Frostfire: A Successful Experimental Burn in the Boreal Forest
The
landscape-scale prescribed research burn in the boreal forest of
interior Alaska, FROSTFIRE, was a success for both Forest Service
Research scientists and fire managers. Planning over the past 5
years culminated in a safe and successful burn July 8-15, 1999.
Within the 2200-acre perimeter, fire mimicked natural conditions
by burning 900 acres of mostly black spruce, leaving the hardwoods
standing.
FROSTFIRE is easily the most documented fire in history (see Background).
The Pacific Northwest Research Station, Fire and Environmental Research
Applications Team (FERA) has heavily invested in this fire management
and global change experiment. We measured thermal, chemical, and
hydraulic properties from the molecular to the global level to build
a full picture of the carbon, water, and energy pools and fluxes
in the boreal forest before, during, and after the fire.
The two major clients for the integrated research are earth system
modelers and fire managers.Data from this fire will go into improving
fire danger indices for Alaska, developing fuel characteristic classes
(FCCs) that drive the CONSUME and EPM models, and making such models
applicable around the world. These models are used both to assist
fire managers in planning prescribed burns to meet current management
objectives, as well as by earth systems modelers to more accurately
model global change.
In addition to FERA (Dr. David V. Sandberg, Roger Ottmar, and Dr.
Sue Ferguson), 54 research teams from the United States (Pacific
Southwest Research Station [Phil Riggan], National Center for Atmospheric
Research, University of Alaska Fairbanks, USGS and several universities),
Canada (Canadian Forest Service [Brian Stocks]), and Japan (Dr.
Masami Fukuda) have experiments in the 900-acre burned area. The
fire itself was planned and carried out in partnership with the
BLM Alaska Fire Service and the University of Alaska Fairbanks.
The Alaska Fire Service (Scott Billing, Dave Dash, Jim Roessler,
John McColgan) were committed to this prototype of what they see
as the future of fire management in Alaska.
An unusual feature of the experiment was the extent of media coverage.
The Forest Service and BLM have been mentioned numerous times on
camera and print, and the coverage has been all positive. We were
followed for seven days by a six-person crew from National Public
Broadcasting for their production of an upcoming NOVA segment. NIFC
also assigned a film crew to document the fire and our research.
Investment in this research was a high-risk endeavor.
The burn occurred on the only three days in the past two years
that were in prescription. Many of the scientists and research aircraft
could only afford to dispatch to Alaska one time so the planning,
decisionmaking, and operation had to be done with precision and
luck. With freedom and support from Forest Service Research, we
were able to be totally committed to this project, and acknowledge
that Forest Service Research is the only institution that could
have accomplished such an experiment. A big job of analysis lies
ahead.
Background
Boreal forests account for about one-third of the carbon sequestered
in terrestrial ecosystems, and our research will measure the changes
in carbon pools and fluxes that result from large fires in the boreal
forest. We will develop models that predict major feedbacks to the
climate system from fires in the boreal forest.
This experiment differs from previous experimental fires in the
boreal forest because it is in terrain dominated by permafrost,
focuses on the large-scale ecological consequences of fire, and
takes place on an LTER site, enabling long-term, experimentally-controlled
research. Principal investigators are from the USDA Forest Service
and the University of Alaska, but we encourage the broadest possible
use of this experiment by the scientific community.
Fire management is fundamental to the protection and enhancement
of human values, wildlife habitat, ecosystem integrity, and watershed
characteristics in the boreal forest. We envision landscape-scale
prescribed burning to be an important tool for managing boreal forest
resources in the 21st century. Agencies such as the USDI BLM (Alaska
Fire Service) and Alaska Department of Natural Resources, principal
managers of the FROSTFIRE burn, are highly experienced in fire control
and in managing smaller prescribed fire to enhance resource values,
but will see opportunities like this one to gain experience in landscape-scale
burning.
Funding provided by the University
of Alaska Fairbanks
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