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Project ID: 04-1-2-01

Year: 2004

Date Started: 07/15/2004

Date Completed: 02/15/2008

Title: Rapid Response to the 2003 Fires in Southern California: Impact of Fuel Age on Fire Behavior and Recovery

Project Proposal Abstract: This project takes advantage of the unique opportunities provided by the October 2003 fires in southern California to answer two important questions: What was the relative importance of fuel age vs weather in determining the size of these fires and their catastrophic impact, and what role does fuel age play in determining fire severity and how does fire severity affect postfire recovery. Using spatially explicit analyses in GIS, we will examine the spread characteristics of the six largest fires and quantify the total distribution of age classes consumed in these fires, analyzed on a daily basis to isolate how fuel age, topography and fire weather interacted. Fire spread modeling will be used to evaluate the conditions that lead to abrupt changes in fire behavior using actual ignition points and weather conditions during the 2003 fire events. Actual fire spread patterns will be combined with fire spread models to understand combinations of factors that lead to extreme fire behavior and to address hypotheses about the effectiveness of pre-fire fuel manipulations in urban-wildland interface areas and the broader landscape. Through spatial overlay in GIS, area burned in different age classes will be determined and Weibull function parameters estimated to determine how fire hazard changes with age of fuel. Field studies will be conducted to examine the relationships between fuel age, fire severity and postfire vegetation recovery. We will test the hypothesis that as fuel age increases, fire severity increases and leads to reduced vegetative recovery by increased mortality of seed banks and mortality of resprouters. This information is important for understanding how stand age will affect natural regeneration of shrubland species and the necessity for different post-fire rehabilitation treatments. Combining these data with the spatial analysis we will develop a quantitative model to show how fire severity is affected by the combination of fuel age, composition, weather and topography. These results will reveal to managers the extent to which fuel age can be used to predict fire severity, whether or not fuel age is an important determinant of postfire recovery and provide insight into the potential threat to postfire recovery when fuels are too young at the time of burning.

Principal Investigator: Jon E. Keeley

Agency/Organization: USGS-Geological Survey

Branch or Dept: WERC-Sequoia & Kings Canyon Field Station

Other Project Collaborators

Type

Name

Agency/Organization

Branch or Dept

Project Locations

Consortium

California

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
	4816	Refereed Publication	Lessons from the 2003 Wildfires in Southern California
	7438	Refereed Publication	Human Influence on California Fire Regimes
	7437	Refereed Publication	A Critical Assessment of the Burning Index in Los Angeles County, California
	7436	Refereed Publication	Appropriate Postfire Management for the 2007 Griffith Park Fire
	7435	Refereed Publication	Testing a Basic Assumption of Shrubland Fire Management: How Important is Fuel Age?
	8860	NonRefereed Publication	Fire Severity and Ecosystem Responses Following Crown Fires in California Shrublands
	8861	NonRefereed Publication	Fire Intensity, Fire Severity and Burn Severity: A Brief Review and Suggested Usage
	8859	NonRefereed Publication	Chaparral Fuel Modification: What Do We Know--And Need to Know?
	4814	NonRefereed Publication	Lessons from the 2003 fire siege in California
	7455	NonRefereed Publication	A Different Perspective on Global Fire
	7454	NonRefereed Publication	Wildfire Management on a Human-Dominated Landscape
	7453	NonRefereed Publication	Fire in California’s Ecosystems
	7452	NonRefereed Publication	Human Influence on California Fire Regimes
	7451	NonRefereed Publication	Lessons From the October 2003 Wildfires in Southern California
	7450	NonRefereed Publication	A Critical Assessment of the Burning Index Used in Fighting Wildland Fires
	4818	Invited Paper/Presentation	Considerations of the Costs and Benefits of Postfire Seeding
	8858	Invited Paper/Presentation	2003 Wildfires in Southern California: Impact of Fuel Age on Fire Severity and Vegetation Recovery
	4821	Invited Paper/Presentation	Lessons Learned From the 2003 Wildfires
	4819	Invited Paper/Presentation	Lessons Learned From the 2003 Wildfires
	4823	Invited Paper/Presentation	Wildfire Management on a Human Dominated Landscape: California Chaparral Wildfires
	4811	Book or Book Chapter	Lessons Learned from the Wildfires
	4813	Poster	Lessons Learned From the 2003 Wildfires

Supporting Documents

There are no supporting documents available for this project.

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