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Type: Conference Proceedings
Author(s): Thomas A. Waldrop; Dallas W. Glass; Sandra Rideout-Hanzak; Victor B. Shelburne; Helen H. Mohr; Ross J. Phillips
Editor(s): Kristina F. Connor
Publication Date: 2004

The National Fire and Fire Surrogate (NFFS) Study is a large-scale study of the impacts of fuel-reduction treatments on ecological and economic variables. This paper examines prescribed burning and thinning as fuel-reduction treatments on one site of the national study, the southeastern Piedmont. Fuel loads were examined across a landscape gradient before and after treatment. Fuel treatments provided fairly predictable changes to the litter, duff, fine woody fuels, and large woody fuels. Prescribed burning reduced most fuels while thinning tended to increase woody fuels because logging debris was scattered throughout the thinned areas. These patterns varied by landscape position. On mesic sites, burning did not reduce the duff, and none of the treatments changed loading of woody fuels. These results suggest that fuel-reduction treatments may alter numerous components of an ecosystem and that these impacts vary according to landscape position.

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Link to this document (204 KB; full text; pdf)
Citation: Waldrop, Thomas A.; Glass, Dallas W.; Rideout-Hanzak, Sandra; Shelburne, Victor B.; Mohr, Helen H.; Phillips, Ross J. 2004. An evaluation of fuel-reduction treatments across a landscape gradient in Piedmont forests: preliminary results of the national fire and fire-surrogate study. Pages 54-59 In: Connor, Kristina F. (ed.). Proceedings of the 12th Biennial Southern Silvicultural Research Conference, February 24-28, 2003. General Technical Report SRS-GTR-71. Asheville, NC: USDA Forest Service Southern Research Station.

Cataloging Information

Topics:
Regions:
Keywords:
  • Clemson Experimental Forest
  • decay
  • duff
  • erosion
  • experimental areas
  • FFS - Fire and Fire Surrogate Study
  • fine fuels
  • fire hazard reduction
  • fire management
  • forest management
  • forest thinning
  • fuel loading
  • fuel reduction treatments
  • hardwoods
  • heavy fuels
  • landscape ecology
  • litter
  • logging
  • management plan
  • mesic soils
  • overstory
  • Piedmont
  • pine hardwood forests
  • Pinus echinata
  • Pinus taeda
  • Quercus spp.
  • sloping terrain
  • soil moisture
  • soils
  • South Carolina
  • thinning
  • wildfires
  • woody fuels
  • xeric soils
Tall Timbers Record Number: 16934Location Status: In-fileCall Number: A13.88:SRS-71Abstract Status: Okay, Fair use, Reproduced by permission
JFSP Project Number(s):
  • 99-S-01
Record Last Modified:
Record Maintained By: FRAMES Staff (https://www.frames.gov/contact)
FRAMES Record Number: 315

This bibliographic record was either created or modified by Tall Timbers and is provided without charge to promote research and education in Fire Ecology. The E.V. Komarek Fire Ecology Database is the intellectual property of Tall Timbers.