Fuels & Fuel Treatments
View guide.
This guide describes the benefits, opportunities, and trade-offs concerning fuel treatments in the dry mixed conifer forests of northern California and the Klamath Mountains, Pacific Northwest Interior, northern and central Rocky Mountains, and Utah. It provides (1) exhaustive summaries and links to supporting guides and literature on the mechanics of fuel treatments, including mechanical manipulation, prescribed fire, targeted grazing and chemical use; (2) a decision tree to help managers select the best mechanical method for any situation in these regions; (3) discussion on how to apply prescribed fire to achieve diverse and specific objectives; (4) key principles for developing an effective monitoring plan; (5) economic analysis of mechanical fuel treatments in each region; and (6) discussion on fuel treatment longevity.
View article.
The results of this study suggest that mowing, as a standalone
treatment, does not restore the herbaceous understory in degraded Wyoming big sagebrush plant communities. Mowing should not be applied in Wyoming big sagebrush plant communities with degraded understories without additional treatments to limit exotic annuals and promote perennial herbaceous vegetation.
Visit the National Cohesive Wildland Fire Management Strategy website.
See also the National Cohesive Strategy’s Western Region website.
The National Cohesive Wildland Fire Management Strategy is a strategic push to work collaboratively among all stakeholders and across all landscapes, using best science, to make meaningful progress towards the three goals:
- Resilient Landscapes
- Fire Adapted Communities
- Safe and Effective Wildfire Response
Vision: To safely and effectively extinguish fire when needed; use fire where allowable; manage our natural resources; and as a nation, to live with wildland fire.
Access NEPAssist tool.
NEPAssist is a tool that facilitates the environmental review process and project planning in relation to environmental considerations. The web-based application draws environmental data dynamically from EPA Geographic Information System databases and web services and provides immediate screening of environmental assessment indicators for a user-defined area of interest. These features contribute to a streamlined review process that potentially raises important environmental issues at the earliest stages of project development.
View article.
This study suggests that both prescribed fire and its mechanical surrogates are generally successful in meeting short-term fuel-reduction objectives in seasonally dry forests in the western and southern United States, making treated stands more resilient to high-intensity wildfire. Although mechanical treatments do not serve as complete surrogates for fire, their application can help mitigate costs and liability in some areas. Desired treatment effects on fire hazards are transient, which indicates that after fuel-reduction management starts, managers need to be persistent with repeated treatment.
View report.
This review suggests that when applied, both prescribed fire and its mechanical surrogates are generally successful in meeting short-term
fuel-reduction objectives and in changing stand structure and fuel beds such that treated stands are more resistant and resilient to high-intensity wildfire.
View article.
This paper reports the effects of the most common forest fuel reduction treatments on carbon pools composed of live and dead biomass as well as potential wildfire emissions from six different sites in four western U.S. states. Research suggests most of the benefits of increased fire resistance can be achieved with relatively small reductions in current carbon stocks. Retaining or growing larger trees also reduced the vulnerability of carbon loss from wildfire. In addition, modeled vulnerabilities to carbon losses and median forest product life spans varied considerably across our study sites, which could be used to help prioritize treatment implementation.
Visit SageSTEP website.
SageSTEP is a long-term multidisciplinary experiment evaluating methods of sagebrush steppe restoration in the Great Basin.
You can find and access information on this project’s:
- Land management treatments
- Treatment effects on vegetation and fuels; soils and biogeochemistry; water runoff and erosion; wildlife and insects
- The economics and human perspectives of management treatments
- Association with climate change
- Research findings thus far and project future
Access NICE Net.
NICE Net is a weather station network measuring weather variables to assess climate and reference evapotranspiration across the state of Nevada. The focus of the NICE Net is to measure and provide climate data that are derived from agricultural areas of Nevada for estimating irrigation water requirements.
View report.
This report is intended to introduce policy makers and citizens to issues related to wildfire management and fuel treatments on Idaho’s rangelands. It summarizes the findings of fuel treatment studies on rangelands in Idaho and comparable areas of the western U.S., examines the risks associated with fuel treatment alternatives, summarizes the policies that currently affect fuel treatment implementation, and suggests research and policy alternatives that may increase fuel treatment effectiveness.