Prescribed burning in the Kings River Ecosystem Project Area: lessons learned

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Publication Information

Title: Prescribed burning in the Kings River Ecosystem Project Area: lessons learned

Author: McCandliss, David S.

Date: 2002

Source: In: Verner, Jared, tech. editor. Proceedings of a Symposium on the Kings River Sustainable Forest Ecosystem Project: Progress and Current Status. Gen. Tech. Rep. PSW-GTR-183, Albany, CA: Pacific Southwest Research Station, Forest Service, U.S. Department of Agriculture: 37-46

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Station ID: GTR-PSW-183

Description: The prescribed fire program on the Sierra National Forest is in its infancy. Prescription burning was initiated in 1994 in two 32,000-acre watersheds in the Kings River District of the Sierra National Forest. Primary objectives are to return fire to a more historical role in forest ecosystems and to provide opportunities for scientists from the Pacific Southwest Research Station, and elsewhere to study various effects of these fires. Approximately 11,900 acres of prescription burns were completed by the end of 1999, and documents required by the National Environmental Policy Act have been completed for burning on about 23,000 additional acres. A Draft Landscape Analysis Plan has been prepared and reviewed, and a final draft is presently in preparation. Two fuels-reduction projects are nearly completed, using small-group selection, thinning of conifers, conversion of brush patches to conifer stands, and prescribed burning. A second fuels-reduction project is currently being planned. Many lessons have been learned that relate to needed equipment, crew size, lighter experience, and ignition methods; indicators of appropriate times and places to burn; weather patterns; indicators of desirable flame lengths and fire intensities; indicators of the effects of burns on fuels, duff layer, and soil; and measures of the extent of brush, surface fuels, and ladder fuels removed by burns differing in intensity.

Publication Notes:

Citation

McCandliss, David S. 2002. Prescribed burning in the Kings River Ecosystem Project Area: lessons learned In: Verner, Jared, tech. editor. Proceedings of a Symposium on the Kings River Sustainable Forest Ecosystem Project: Progress and Current Status. Gen. Tech. Rep. PSW-GTR-183, Albany, CA: Pacific Southwest Research Station, Forest Service, U.S. Department of Agriculture: 37-46.