Mastication is a wildland fuel treatment technique that is rapidly becoming popular with fire managers for fire hazard reduction projects, especially in areas where reducing fuels with prescribed fire is particularly challenging. Mastication is the process of mechanically modifying the live and dead surface and canopy biomass by...
Author(s): Robert E. Keane, Pamela G. Sikkink, Theresa B. Jain, James J. Reardon
Year Published: 2017
Type: Document :
Technical Report or White Paper Fire is an important disturbance in forest ecosystems globally. Many of the effects of fire on forest processes are mediated through effects on vegetation structure. Understanding how fire properties, fire regimes and environmental variation interact to affect structure is required in the face of predictions of increasing size and...
Author(s): Michelle Bassett, Steven W.J. Leonard, Evelyn K. Chia, Michael F. Clarke, Andrew F. Bennett
Year Published: 2017
Type: Document :
Book or Chapter or Journal Article One important outcome of wildfire is the production of charcoal. Charcoal is highly resistant to decomposition and its physical and chemical properties enhance soil fertility and influence nutrient cycling. We compared the amount of black C (the carbon fraction of charcoal) on coarse woody debris (CWD; ≥7.6 cm diameter) and total...
Author(s): Aspen Ward, C. Alina Cansler, Andrew J. Larson
Year Published: 2017
Type: Document :
Book or Chapter or Journal Article It has been 5 years since the High Park Fire burned over 85,000 acres in Northern Colorado, causing extensive property damage, loss of life, and severe impacts to the water quality of the Poudre River. In the fall of 2016, a conference was organized by the USFS Rocky Mountain Research Station and the Coalition for the Poudre River...
Author(s): Charles C. Rhoades, Peter R. Robichaud, Sandra E. Ryan, Jen Kovecses, Carl Chambers, Sara Rathburn, Jared Heath, Stephanie Kampf, Codie Wilson, Dan Brogan, Brad Piehl, Mary Ellen Miller, John Giordanengo, Erin Berryman, Monique E. Rocca
Year Published: 2017
Type: Document :
Research Brief or Fact Sheet Integration of Forest Inventory and Analysis (FIA) plot data with Monitoring Trends in Burn Severity (MTBS) data can provide new information about fire effects on forests. This integration allowed broad-scale assessment of the cover types burned in large fires, the relationship between prefire stand conditions and fire severity, and...
Author(s): John D. Shaw, Sara Goeking, James Menlove, Charles E. Werstak
Year Published: 2017
Type: Document :
Book or Chapter or Journal Article Interest in PNW forests is shifting from a focus on old-growth forests alone to include the ecological value and processes of early-seral communities. However, focusing on the alpha and omega states of a linear successional model does not account for the suite of conditions derived from mixed-severity fire common in many forests....
Author(s): Christopher J. Dunn, John D. Bailey
Year Published: 2017
Type: Document :
Technical Report or White Paper Wildland fire smoke is a complex mixture of air contaminants that have the potential cause adverse health effects. Individuals can be exposed occupationally if they work as wildland firefighters or public exposure from ambient air that is contaminated with smoke from a nearby or distant wildland fire. Previous studies of public...
Author(s): Joe Domitrovich, George Broyles, Roger D. Ottmar, Timothy E. Reinhardt, Luke P. Naeher, Michael T. Kleinman, Kathleen M. Navarro, Christopher E. Mackay, Olorunfemi Adetona
Year Published: 2017
Type: Document :
Technical Report or White Paper Biomass burning is an important source to the atmosphere of carbonaceous particulate matter that impacts air quality, climate, and human health. The semivolatile nature of directlyemitted organic particulate matter can result in particle evaporation as smoke plumes dilute. Further, oxidation of emitted and volatilized precursors can...
Author(s): Sonia M. Kreidenweis, Jeffrey R. Pierce
Year Published: 2017
Type: Document :
Technical Report or White Paper We measured soil heating and subsequent changes in soil properties between two forest residue disposal methods: slash pile burning (SPB) and air curtain burner (ACB). The ACB consumes fuels more efficiently and safely via blowing air into a burning container. Five burning trials with different fuel sizes were implemented in northern...
Author(s): Woongsoon Jang, Deborah S. Page-Dumroese, Han-Sup Han
Year Published: 2017
Type: Document :
Book or Chapter or Journal Article Fire may remove or create dead wood aboveground, but it is less clear how high severity burning of soils affects belowground microbial communities and soil processes, and for how long. In this study, we investigated soil fungal and bacterial communities and biogeochemical responses of severely burned “red” soil and less severely...
Author(s): Jane E. Smith, Laurel A. Kluber, Tara N. Jennings, Donaraye McKay, Greg Brenner, Elizabeth W. Sulzman
Year Published: 2017
Type: Document :
Book or Chapter or Journal Article