Post-Fire Treatment Impacts on Fine Fuels in Westside Sierra Nevada Forests

On the west side of Sierra Nevada Mountain Range, fast moving high intensity fires lasting a few days have generally replaced slowly advancing surface fires that lasted weeks or months. Attempting to restore forests quickly after large wildfires, the Forest Service uses various techniques to reduce competition with tree species. Each of these techniques has multiple effects. This study proposes to quantify the effects of postfire treatments on fuel load, fuel structure, plant community composition, and potential fire behavior on the west side of the Sierra Nevada Mountain Range.

The objective is to determine the long-term consequences of several post fire treatments on fine fuels and provide land managers with this knowledge, so that they will be able to understand the risks and benefits of their policies.  This study will provide managers with the necessary science to factor into their decisions about appropriate postfire management strategies in Sierra Nevada national forests.

Fifty-five national forest stands on the west side of the Sierra Nevada Mountain Range were inventoried for dead and down fuels, snags, stumps, trees and shrubs during October-November 2006.  This consisted of measuring more than 9,300 snags, stumps, trees and shrubs, and sampling in 455 fuels transects.  The 2007 field crew will begin work in mid-April and during the next 6 months, will collect the rest of the data for this project.

The project investigators will present their results to forest managers and scientists at both management and scientific meetings. Forest Service officials will have ongoing involvement in this research by providing up-to date site treatment and monitoring information. We will, in turn, provide them with frequent informal updates, formal annual reports, a web page with current findings, field tours, and a final report presented orally and in writing. We will also publish our results in a peer-reviewed scientific journal and present this paper at two international scientific meetings.

	Contact: Jon Keeley SEKI Field Station 47050 Generals Highway #4 Three Rivers, CA  93271 jon_keeley@usgs.gov Websites: http://www.werc.usgs.gov/fire/lv/fireandinvasives/index.htm http://www.werc.usgs.gov/invasivespecies/sierranfire.html