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Project ID: 01-1-1-02

Year: 2002

Date Started: 04/02/2002

Date Completed: 08/09/2005

Title: Development of a Computer Model for Management of Fuels, Human-Fire Interactions, and Wildland Fires in the Boreal Forest of Alaska

Project Proposal Abstract: Interior Alaska contains 140 million burnable acres and includes the largest National Parks and National Wildlife Refuges in the country. On average, wildland fires burn 1,000,000 acres in Interior Alaska each year and threaten the lives, property, and timber resources of Alaska's sparse but growing population. Wildiand fires threaten human values, but they also are crucial for the maintenance of forest ecosystems. How do we manage wildlandfire in Alaska for the mutual benefit of humans and natural ecosystems? We aim to develop a computer-based, fire-management and planning model called Boreal ALFRESCO. This model utilizes physical, biological, and human thematic layers to simulate ecosystem dynamics. It outputs transient maps depicting the responses of vegetation cover and fuel accumulation under different scenarios of fire management and climate change. Developing this model will accomplish two objectives. First, it will synthesize our existing knowledge about wildland fire in interior Alaska and reveal critical gaps in our knowledge. Earlier versions of the model reveal that we lack basic infonnation concerning stand age and hazard-of-burning for different fuel types. Our proposed fieldwork will obtain this new data. Second, once tested by field data, the model will provide a planning tool for land managers who are designing fire-management plans that can balance the needs of both natural ecosystems and of the humans living around and in them. This project addresses JFSP's Task I (evaluate fire-management strategies in roadless areas), Task 3 (determine effects of fuel buildup), Task 6 (incorporate climate-change predictions into fire management), and Task 7 (develop scientific support tools for fire management). Project cooperators include representatives of Federal and State, land-managing agencies in interior Alaska, including the Bureau of Land Management, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, the U.S. National Park Service, U.S. Geological Survey, and Alaska Department of Fish and Game. After developing the Boreal ALFRESCO model in Alaska, our ultimate goal is to apply it to more complicated settings of the Intermountain West. Interior Alaska has relatively simple vegetation types and human infrastructures, so it is an ideal place for the initial development of an integrated model of human-fire-ecosystem interactions.

Principal Investigator: Scott T. Rupp

Agency/Organization: University of Alaska-Fairbanks

Branch or Dept: SNRAS-School of Natural Resources & Agricultural Sciences

Other Project Collaborators

Type	Name	Agency/Organization	Branch or Dept
Co-Principal Investigator	Layne Adams	USGS-Geological Survey	Cooperative Research Unit-MD
Co-Principal Investigator	Bruce Dale	Alaska	Fish & Game-Fairbanks
Co-Principal Investigator	Daniel H. Mann Ph.D.	University of Alaska-Fairbanks	SNRAS-School of Natural Resources & Agricultural Sciences
Co-Principal Investigator	Larry Vanderlinden	FWS-Fish and Wildlife Service	Region 7-Alaska Regional Office
Collaborator/Contributor	Brad Cella	NPS-National Park Service	Alaska Regional Office-Anchorage
Collaborator/Contributor	Dale Haggstrom	Alaska	Fish & Game-Fairbanks
Collaborator/Contributor	Marsha Henderson	NPS-National Park Service	YUGA-Yukon-Charley Rivers/Gates of the Arctic
Collaborator/Contributor	Kyle Joly	USGS-Geological Survey	ASC-Biological Science Office
Collaborator/Contributor	Mary Lynch	BLM-Bureau of Land Management	GACC-AICC-Alaska Fire Service-Ft. Wainwright
Collaborator/Contributor	George R. Theisen	BLM-Bureau of Land Management	Fairbanks District Office
Federal Cooperator	Randi R. Jandt	BLM-Bureau of Land Management	GACC-AICC-Alaska Fire Service-Ft. Wainwright

Project Locations

Consortium

Alaska

There are no project locations identified for this project.

Project Deliverables

Final Report ("Results presented in JFSP Final Reports may not have been peer-reviewed and should be interpreted as tentative until published in a peer-reviewed source.")

	ID	Type	Title
	5511	Refereed Publication	Planning for Resilience: Modeling Change in Human-Fire Interactions in the Alaskan Boreal Forest
	8799	Refereed Publication	Impacts of Large-Scale Atmospheric-Ocean Variability on Alaskan Fire Season Severity
	8798	NonRefereed Publication	ALFRESCO-Alaska Frame Based Ecosystem Code User Guide

Supporting Documents

There are no supporting documents available for this project.

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