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The threat from wildland fire continues to grow across many regions of the Western United States. Drought, urbanization, and a buildup of fuels over the last century have contributed to increasing wildfire risk to property and highly valued natural…
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Woody biomass-usually logging slash, tops and limbs, or trees that cannot be sold as timber-is the lowest valued material removed from the forest and presents economic and logistical challenges. This report brings together 45 case studies of how…
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Thinning and thinning followed by prescribed fire are common management practices intended to restore historic conditions in low-elevation ponderosa pine (Pinus ponderosa Dougl. ex P. & C. Laws.) forests of the northern Rocky Mountains. While…
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Paying our way: thinking strategically to offset the cost of reducing fire hazard in western forests
The fire hazard in many western forests is unacceptably high, posing risks to human health and property, wildlife habitat, and air and water quality. Cost is an inhibiting factor for reducing hazardous fuel, given the amount of acreage needing…
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Restoration and fuel treatments in the moist forests of the northern Rocky Mountains are complex and far different from those applicable to the dry ponderosa pine forests. In the moist forests, clearcuts are the favored method to use for growing…
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Many natural resource agencies and organizations recognize the importance of fuel treatments as tools for reducing fire hazards and restoring ecosystems. However, there continues to be confusion and misconception about fuel treatments and their…
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In their classic article published in the Journal of Forestry in 1986, Gerald Allen and Ernest Gould stated that the most daunting problems associated with public forest management have a "wicked" element: "Wicked problems share…
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This chapter presents a stated preference technique for estimating the public benefits of reducing wildfires to residents of California, Florida, and Montana from two alternative fuel reduction programs: prescribed burning, and mechanical fuels…
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ANNOTATION: The costs for harvesting timber for forest fire fuel reduction purposes were estimated for 12 states in the West. These simulation inputs were used to estimate average costs for 12,039 Forest inventory and Analysis plots in the West, and…
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The USDA Forest Service is progressing from a land management strategy oriented around timber extraction towards one oriented around maintaining healthy forested lands. The healthy Forest Initiative promotes the idea of broadscale forest thinning…
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With the focus of the National Fire Plan on decreasing fire risk in the wildland-urban interface, fire managers are increasingly tasked with reducing the fuel load in areas where mixed public and private ownership and a growing number of homes can…
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We describe a two-stage model of global log and chip markets that evaluates the spatial and temporal economic effects of government- subsidized fire-related mechanical fuel treatment programs in the U.S.West and South. The first stage is a goal…
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ANNOTATION: Forest biomass thinnings can potentially impact soil resources by altering soil physical, chemical, and/or biological properties. This paper provides basic recommendations and findings derived from stand-removal studies to guide biomass…
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Selective logging, fire suppression, forest succession, and climatic changes have resulted in high fire hazards over large areas of the western United States. Federal and state hazardous fuel reduction programs have increased accordingly to reduce…
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Fuel treatment effectiveness and non-treatment risks can be estimated from the probability of fire occurrence. Using extensive fire records for western US Forest Service lands, we estimate fuel treatments have a mean probability of 2.0-7.9% of…
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This paper integrates a spatial fire-behavior model and a stochastic dynamic-optimization model to determine the optimal spatial pattern of fuel management and timber harvest. Each year's fire season causes the loss of forest values and lives…
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