Studying Fire Mitigation Strategies in Multi-Ownership Landscapes: Balancing the Management of Fire-Dependent Ecosystems and Fire Risk.
Authors:
Sturtevant, Brian R. Miranda, Brian R. Yang, Jian He, Hong S. Gustafson, Eric J. Scheller, Robert M. USDA, FS
Source:
Ecosystems. 2009 Apr., v. 12, no. 3 New York : Springer-Verlag, p. 445-461.
NALT Subjects:
wildland fire management forest management public lands wildland-urban interface fuels (fire ecology) fire regime fire suppression simulation models wildfires fire hazard reduction forest trees spatial distribution fire break hardwood forests Chequamegon National Forest Wisconsin
Other Subjects:
LANDIS model debris burning sensitivity analysis
Issue Date:
Apr-2009
Abstract:
Public forests are surrounded by land over which agency managers have no control, and whose owners expect the public forest to be a “good neighbor.” Fire risk abatement on multi-owner landscapes containing flammable but fire-dependent ecosystems epitomizes the complexities of managing public lands. We report a case study that applies a landscape disturbance and succession model (LANDIS) to evaluate the relative effectiveness of four alternative fire mitigation strategies on the Chequamegon-Nicolet National Forest (Wisconsin, USA), where fire-dependent pine and oak systems overlap with a rapidly developing wildland-urban interface (WUI). We incorporated timber management of the current forest plan and fire characteristics (ignition patterns, fire sizes, and fuel-specific fire spread rates) typical for the region under current fire suppression policies, using a combination of previously published fire analyses and interactive expert opinion from the national forest. Of the fire mitigation strategies evaluated, reduction of ignitions caused by debris-burning had the strongest influence on fire risk, followed by the strategic redistribution of risky forest types away from the high ignition rates of the WUI. Other treatments (fire breaks and reducing roadside ignitions) were less effective. Escaped fires, although rare, introduced significant uncertainty in the simulations and are expected to complicate fire management planning. Simulations also show that long-term maintenance of fire-dependent communities (that is, pine and oak) representing the greatest forest fire risk requires active management. Resolving conflict between the survival of fire-dependent communities that are regionally declining and continued rural development requires strategic planning that accounts for multi-owner activities.
