Characterisation of the fuel and fire environment in southern Ontario’s tallgrass prairie
Susan Kidnie A C and B. Mike Wotton B
+ Author Affiliations
- Author Affiliations
A Country Fire Authority, Fire and Emergency Management, PO Box 701, Mount Waverley, Vic. 3149, Australia.
B Natural Resources Canada – Canadian Forest Service, University of Toronto – Faculty of Forestry, 33 Willcocks Street, Toronto, ON, M5S 3B3, Canada.
C Corresponding author. Email: s.kidnie@cfa.vic.gov.au
International Journal of Wildland Fire 24(8) 1118-1128 https://doi.org/10.1071/WF14214
Submitted: 27 November 2014 Accepted: 16 July 2015 Published: 3 September 2015
Abstract
Prescribed burning can be an integral part of tallgrass prairie restoration and management. Understanding fire behaviour in this fuel is critical to conducting safe and effective prescribed burns. Our goal was to quantify important physical characteristics of southern Ontario’s tallgrass fuel complex prior to and during prescribed burns and synthesise our findings into useful applications for the prescribed fire community. We found that the average fuel load in tallgrass communities was 0.70 kg m–2. Fuel loads varied from 0.38 to 0.96 kg m–2. Average heat of combustion did not vary by species and was 17 334 kJ kg–1. A moisture content model was developed for fully cured, matted field grass, which was found to successfully predict moisture content of the surface layers of cured tallgrass in spring. We observed 25 head fires in spring-season prescribed burns with spread rates ranging from 4 to 55 m min–1. Flame front residence time averaged 27 s, varying significantly with fuel load but not fire spread rate. A grassland spread rate model from Australia showed the closest agreement with observed spread rates. These results provide prescribed-burn practitioners in Ontario better information to plan and deliver successful burns.
Additional keywords: fire spread rate, flame residence time, flame temperature, fuel load, fuel moisture, grassfire.
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