Skip to main content

IMAGINE aims to solve the issue of technology overload confronting prescribed fire managers today. As the demand to prescribe burn more acres increase, so do the demands on fire management officers (FMOs) to prioritize treatment areas. Prescribed fires accomplish multiple objectives including reducing hazardous fuels, improving wildlife habitat, aiding listed species and increasing resource access. IMAGINE is meant to provide research to managers a simple program that answers the questions of "when to burn, where to burn, how to burn, and why to burn." The burn prioritization model ranks treatment areas on ecological and logistical scores and allows users to set optimal burning constraints such as days since rain, KDBI, relative humidity, temperature, and season of burn to achieved desired resource goals. The goal of many burns is ecological restoration therefore some criteria such as percent of fire-dependent vegetation, departure from desired condition, and presence of listed species were factored in. Logistical data is based on cost per acre of conducting each burn. 

Media Record Details

Jul 11, 2013
Reginald Goolsby

Cataloging Information

Topic(s):
Fuel Treatments & Effects
Fuels

NRFSN number: 12845
FRAMES RCS number: 15064
Record updated: