Pacific Northwest Research Station

Title: Forest fuel treatments in western North America: merging silvicultural and fire management.

Author: Johnson, Morris C.; Peterson, David L.

Date: 2005

Source: The Forestry Chronicle. 81(3): 365-368

Description: For many years silviculture and fire management have mostly been separate forestry disciplines with disparate objectives and activities. However, in order to accomplish complex and multiple management objectives related to forest structure, fuels, and fxe disturbance, these two disciplines must be effectively integrated in science and practice. We have linked scientific and management tools to develop an analytical approach that allows resource managers to quantify and evaluate the effectiveness of alternative fuel treatments in dry interior forests of western North America. The principal tool is the Fire and Fuels Extension of the Forest Vegetation Simulator (FFE-NS) for characterizing fuel succession and fire behaviour, and for quantifying and visualizing stand structure. FFE-NS provides a user-friendly framework that facilitates rapid evaluation of thinning and surface fuel treatments intended to reduce crown fire potential and fireline intensity. This approach quantifies fire hazard at small and large spatial scales, assists with treatment priorities and schedules, and generates stand and landscape visualizations that facilitate decisions about appropriate fuel treatments.

Keywords: fire behaviour, fire hazard, fuel treatments, silviculture

View and Print this Publication (446 KB)

Pristine Version:  An uncaptured or "pristine" version of this publication is available. It has not been subjected to OCR (Optical Character Recognition) and therefore does not have any errors in the text. However it is a larger file size and some people may experience long download times. The "pristine" version of this publication is available here:

View and Print the PRISTINE copy of this Publication (580 KB)

Publication Notes: 

• We recommend that you also print this page and attach it to the printout of the article, to retain the full citation information.
• This article was written and prepared by U.S. Government employees on official time, and is therefore in the public domain.

 Get the latest version of the Adobe Acrobat reader or Acrobat Reader for Windows with Search and Accessibility

Citation

Johnson, Morris C.; Peterson, David L.  2005.  Forest fuel treatments in western North America: merging silvicultural and fire management..   The Forestry Chronicle. 81(3): 365-368