Advanced Search Results Detail

Project ID: 12-1-03-25

Year: 2013

Date Started: 12/01/2012

Ending Date:  07/01/2014

Title: Long-Term Effects of Prescribed Fire on Forest Fuels Across the Western United States

Project Proposal Abstract: Using long-term records from over 470 separate plots, we propose to broadly test the idea that prescribed fire can lead to long-term reductions in surface fuels and fire risks in coniferous forests of the western United States (US). Prescribed fire is a widely used fuels management tool, yet the effectiveness of these treatments has not been assessed over large spatial and temporal scales. We will consider this question at a subcontinental scale by synthesizing existing information from a large plot-based prescribed fire monitoring database spanning the western US. These data feature standard surface fuels measurements and tree inventories conducted pre-fire, immediately post-fire and 1-, 2-, 5-, 10- and 15-years post-fire. We will use these data to understand the variability of fuels reduction treatments and long-term fuels accumulation patterns both within and among major forest types. A limited number of these sites (184 plots) have also been re-burned with continued fuels monitoring, which we will use to quantify the effects of repeated burning on surface fuels and fire behavior. We will determine the effectiveness of prescribed fire in terms of modeled fire behavior, parameterized using observed patterns of fuels dynamics. Because of the large scope and depth of our data, the results of this project will be of great interest to a wide audience of managers, policy makers and the scientific community.

Principal Investigator: Phillip J. van Mantgem

Agency/Organization: USGS-Geological Survey

Branch or Dept: WERC-Redwood Field Station

Other Project Collaborators

Type	Name	Agency/Organization	Branch or Dept
Budget Contact	Cindy C. Lu	USGS-Geological Survey	WERC-Western Ecological Research Center HQ
Co-Principal Investigator	MaryBeth J. Keifer	NPS-National Park Service	Sequoia-Kings Canyon National Parks
Co-Principal Investigator	Jonathan C. Nesmith	University of California-Berkeley	Department of Environmental Sciences-Policy & Management
Grants and Agreements Contact	Cindy C. Lu	USGS-Geological Survey	WERC-Western Ecological Research Center HQ
Lead Reviewer	James Hutton	NPS-National Park Service	Fire Management Program Center

Project Locations

Consortium

Level	State	Agency	Unit
REGIONAL	Interior West	NPS
REGIONAL	Pacific Coast States	NPS

Project Deliverables

There is no final report available for this project.
There are no deliverables available for this project.

Supporting Documents

There are no supporting documents available for this project.

Convert PDF documents to an html document using Adobe's online conversion tool.