National Fuels Treatment and Post-fire Treatment Effectiveness Assessment Strategies
Managing wildland fuels and post-fire environments are key strategies to reduce the risk and negative impacts of wildfire, and can even promote beneficial effects of wildfire. Researchers from the U.S. Geological Survey are reviewing, summarizing, and analyzing what is currently known about fuel treatment and post-fire treatment effectiveness in the United States. Monitoring and evaluating the effectiveness of these treatments is critical to tracking their short-term and long-term success in reducing negative impacts of wildfire on natural resources and human communities. This project examines factors that influence wildfire trends and fuel treatment success, reviews methods for monitoring fuel and post-fire treatment effects, and highlights information needed to improve treatment strategies intended to reduce fire risk.
Background
Fire is an important natural process in most terrestrial ecosystems. However, the historical role and behavior of wildfire have been altered in many parts of the United States, driven in large part by human activity, such as land use and climate change. As a result, land managers often initiate large-scale, pre-fire treatment of vegetation that serves as fuel for wildfires, in efforts to reduce harmful impacts on communities, infrastructure, and ecosystems.
These treatments include activities aimed at reducing fire severity and/or limiting fire spread, such as thinning forests or mowing vegetation
along roadsides to improve access and safety for wildland firefighters. Similarly, post-fire treatments are intended to reduce or prevent damage to natural and cultural resources immediately after fire. Post-fire treatments include quickly revegetating severely burned areas and steep slopes to stabilize soils, prevent massive water run-off, and avoid excessive degradation of water quality. However, the long-term effectiveness of fuel and post-fire treatments are not fully understood in many fire-prone landscapes, and the capacity of land management agencies to monitor fuel and post-fire treatments can vary widely. In many cases, efforts to improve upon planning, evaluation, maintenance, and adaptive management are hindered by a lack of information.
Monitoring and evaluating the effects of these treatments provides critical information to improve their efficacy and reduce the risk and negative impacts of wildfire. For instance, monitoring information can be used to determine where fuel treatment is needed, which treatment methods are appropriate, assess long-term maintenance needs, report on relative success, and estimate overall costs and benefits. Monitoring the effectiveness of post-fire treatments for emergency stabilization and rehabilitation informs land management decisions to reduce immediate post-fire risks, as well as to determine how, when, and where to restore valued natural resources after fire. Finally, monitoring fuel and post-fire treatments provides the data to update fire and post-fire risk assessments over the treatment areas.
Innovative approaches are needed to better assess the effectiveness of both post-fire treatments and fuel treatments, in ways that provide information that is useful for planning at scales that range from local to national in scope.
Methods and Goals
Researchers and land managers are working together to develop actionable science that supports Department of the Interior efforts to implement and monitor fuel and post-fire treatment efforts. This study will improve the success of agency investments. We are leveraging USGS science expertise, along with modern monitoring and modeling capabilities, to assess progress towards meeting fuel reduction and maintenance objectives, implementing post-fire recovery actions, and supporting DOI bureau wildfire management and fuels planning needs. This work consists of four interrelated tasks:
1. Expand the Wildland Fire Trends Tool, a web-based mapping application that can be used to help assess changes in wildfire activity. The enhanced tool will display wildfire patterns and trends over time, related fuel treatment information, and other variables, such as climate, that influence fire activity.
2. Identify gaps in existing fuel treatment inventory, monitoring, and assessment methods that can support development of strategic fuels treatment planning, as well as evaluation and communication of fuel treatment effectiveness.
3. Identify information that is needed to facilitate more effective decision making to reduce immediate post-fire risks and determine how to best restore valued natural resources after fire.
4. Develop a fuel treatment maintenance framework that can be used to better assess fuel treatment longevity, estimate re-treatment schedules, and predict potential costs and benefits of treatment actions.
Where advantageous, monitoring and assessment strategies will include new technological approaches, such as remote sensing and machine learning tools that could improve our ability to efficiently detect change after treatment. Ultimately, the information and analyses provided will help to inform DOI monitoring and planning efforts at multiple scales, ranging from local landscape planning to regional assessments.
Managing wildland fuels and post-fire environments are key strategies to reduce the risk and negative impacts of wildfire, and can even promote beneficial effects of wildfire. Researchers from the U.S. Geological Survey are reviewing, summarizing, and analyzing what is currently known about fuel treatment and post-fire treatment effectiveness in the United States. Monitoring and evaluating the effectiveness of these treatments is critical to tracking their short-term and long-term success in reducing negative impacts of wildfire on natural resources and human communities. This project examines factors that influence wildfire trends and fuel treatment success, reviews methods for monitoring fuel and post-fire treatment effects, and highlights information needed to improve treatment strategies intended to reduce fire risk.
Background
Fire is an important natural process in most terrestrial ecosystems. However, the historical role and behavior of wildfire have been altered in many parts of the United States, driven in large part by human activity, such as land use and climate change. As a result, land managers often initiate large-scale, pre-fire treatment of vegetation that serves as fuel for wildfires, in efforts to reduce harmful impacts on communities, infrastructure, and ecosystems.
These treatments include activities aimed at reducing fire severity and/or limiting fire spread, such as thinning forests or mowing vegetation
along roadsides to improve access and safety for wildland firefighters. Similarly, post-fire treatments are intended to reduce or prevent damage to natural and cultural resources immediately after fire. Post-fire treatments include quickly revegetating severely burned areas and steep slopes to stabilize soils, prevent massive water run-off, and avoid excessive degradation of water quality. However, the long-term effectiveness of fuel and post-fire treatments are not fully understood in many fire-prone landscapes, and the capacity of land management agencies to monitor fuel and post-fire treatments can vary widely. In many cases, efforts to improve upon planning, evaluation, maintenance, and adaptive management are hindered by a lack of information.
Monitoring and evaluating the effects of these treatments provides critical information to improve their efficacy and reduce the risk and negative impacts of wildfire. For instance, monitoring information can be used to determine where fuel treatment is needed, which treatment methods are appropriate, assess long-term maintenance needs, report on relative success, and estimate overall costs and benefits. Monitoring the effectiveness of post-fire treatments for emergency stabilization and rehabilitation informs land management decisions to reduce immediate post-fire risks, as well as to determine how, when, and where to restore valued natural resources after fire. Finally, monitoring fuel and post-fire treatments provides the data to update fire and post-fire risk assessments over the treatment areas.
Innovative approaches are needed to better assess the effectiveness of both post-fire treatments and fuel treatments, in ways that provide information that is useful for planning at scales that range from local to national in scope.
Methods and Goals
Researchers and land managers are working together to develop actionable science that supports Department of the Interior efforts to implement and monitor fuel and post-fire treatment efforts. This study will improve the success of agency investments. We are leveraging USGS science expertise, along with modern monitoring and modeling capabilities, to assess progress towards meeting fuel reduction and maintenance objectives, implementing post-fire recovery actions, and supporting DOI bureau wildfire management and fuels planning needs. This work consists of four interrelated tasks:
1. Expand the Wildland Fire Trends Tool, a web-based mapping application that can be used to help assess changes in wildfire activity. The enhanced tool will display wildfire patterns and trends over time, related fuel treatment information, and other variables, such as climate, that influence fire activity.
2. Identify gaps in existing fuel treatment inventory, monitoring, and assessment methods that can support development of strategic fuels treatment planning, as well as evaluation and communication of fuel treatment effectiveness.
3. Identify information that is needed to facilitate more effective decision making to reduce immediate post-fire risks and determine how to best restore valued natural resources after fire.
4. Develop a fuel treatment maintenance framework that can be used to better assess fuel treatment longevity, estimate re-treatment schedules, and predict potential costs and benefits of treatment actions.
Where advantageous, monitoring and assessment strategies will include new technological approaches, such as remote sensing and machine learning tools that could improve our ability to efficiently detect change after treatment. Ultimately, the information and analyses provided will help to inform DOI monitoring and planning efforts at multiple scales, ranging from local landscape planning to regional assessments.