Fuels & Fuel Treatments
In this webinar, Karen Launchbaugh and Eva Strand, Professors of Rangeland Ecology and Management at the University of Idaho, discuss ways that contemporary livestock grazing practices affect the extent and severity of fires in sagebrush, including cumulative effects that occur on decadal time scales to alter plant community composition and those observed as yearly changes in fuel loads. This project provides a literature review and scientific synthesis of interactions between livestock grazing, invasive species, and fire behavior in the sagebrush dominated ecosystems of the Great Basin.
This webinar, presented by Jim McIver, Research Ecologist at Oregon State University, is a compilation of some of the more important short-term results of SageSTEP experiments through the third year after treatment. The results come from evaluations made at 18 study sites, measuring ecosystem response to prescribed fire, clearcutting, tree shredding, mowing, and herbicides.
In this webinar, Mark Williams, BLM, Salt Lake City, UT, discusses the advantages and disadvantages of using native and non-native plants for fuel breaks, which are common treatments in rangelands where the spread of invasive annuals and subsequent wildfire threaten sagebrush ecosystems.
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This video discusses the BLMs plans to create 350 miles of fire breaks between Boise and Glenns Ferry in hopes of catching fires when they’re small. The BLM Boise District is working together with the rancher-led Mountain Home Rangeland Fire Protection Association, Idaho Dept. of Lands, and the Idaho Transportation Department.
Presentations and posters.
Pdf format of speaker presentations and posters are available for this forum, which was held to advance the next step of conservation for bi-state sage-grouse populations by prioritization and implementation of large-scale projects through recently committed funding and collaboration between federal and state agencies, NGOs, and private land owners.
In this webinar, Bruce Roundy, Plant Ecologist at Brigham Young University, discusses vegetation restoration in response to piñon and juniper control treatments.
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As part of an internal program assessment, this study evaluated the extent of fuel treatments and wildfire occurrence within lands managed by the National Forest System (NFS) between 2008 and 2012. Annually, 45% of NFS lands that would have historically burned were disturbed by fuel treatments and characteristic wildfire, indicating that NFS lands remain in a “disturbance deficit.” The highest wildfire hazard class had the lowest percentage of area treated and the highest proportion of both wildfire of any severity and uncharacteristically high-severity wildfire, suggesting that an alternative distribution of fuel treatment locations will probably improve program effectiveness.
View paper.
This study found that to retain the shrub, especially sagebrush, components on a site and increase ecosystem resilience and resistance through increases in tall grasses, treatment should occur at low to mid tree dominance index (TDI) using mechanical methods, such as cutting or mastication. Effects of fire and mechanical treatments implemented at different phases of tree dominance create different successional trajectories that could be incorporated into state-and-transition-models to guide management decisions.
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In a nutshell, Finney and other forest experts say, periodic fires reduce fine fuels such as pine needles. They stop young conifer trees from growing into big conifers. Meadows form and break up continuous stands of mature forest.
View brief.
Researchers measured 14 transects across two different fuel treatment types on three different units. For both fuel treatment types, only ladder fuels had been removed. They found that while severity was reduced at all sites, the spatial distribution of fire severity within the treatment areas varied by treatment type and unit as well as which fire severity metric they were analyzing. They found fuel treatments reduced fire severity anywhere from -7 m to 533 m into the treatment area. Kennedy and Johnson (2014) caution that local site conditions, topography and vegetation type will be other sources of variation in fire severity.