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Pre-fire treatment effects and post-fire
forest dynamics on the Rodeo-Chediski burn area, Arizona
Strom, Barbara A. 2005. Pre-fire treatment effects and post-fire forest dynamics on the Rodeo-Chediski burn area, Arizona. Flagstaff, AZ: Northern Arizona University. 177 p. Thesis.
The 2002 Rodeo-Chediski fire was the largest wildfire in Arizona history at 189,000 ha (468,000 acres), and exhibited some of the most extreme fire behavior ever seen in the Southwest. Pre-fire fuel reduction treatments of thinning, timber harvesting, and prescribed burning on the White Mountain Apache Tribal lands (WMAT) and thinning on the Apache-Sitgreaves National Forest (A-S) set the stage for a test of the upper boundary of effectiveness of fuel reduction treatments at decreasing burn severity. On the WMAT, we sampled 90 six-hectare study sites two years after the fire, representing 30% of the entire burn area on White Mountain Apache Tribe lands, or 34,000 hectares, and comprising a matrix of three burn severities (low, moderate, or high) and three treatments (cutting and prescribed burning, prescribed burning only, or no treatment). Prescribed burning without cutting was associated with reduced burn severity, but the combination of cutting and prescribed burning had the greatest ameliorative effect. Increasing degree of treatment was associated with an increase in the number of live trees and a decrease in the extremity of fire behavior as indicated by crown base height and bole char height.
Keywords: Rodeo-Chediski fire, White Mountain Apache Tribal lands (WMAT), fuel reduction treatments, prescribed burning
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Title: RMRS Other
Publications: Pre-fire treatment effects and post-fire forest
dynamics on the Rodeo-Chediski burn area, Arizona
Electronic Publish Date: May 5, 2009
Last Update: May
5, 2009