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Type: Report
Author(s): Josephine A. Fites-Kaufman; Carol J. Henson
Publication Date: 2004

Hazardous fuels reduction work and past land-use activities must be measured for effectiveness during a wildfire event. This report summarizes the accomplishments and findings of work completed to measure pre-, during, and post-burn conditions during the Summer and Fall 2003. Nine fires were visited and evaluated in Montana and California. Plot were chosen in untreated and treated (i.e., fuel treatment, other past land use activities, or old fires) sites in the fires path and pre-measurements were taken and data recorders were set up. The team was successful in recording one fire's path through two sites, including active crown fire behavior. We summarize the measured fuels, fire behavior and resulting effects of this fire that is excerpted from a manuscript in final stages of preparation for publication. Although a small amount of data was captured, there are some important implications for fuel treatments and fire behavior model applications used in planning fuel treatments. We found that rates of spread were greater in a dense stand than in an open stand, despite much greater 1-hour fuel loading in the open stand. This suggests that assumptions on linkages between surface and crown fire components of such widely used models as FARSITE need to continue to be investigated. Secondly, although fire behavior was less intense on the open site, the patch extended across a small portion of the landscape. This suggests that the size of fuel treatment areas is important, particularly under high or extreme weather and fire behavior conditions in order for the fuel treatment to be effective in changing fire behavior. Once more replicates are obtained, we will be better able to address the question of how intensive does a treatment need to be to significantly affect fire behavior. Extensive technology transfer has been conducted, particularly with fire managers.

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Link to this document (852 KB; pdf)
Citation: Fites-Kaufman, Jo Ann; Henson, Carol. 2004. Real time evaluation of effects of fuel treatments and other previous land management activities on fire behavior during wildfires - Final report to the Joint Fire Science Program. JFSP Project No. 01C-2-1-08. Nevada City, CA: US Forest Service, Tahoe National Forest. 13 p.

Cataloging Information

Topics:
Regions:
Keywords:
  • fuel treatment
  • fuels reduction
  • land management
  • Montana
  • rapid response
  • treatment effectiveness
JFSP Project Number(s):
  • 01C-2-1-08
Record Last Modified:
Record Maintained By: FRAMES Staff (https://www.frames.gov/contact)
FRAMES Record Number: 19904