Fire Fuel Ecology

Bob Keane

Hi, I am Dr. Bob Keane and I work as a Scientist in fire ecology for the US Forest Service. I am the principal investigator for the GLOBE fire fuels protocols. What are fire fuels? Well, fuels are the dead and live plant biomass that can carry a forest or range fire.

I am originally from Maine but have lived in Montana for over 20 years. I have studied fire and have built computer models that simulate the effects of fire since 1985. I also teach fire-fighters and smoke jumpers how to use the models so that they can fight the fires better. I also do research in the restoration of many fire-dominated ecosystems where fire has been removed for the last 70 years.

It is very important to study and measure fuels because the amount of fuel on the ground will influence how hot that fire will burn and how much damage the fire will do to the plants, animals, and other biota. The measured fuel information can be used in numerous computer models to simulate the intensity, rate of spread, flame lengths of fire, often collectively called fire behavior. This fire behavior information can then be used to save homes, protect people, and help fire-fighters. The fuels data can also be used to compute how much smoke will be released by the fire, and we use this information to tell people when it is dangerous to go outside.

The fuels data that you will be collecting is very important because it will allow us to map fuels using satellites. We can then use the mapped fuel data to simulate fire behavior in and around those areas where there are homes and people. Not many people are collecting fuels data so the data that you will collect will be very important to many land management activities.

Duncan Lutes

Hello, I am Duncan Lutes, one of the co-investigators of the Fire Fuels Protocol. I work for an organization called Systems for Environmental Management and contract to the US Forest Service, Fire Sciences Lab in Missoula, MT. I was born in Minnesota but have lived in Montana for 20 years. I have a Master's degre e from the University of Montana where I studied the characteristics of large fire fuels in lodgepole pine forests. At the Fire Lab I have been involved in t he development of fire effects models and have led the development of FIREMON, a fire effects monitoring program. I think the Fire Fuel Protocol will provide important information that scientists can use when examining the risk and hazard associated with fire fuels. More importantly, as students apply the Fire Fu el Protocol they will be able to examine how different fire fuels are related to one another and see how different site characteristics like slope and aspect influence fuels.

Duncan Lutes
Missoula Fire Sciences Lab
P.O. Box 8089
Missoula, MT 59807
(406) 329-4761
(406) 329-4877 (fax)
dlutes@fs.fed.us