Effectiveness of fuel reduction treatments: Assessing metrics of forest resiliency and wildfire severity after the Wallow Fire, AZ

Waltz, Amy E. M.; Stoddard, Michael T.; Kalies, Elizabeth L.; Springer, Judith D.; Huffman, David W.; Meador, Andrew J. Sánchez

doi:10.1016/j.foreco.2014.08.026

Cited by 61 publications

(35 citation statements)

References 58 publications

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“…The density of fire-killed trees was lower in treated stands by a factor of six, and highseverity patch size was significantly smaller in a study conducted on sites that had burned on fast spread days under 6 to 15 % minimum relative humidity and 38 to 68 km h −1 maximum wind speeds [41]. Post-fire resilience was enhanced by fuel reduction treatments; surviving tree density and size in these areas was within natural variability and closer to reference conditions.…”

Section: Usamentioning

confidence: 85%

Empirical Support for the Use of Prescribed Burning as a Fuel Treatment

Fernandes

2015

Curr Forestry Rep

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Prescribed burning as a fuel treatment seeks to moderate wildfire impacts and decreases the areal extent of wildfires by increasing the effectiveness of fire suppression. Assessment of prescribed burning effectiveness is frequently anecdotal or based on simulation. This paper examines recent observational evidence of prescribed fire effectiveness. The spread rate and intensity of experimental fires in distinct fuel types have been shown to increase with time since treatment (fuel age) following fuel structure recovery. Prescribed fire constrains the size and especially the severity of individual fires, even under extremely severe weather conditions. At larger spatial and temporal scales of analysis, the effect of fuel age on unplanned fire severity is also evident, whether it comes from wildfires entering treated areas or from wildfires in fuel-reduced areas resulting from earlier wildfire occurrences. The persistence of these effects is variable, depending on vegetation type and productivity. The long-term reduction in wildfire area brought about by prescribed fire can be difficult to ascertain. Substantial effort (annual treatment rates >5 % of the landscape) has been shown to effectively control the extent of wildfires in forests, with 3-4 units of prescribed burning needed to reduce wildfire by one unit. Future studies should consider the decrease in area burned by high-severity fire as a more meaningful and objective measure of prescribed fire effectiveness than the decrease in wildfire area and should strive to document fire behaviour in treated versus untreated areas during wildfires.

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Section: Usamentioning

confidence: 85%

Empirical Support for the Use of Prescribed Burning as a Fuel Treatment

Fernandes

2015

Curr Forestry Rep

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“…After over a century of considerable ecological change, these large fires are burning with substantial amounts of high severity, resulting in significant carbon losses over large scales and the conversion of some of the forests from carbon sinks to carbon sources. With wildfires in the Southwest increasingly large and fuel treatments more common, it is becoming more likely that wildfires will burn into previous treatments and that those treatments will have an impact on fire severity, subsequent forest structure, and forest carbon storage (Waltz et al, 2014). Where managing forests for carbon storage is a priority, fuels treatments that can reduce long-term carbon loss will need to play a role in forest management.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Interactions of fuel treatments, wildfire severity, and carbon dynamics in dry conifer forests

Kent

Shive

Strom

et al. 2015

Forest Ecology and Management

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“…Investing in fuel treatments can avoid costs associated with large-scale fire. One study has indicated a cost avoided ratio of $9-10/acre for investments in hazardous fuel treatment once the full costs of the wildfire are taken into account (Waltz et al 2014).…”

Section: Fast Variablesmentioning

confidence: 99%

U.S. wildfire governance as social-ecological problem

Steelman¹

2016

E&S

116

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ABSTRACT. There are fundamental spatial and temporal disconnects between the specific policies that have been crafted to address our wildfire challenges. The biophysical changes in fuels, wildfire behavior, and climate have created a new set of conditions for which our wildfire governance system is poorly suited to address. To address these challenges, a reorientation of goals is needed to focus on creating an anticipatory wildfire governance system focused on social and ecological resilience. Key characteristics of this system could include the following: (1) not taking historical patterns as givens; (2) identifying future social and ecological thresholds of concern; (3) embracing diversity/heterogeneity as principles in ecological and social responses; and (4) incorporating learning among different scales of actors to create a scaffolded learning system.

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Effectiveness of fuel reduction treatments: Assessing metrics of forest resiliency and wildfire severity after the Wallow Fire, AZ

Cited by 61 publications

References 58 publications

Empirical Support for the Use of Prescribed Burning as a Fuel Treatment

Empirical Support for the Use of Prescribed Burning as a Fuel Treatment

Interactions of fuel treatments, wildfire severity, and carbon dynamics in dry conifer forests

U.S. wildfire governance as social-ecological problem

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