Landscape-scale changes in canopy fuels and potential fire behaviour following ponderosa pine restoration treatments
John P. Roccaforte A C , Peter Z. Fulé A B and W. Wallace Covington A B
+ Author Affiliations
- Author Affiliations
A Ecological Restoration Institute, Box 15017, Northern Arizona University, Flagstaff, AZ 86011, USA.
B School of Forestry, Box 15018, Northern Arizona University, Flagstaff, AZ 86011, USA.
C Corresponding author. Email: john.roccaforte@nau.edu
International Journal of Wildland Fire 17(2) 293-303 https://doi.org/10.1071/WF06120
Submitted: 28 August 2006 Accepted: 13 June 2007 Published: 18 April 2008
Abstract
We evaluated canopy fuels and potential fire behaviour changes following landscape-scale restoration treatments in a ponderosa pine forest at Mt Trumbull, Arizona, USA. The goal of the project was to restore historical forest structure by thinning and burning, thereby reducing canopy fuels and minimising active crown fire potential. We measured 117 permanent plots before (1996–97) and after (2003) treatments. The plots were evenly distributed across the landscape and represented an area of ~1200 ha, about half of which was an untreated control. We compared canopy fuel estimates using three different methods to assess whether fire behaviour modelling outputs were sensitive to the choice of canopy fuel equation. Treatments decreased canopy fuel load by 43–50% from 0.77–1.83 kg m–2 to 0.44–0.91 kg m–2 (the range of values reflects the different canopy fuel equations) and decreased canopy bulk density by 42–61% from 0.038–0.172 kg m–3 to 0.022–0.067 kg m–3 in the treated area, while slight increases occurred in the control. We applied two fire models to estimate potential fire behaviour: FlamMap and NEXUS. These models differ in several important features but predicted outcomes were consistent: under extreme drought and wind conditions, the proportion of the landscape susceptible to active crown fire decreased in the treated area while little change occurred in the control.
Additional keywords: Arizona, canopy bulk density, canopy fuel load, crown fire, FlamMap, modelling, Mt Trumbull, NEXUS.
Acknowledgements
Thanks to Margaret Moore, John Bailey and Joe Scott for their comments and insight; the staff and students at the Ecological Restoration Institute, especially Jon Bakker, Scott Curran, and Joe Crouse; and to the BLM Arizona Strip District, especially Ken Moore, Tim Duck, and Aaron Wilkerson. The present research was funded by the US Department of Interior, Bureau of Land Management.
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