Assessing the effectiveness of landscape fuel treatments on fire growth and behavior

Abstract

This article presents a methodology for assessing the effectiveness of landscape fuel treatments on fire growth and behavior in southern Utah. Treatment areas were selected by fire managers from the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) based on the threat of fire to communities and the need for range and wildlife improvement. A fire density grid was derived from the BLM's fire start layer to identify historically high ignition areas. FireFamily Plus was used to summarize and analyze historical weather and calculate seasonal severity and percentile reports. Information from FireFamily was used in FARSITE and FlamMap to model pre- and post-treatment effects on fire growth, spotting, fireline intensity, surface flame length, and the occurrence of crown fire. This procedure provides managers with a quantitative measure of treatment effectiveness as well as spatial output that can be used for analyzing fuel treatment effectiveness, burn plan development, National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) documentation, public education, etc.