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Document

Type: Proposal
Author(s): T. Scott Rupp; Daniel H. Mann
Publication Date: 2001

Interior Alaska contains 140 million burnable acres and includes the largest National Parks and National Wildlife Refuges in the country. On average, wildland fires burn 1,000,000 acres in Interior Alaska each year and threaten the lives, property, and timber resources of Alaska's sparse but growing population. Wildland fires threaten human values, but they also are crucial for the maintenance of forest ecosystems. How do we manage wildland fire in Alaska for the mutual benefit of humans and natural ecosystems? We aim to develop a computer-based, fire-management and planning model called Boreal ALFRESCO. This model utilizes physical, biological, and human thematic layers to simulate ecosystem dynamics. It outputs transient maps depicting the responses of vegetation cover and fuel accumulation under different scenarios of fire management and climate change. Developing this model will accomplish two objectives. First, it will synthesize our existing knowledge about wildland fire in interior Alaska and reveal critical gaps in our knowledge. Earlier versions of the model reveal that we lack basic information concerning stand age and hazard-of-burning for different fuel types. Our proposed fieldwork will obtain this new data. Second, once tested by field data, the model will provide a planning tool for land managers who are designing fire-management plans that can balance the needs of both natural ecosystems and of the humans living around and in them. This project addresses JFSP's Task 1 (evaluate fire-management strategies in roadless areas), Task 3 (determine effects of fuel buildup), Task 6 (incorporate climate-change predictions into fire management), and Task 7 (develop scientific support tools for fire management). Project cooperators include representatives of Federal and State, land-managing agencies in interior Alaska, including the Bureau of Land Management, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, the U.S. National Park Service, U.S. Geological Survey, and Alaska Department of Fish and Game. After developing the Boreal ALFRESCO model in Alaska, our ultimate goal is to apply it to more complicated settings of the Intermountain West. Interior Alaska has relatively simple vegetation types and human infrastructures, so it is an ideal place for the initial development of an integrated model of human-fire-ecosystem interactions.

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Link to this document (424 KB; pdf)
Citation: Rupp, T. Scott; Mann, Daniel H. 2001. Development of a computer model for management of fuels, human-fire interactions, and wildland fires in the boreal forest of Alaska - Proposal to the Joint Fire Science Program. JFSP Project No. 01-1-1-02. Fairbanks, AK: University of Alaska Fairbanks. 12 p.

Cataloging Information

Topics:
Fire Behavior    Fire Ecology    Fire History    Fuels    Models    Planning
Regions:
Keywords:
  • ALFRESCO
  • boreal forest
  • fire severity
  • fire suppression
  • fuels management
  • human-fire interactions
JFSP Project Number(s):
  • 01-1-1-02
Record Last Modified:
Record Maintained By: FRAMES Staff (https://www.frames.gov/contact)
FRAMES Record Number: 6848