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Understanding the trade-offs between short-term and long-term consequences of fire impacts on ecosystems is needed before a comprehensive fuels management program can be implemented nationally. We are evaluating 3 potential trade-off models at 8 locations in major U.S. fuel types, We present results of the initial testing of the 3 selected models/modelling approaches and a 4th model on the Bitterroot National Forest (BNF) in western Montana. The selected models/modelling approaches were 1) the Fire Emissions Trade-off Model (FETM), 2) sequential use of the SIMPPLLE and MAGIS models, 3) the Vegetation Dynamics Development Tool (VDDT), and 4) the LANDscape SUccession Model (LANDSUM). We simulated 3 fuel treatments over 50 years: 1) no action, 2) prescribed burning in ponderosa pine and Douglas-fir types at 2 different rates, and 3) timber harvesting that returns the stand to a reproduction stage. Simulation results for all models suggested that the acreage of Douglas-fir and ponderosa pine types would not be appreciably altered by the fuel treatments. Most models suggested the harvest treatment would reduce area burned by wildfire and smoke emissions; some models suggested the prescribed fire treatment would reduce wildfire acreage. All models suggested that the harvest treatment would reduce acreage of pole-size trees; some models suggested the fire treatment would increase acreage of sapling-size trees.
Cataloging Information
- air quality
- bibliographies
- Bitterroot National Forest
- coniferous forests
- Douglas-fir
- ecosystem dynamics
- FETM - Fire Effects Tradeoff Model
- fire frequency
- fire intensity
- fire management
- fire size
- fuel management
- fuel treatments
- insects
- landscape ecology
- landscape modeling
- LANDSUM - LANDscape SUccession Model
- logging
- MAGIS - Multi-resource Analysis and Geographic Information System
- Montana
- national forests
- pine forests
- Pinus ponderosa
- plant diseases
- plant diseases
- ponderosa pine
- private lands
- Pseudotsuga menziesii
- rate of spread
- regeneration
- reproduction
- Selway-Bitterroot Wilderness
- shelterwood
- SIMPPLLE - SIMulating Vegetative Patterns and Processes at Landscape scaLEs
- size classes
- smoke behavior
- succession
- topography
- VDDT - Vegetation Dynamics Development Tool
- vegetation surveys
- wildfires
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.