treatments
Webinar registration.
The use of prescribed fire to manage ecosystems is increasing across the United States, but climate change threatens to impact future opportunities for prescribed fire as a result of changes in meteorological conditions and fuels. I will discuss the results of a recent study which combined prescription information from 80 sites across the US with LANDFIRE fuels data and downscaled future climate projections to evaluate how climate change will impact future availability of burn days. Our results indicate that rising maximum temperatures may lead to decreases in burn days across the eastern US, while rising minimum temperatures and decreasing wind speeds may lead to increased opportunities for prescribed fire in the northern and northwestern US.
Webinar registration.
Wildland fire managers require an expanded toolbox for decision support in the context of an increasingly novel fuel and fire environment complicated by a changing climate, invasive species encroachment, and rapid increase in wildland-urban interface in many areas within the U.S. Terrestrial Laser Scanning (TLS) offers an efficient, cost-effective, and powerful tool for characterizing high resolution, sub-canopy forest and fuel structural conditions with the simple press of a button. In this panel discussion, TLS subject matter experts from both research and operations will share their efforts and practical applications of TLS and other 3D wildland fuels characterization tools for improved wildland fire planning, fire effects monitoring, and decision support.
Nomination form.
This nomination form is designed to collect the necessary information for candidates interested in participating in the NWCG RX-300 Prescribed Fire Burn Boss course. This form will capture key details about the nominee’s qualifications, experience, and current role to ensure they meet the prerequisites for the course. Your responses will help us assess eligibility and prioritize enrollment based on the needs of the training cohort. Write N/A for questions that do not pertain to you.
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Strategic development and implementation of burn boss training may increase the likelihood that burn bosses can safely and effectively implement prescribed burns. This article presents a case study for applying key adult learning methods to improve training effectiveness that can be applied to other training topics in and outside wildland fire management.
Webinar registration.
Richard Sampson, Unit Forester at CAL FIRE CZU, will review the history of prescribed fire in the San Mateo – Santa Cruz Unit over the past 40 years. Sarah A. Collamer, Vegetation Management Forester at CAL FIRE CZU, will explain how CAL FIRE CZU has grown their prescribed fire program and is looking to the future to use fire to address heavy fuel loading and ecosystem health. Brett Agler, Vegetation Management Forester at CAL FIRE CZU, will explore the critical role of prescribed burning in managing Santa Cruz County’s diverse landscapes. Jonathan Perrin, Area Land Manager at San Francisco Public Utilities Commission, Natural Resources and Lands Management Division, will discuss the comprehensive process of implementing prescribed fire from both agency and landowner viewpoints. Robert Simmons, Battalion Chief at CAL FIRE CZU, will discuss operational considerations for burning.
Webinar registration.
The California Canyon Fire Experiment is the first large-scale field experiment that observed fire eruption. The experiment was conducted in a steep canyon near Salinas, CA on 24 October 2022. A large suite of in situ and remote sensing instruments were deployed including micrometeorological towers, Doppler radar and lidar and airborne infrared imaging systems. The experiment was designed to allow a head fire to spread freely up a canyon under weak ambient winds to investigate the mechanisms of fire eruption. Preliminary results indicate that fire eruption occurred after the fire front reached the upper region of the canyon and fire spread was dominated by fire-induced in-drafts measured by Doppler lidar. This presentation will describe the goals of the experiment, experimental design, the phenomena sampled, the instruments used, and preliminary results.
Webinar registration.
With an issue as large as increasing the prescribed fire work force, a range of approaches have emerged to provide training for different audiences over time. Panelists will share their experience with adapting NWCG trainings to college courses, bringing the TREX model to the Canadian prairies, and using multiple formats in collaboration with partners in the eastern US, including state prescribed fire councils and NGOs.
Panelists
• Jack McGowan-Stinski, Lake States Fire Science Consortium
• Dinyar Minocher, Interagency Prescribed Fire Coordinator, Canadian Prairies Prescribed Fire Exchange
• Zach Prusak, Wildland Fire Training Specialist, Tall Timbers Research Station
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Abundances of dominant invaders, cheatgrass and Russian thistle, were measured along treated and neighboring untreated edges in 40 paired plots along ∼61 km of 60-m wide fuel breaks. Fuel breaks were constructed using a variety of shrub-cutting and herbicide applications 1–4 yr before measurement. Generalized linear mixed effect models revealed that fractional cover significantly increased in treated compared with untreated areas by 0.02–0.12 for cheatgrass and 0–0.06 for Russian thistle within 9 m of treatment boundaries (on a scale of 0-1). We neither detected increased invasion in adjacent and untreated areas nor gradients of increasing invasion with proximity to treatment boundaries. Although these findings reveal invasions that were otherwise undetected across the entire 60 m width of fuel breaks, invasion levels did not surpass nominal management thresholds for fire behavior or risk of conversion to annual grasslands.
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An extreme multi-year drought with extensive bark beetle outbreaks in California from 2012 to 2016 killed an estimated 147 million trees. This included ponderosa pine, incense cedar, white fir, and pinyon pine, rapidly changing forests over vast areas. Recently published work by Rocky Mountain Research Station (RMRS) researchers Sharon Hood and Charlotte Reed found that major tree mortality events like these increase surface and canopy fuels— dead needles, branches, and logs— which may result in more extreme forest fires and increased emissions when these areas burn. “Hopefully, this research heightens awareness about how quickly our forests can change under extreme mortality events and the potential long-lasting hazards that are created,” says Hood.