Fuel Break Science in the Great Basin

Background

Fuel breaks in sagebrush landscapes are primarily implemented by land management agencies, and they are designed to reduce the spread and intensity of wildfire via the removal or modification of vegetation that act as wildfire fuels. Managers tasked with designing, installing, and maintaining fuel break networks in sagebrush landscapes can benefit from scientific research aimed at evaluating the efficacy of fuel breaks and assessing their impacts on wildlife and other ecosystem components. We are developing a strategic framework for assessing and monitoring the impacts of fuel breaks to improve future land management planning. Our research is aimed at filling information gaps regarding:

1. The effectiveness of fuel breaks for reducing wildfire risk
2. Direct and indirect alterations of ecosystem processes, such as wildlife habitat fragmentation and exotic annual grass invasion
3. Short and long-term effectiveness and impacts of fuel break networks

Methods and Progress

In phase one of this project, we sampled fuel breaks across central and northern Nevada and south-central Idaho, at sites with a wide variety of environmental and climate conditions and over multiple years. Our team surveyed for fuel loads, fuel continuity, vegetation composition, exotic annual grass encroachment, and wildlife usage of fuel breaks. Phase one also included the development of predictive models for determining how factors such as land treatments, climate, and other environmental characteristics influence fuels, plant communities, exotic annual grass encroachment, and wildlife. Through a series of meetings, conference sessions, and collaboration with agency and university experts, we assessed the importance of fuels management, fuel breaks, and wildfires in sagebrush landscapes. We also organized a special session on fuel break science and management for the 2023 Society for Range Management Annual Meeting. Using information obtained from these efforts, we are currently developing recommended monitoring protocols for fuel breaks in the sagebrush biome.

Upcoming

Phase two of this project is aimed at applying lessons learned from phase one and to develop effective sampling and monitoring protocols. We are working closely with the Bureau of Land Management to select planned fuel break network project areas, within which we will locate and install a network of monitoring sites that will be sampled both before and after fuel breaks are installed. Phase two of our research will permit comprehensive temporal and spatial analyses of vegetation, fuels, and wildlife changes in and around fuel breaks that can be assessed relative to specific agency fuel break objectives and serve as a model for similar efforts in the western U.S.