Fire behaviour in masticated forest fuels: lab and prescribed fire experiments
Zachary D. Lyon A C , Penelope Morgan A D , Camille S. Stevens-Rumann A B , Aaron M. Sparks A , Robert F. Keefe A and Alistair M. S. Smith A
+ Author Affiliations
- Author Affiliations
A Department of Forest, Rangeland, and Fire Sciences, University of Idaho, 875 Perimeter Dr. MS 1133, Moscow, ID 83844-1133, USA.
B Department of Forest and Rangeland Stewardship, Colorado State University, 1472 Campus Delivery, Fort Collins, CO 80523-1472, USA.
C Present address: Manti-La Sal National Forest, Monticello, UT 84535, USA.
D Corresponding author. Email: pmorgan@uidaho.edu
International Journal of Wildland Fire 27(4) 280-292 https://doi.org/10.1071/WF17145
Submitted: 28 September 2017 Accepted: 11 February 2018 Published: 10 April 2018
Abstract
Managers masticate fuels to reduce extreme fire hazards, but the effect on fire behaviour within the resulting compact fuelbeds is poorly understood. We burned 54 masticated fuelbeds in laboratory experiments one and two growing seasons after mastication and 75 masticated fuelbeds in prescribed fire experiments one growing season after treatment in three replicate Pinus ponderosa stands. Mastication treatments reduced density of trees >5 cm diameter by 30–72% resulting in total fuel depth of 6.9–13.7 cm and surface woody fuel loading of 1.0–16.0 kg m−2. Flame length and rate of spread were low and similar for coarse and fine mastication treatments and controls. Smouldering combustion lasted 6–22 h in prescribed fire experiments where fuelbeds included duff and were well mixed by machinery, compared with <2 h in the laboratory where fuelbeds did not include duff and had varying fuel moisture. Fuel consumption in the prescribed fires was highly variable, ranging from 0 to 20 cm in depth and was less from 2-year-old fuelbeds than 1-year-old fuelbeds in laboratory burns. Compared with fine mastication treatments, coarse treatments took less time to implement and were more cost-effective. Although laboratory experiments expand our understanding of burning masticated fuels under controlled conditions, they did not readily translate to prescribed burning conditions where fuels, weather and ignition patterns were more variable. This highlights the need for more laboratory experiments and in situ research that together can be used to develop much-needed, scalable predictive models of mastication combustion.
Additional keywords: combustion, fire intensity, fuel: treatments, trees: conifers.
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