Constraints on Mechanized Treatment Significantly Limit Mechanical Fuels Reduction Extent in the Sierra Nevada

North, Malcolm P.; Brough, April; Long, Jonathan W.; Collins, Brandon M.; Bowden, Phil; Yasuda, Don; Miller, Jay D.; Sugihara, Neil G.

doi:10.5849/jof.14-058

Cited by 101 publications

(109 citation statements)

References 35 publications

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“…Such work could build on existing research identifying potential areas of higher suppression expenditures in the state (Preisler et al 2011), while additionally incorporating realistic treatment strategies, impacts and constraints (North et al 2014). In some areas, such as Southern California, a high density of fire-susceptible assets and fire-prone vegetation may limit opportunities for treatments aimed at restoring natural fire regimes.…”

Section: Relevance To Californiamentioning

confidence: 99%

Modeling fuel treatment impacts on fire suppression cost savings: A review

Thompson¹,

Anderson²

2015

Cal Ag

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High up-front costs and uncertain return on investment make it difficult for land managers to economically justify large-scale fuel treatments, which remove trees and other vegetation to improve conditions for fire control, reduce the likelihood of ignition, or reduce potential damage from wildland fire if it occurs. In the short-term, revenue from harvested forest products can offset treatment costs and broaden opportunities for treatment implementation. Increasingly, financial analysis of fuel treatments is also incorporating long-term savings through reduced fire suppression costs, which can be difficult to quantify. This paper reviews the findings and lessons from recent modeling work evaluating the potential relationship between fuel treatments and avoided fire suppression costs. Across studies, treatments are generally predicted to reduce future fire suppression costs, although the magnitude of savings is unlikely to fully offset fuel treatment costs. This funding gap highlights the importance of forest product revenues in facilitating landscape-scale treatment. Factors influencing the effects of fuel treatment investments on fire suppression costs include the causal pathway linking treatment inputs to suppression cost outcomes; the spatiotemporal uncertainty of wildfire-treatment interactions; and the scale of fuel treatment programs.

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Section: Relevance To Californiamentioning

confidence: 99%

Modeling fuel treatment impacts on fire suppression cost savings: A review

Thompson¹,

Anderson²

2015

Cal Ag

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“…Primarily the focus has been to use planned burning to reduce the risk from fire to human life and property situated within or adjacent to native vegetation (Fernandes and Botelho 2003;Penman et al 2011). However, additional strategies are often adopted by agencies to protect life and property such as mechanical fuel treatments (Syphard et al 2011;Syphard et al 2012;North et al 2015), community engagement (Eriksen and Prior 2013;Penman et al 2015a) and fire suppression (Calkin et al 2005;Plucinski et al 2012;Penman et al 2013b;Penman et al 2014). Several studies in Australia have found that while planned burning may reduce the extent of wildfire, the net effect is an increase in overall fire extent and frequency (Boer et al 2009;King et al 2013;Price 2015) leading to the emergence of new landscape fire regimes.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Is there an inherent conflict in managing fire for people and conservation?

Bentley

Penman

2017

Int. J. Wildland Fire

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Abstract. Wildfires are a natural disturbance in many ecosystems, creating challenges for land management agencies who need to simultaneously reduce risk to people and maintain ecological values. Here we use the PHOENIX RapidFire fire behaviour simulator to compare fuel treatment strategies that meet the twin objectives of reducing wildfire risk to human settlements and a fire sensitive endangered species, the koala (Phascolarctos cinereus) in south-eastern Australia. The local koala population is in decline and a conservation management plan is being prepared to exclude wildfire for a 10-year period to assist with population recovery. Twelve scenarios developed by the land management agencies were compared using four indicators: wildfire size; burn probability; impact from exposure to fire; and treatment cost. Compared with the current risk setting, three treatment scenarios were found to reduce wildfire size and burn probability concurrently to both people and koalas. These strategies worked by increasing the landscape area treated, which came with increased financial cost. However, the impact from exposure to fire for both property and koala habitat remains high. Additional complementary strategies beyond landscape fuel reductions are needed to reduce impact from exposure in the event of a wildfire.

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“…Current management can progressively but slowly address the backlog of the very specific structural conditions targeted by thinning: multistory, closed-canopy forest stands. However, areas suitable for thinning account for a small proportion (13% at initial conditions) of the landscape, therefore the majority of the landscape remains untreated (Hampton et al 2011, North et al 2015. Allowing thinning in more open and/or smaller diameter stands would increase treatment availability to sustain higher targets for longer periods of time.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The increase in burned area over the past three decades (Westerling 2016) is especially apparent on western U.S. national forests where large fire-prone landscapes are juxtaposed with expanding wildland urban interfaces (WUI), and federal land management restricts fuel management in some areas to protect biodiversity and other amenities (Williams 2013, Ager et al 2014a, North et al 2015. The WUI expansion and increase in highly valued resources that are susceptible to fire have led to an increase in landscape wildfire risk.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Spatiotemporal dynamics of simulated wildfire, forest management, and forest succession in central Oregon, USA

Barros¹,

Ager²,

Day³

et al. 2017

E&S

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ABSTRACT. We use the simulation model Envision to analyze long-term wildfire dynamics and the effects of different fuel management scenarios in central Oregon, USA. We simulated a 50-year future where fuel management activities were increased by doubling and tripling the current area treated while retaining existing treatment strategies in terms of spatial distribution and treatment type. We modeled forest succession using a state-and-transition approach and simulated wildfires based on the contemporary fire regime of the region. We tested for the presence of temporal trends and overall differences in burned area among four fuel management scenarios. Results showed that when the forest was managed to reduce fuels it burned less: over the course of 50 years there was up to a 40% reduction in area burned. However, simulation outputs did not reveal the expected temporal trend, i.e., area burned did not decrease progressively with time, nor did the absence of management lead to its increase. These results can be explained as the consequence of an existing wildfire deficit and vegetation succession paths that led to closed canopy, and heavy fuels forest types that are unlikely to burn under average fire weather. Fire (and management) remained relatively rare disturbances and, given our assumptions, were unable to alter long-term vegetation patterns and consequently unable to alter long-term wildfire dynamics. Doubling and tripling current management targets were effective in the near term but not sustainable through time because of a scarcity of stands eligible to treat according to the modeled management constraints. These results provide new insights into the long-term dynamics between fuel management programs and wildfire and demonstrate that treatment prioritization strategies have limited effect on fire activity if they are too narrowly focused on particular forest conditions.

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Constraints on Mechanized Treatment Significantly Limit Mechanical Fuels Reduction Extent in the Sierra Nevada

Cited by 101 publications

References 35 publications

Modeling fuel treatment impacts on fire suppression cost savings: A review

Modeling fuel treatment impacts on fire suppression cost savings: A review

Is there an inherent conflict in managing fire for people and conservation?

Spatiotemporal dynamics of simulated wildfire, forest management, and forest succession in central Oregon, USA

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