Fuel Reduction Priorities
This page gives some ways that wildfire potential can be reduced
by
George Wooten
Twisp, Washington
|
Focus fuel
reduction on the wildland-urban interface.
|
(from "Reducing the Wildland Fire Threat to Homes: Where and How Much?" - by Jack D. Cohen |
| Focus on the area immediately adjacent to homes like these straightforward measures done by Larry Darley of Okanogan, Washington, who saved his home from the 2001 Virginia Lakes fire by removing bitterbrush from the yard, and using fire-proof building materials. |
Simply removing shrubs from the yard saved this home from fire |
| Separate the surface fuels from the crown fuels. Simple pruning of lower branches by Larry Darley of Okanogan, Washington, saved these trees from burning during the 2001 Virginia Lakes fire which burned 70,000 acres, mostly of rangelands, on the Colville Indian Reservation. His neighbors lost both their homes and their forests. |
Simple pruning of branches of pine plantations saved these trees |
| Avoid logging big trees. High-grade logging can replace big trees with doghair thickets that increase fire risk - such as this one which fueled the 2001 Libby South fire in Washington and cost $3.6 million to control. Stumps don't lie. |
Dog-hair thickets caused by high-grade logging, a.k.a "thinning" |
| Insure funding and time to treat slash. Whiteface firestorm started in timber slash piles on the Okanogan National Forest in 1994, and consumed 4,000 acres. |
Whiteface fire became a firestorm when it reached slash piles. |
| Don't waste time on remote forests. Prioritize treatments around homes and communities over logging of remote backcountry areas. This example of "thinning" on the Okanogan National Forest shows how treatments have likely increased fire risk by converting doghair thickets into tinder piles. |
Slash from "thinning" under HB1904 would lead to increased risk of forest fires |
| Good fires can only benefit the ecosystem if allowed to burn. The remote 2003 Farewell Fire burned in the Pasayten Wilderness, far from communities, just as fires have for thousands of years. |
Farewell fire on July 17, 2003, burning in the Pasayten Wilderness, far from communities. |
| Learn how fuels relate to ignition and crown fire potential. Despite a huge panic that the remote 2003 Farewell fire would threaten homes in Canada (!), the crown fire dropped to the ground out on its northeast and eastern flanks when it ran into an an area of dead, defoliated lodgepole that was caused by a beetle outbreak in the early 1990s. The beetle-killed trees had been dead for over five years and had dropped all of their needles, leaving little crown density to carry the crown fire. |
GIS overlay of beetle-killed lodgepole (blue) that acted as a fuel break during the 2003 Farewell fire (red shading). |
| Crown fires are natural, too. Left to itself, nature quickly heals from a fire. Three years after a crown fire, fireweed, aspen and cottonwood can reach over ten feet tall. |
Young aspen and cottonwood sprout within months of the Thirtmile wildfire.(photo used courtesy of Pacific Biodiversity Institute, Winthrop, WA) |
| Pay
attention the the risk of fire in open areas. Non-forested grasslands
and shrub-steppe make up one-third of the nation's yearly fire
acreage. This fire claimed 5 homes in the town of Okanogan while Congress
pondered HB 1904 "Healthy Forests" legislation. The July 17,
2003 blaze burned 350 acres in 6 hours, fueled largely by cheatgrass and
weeds. Several million dollars worth of damage will be paid by state
emergency funds.
"You don't expect to have wildfires racing through town" - Undersheriff Joe Somday |
click for story |
| Beware of ignition risks. Most fires nationwide are human-caused. The year 2000 24-Command Fire started by a motor vehicle accident near Hanford Nuclear Reservation and Arid Lands Ecology Reserve which burned 163,000 acres and 11 residences in just 2 days. The fire began in tumbleweed and was carried by sagebrush and cheatgrass. |
Hanford's shrub-steppe on fire in 2000 - started in tumbleweed |
| Manage for ecosystem health. The 2001 Libby South fire was started near Carlton, Washington by a Washington DNR forester while driving his vehicle through a patch of weeds. Libby South burned 3830 acres and cost $3.6 million to control. |
Libby South fire began in this patch of weeds, not in a forest |