Smoke Management Tools and Information for NRCS

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Smoke Management Tools and Information for NRCS

• Susan ONeill
• Air Quality and Atmospheric Change Team
• August 2009

Photo courtesy Lorraine Vogt
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Overview

• Why Manage Smoke?
• How do I Manage Smoke?
• Fire Weather and Smoke Management Tools

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Fire Happens
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(No Transcript)
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Prescribed Burning Conservation Practice Standard

• Purpose of Prescribed Burning
• Control undesirable vegetation.
• Prepare sites for harvesting, planting or
  seeding.
• Control plant disease.
• Reduce wildfire hazards.
• Improve wildlife habitat.
• Improve plant production quantity and/or quality.
• Remove slash and debris.
• Enhance seed and seedling production.
• Facilitate distribution of grazing and browsing
  animals.
• Restore and maintain ecological sites

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NRCS Prescribed Burning Training

• 1-week Courses Tailored to
• The region/ecosystem
• The goals of the NRCS State office
• Include
• Prescribed Burning Policy
• Fire Ecology
• Fire Behavior
• Ignition Techniques
• Fire Weather
• Smoke Management
• Burn Plans
• Planning and Executinga Prescribed Burn

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Prescribed Burning Assistance in NRCS
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Why manage smoke?

• Health Impacts
• Public Safety and Nuisance
• Visibility Regional Haze Rule
• We are a Conservation Agency Air Quality is a
  resource concern

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Emissions from Fire

• Complete Combustion
• Carbon Dioxide (CO2)
• Water (H2O)
• Incomplete Combustion
• Carbon Monoxide (CO)
• Particulate Matter (PM)
• Volatile Organic Compounds (VOCs)
• Oxides of Nitrogen (NOx)
• Sulfur Dioxide (SO2)
• Methane (CH4)

Ozone (O3)
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How Do I Manage Smoke?

• Smoke Management is about managing the emissions
  from fire to reduce downwind impacts.
• Smoke is unlike most other pollutant sources a
  control can not be put on it to scrub the
  emissions.
• Smoke Management Guide for Prescribed and
  Wildland Fire, 2001 (http//www.treesearch.fs.fed.
  us/pubs/5388)

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Smoke BehaviorAtmospheric Dispersion

• Knowledge of the atmosphere can help with
  managing smoke
• Fire Weather and Dispersion Modeling can inform
  no/no-go burn decisions to optimize dispersion

• Unstable Atmosphere
• Vertical Mixing
• Smoke not at surface

• Stable Atmosphere
• Vertical Mixing limited
• Smoke at surface

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Smoke BehaviorValley Flows

• Smoke caught under a valley inversion

• Smoke can be transported by down-valley winds in
  the morning

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Washington State Silvicultural Smoke Management
Program

• Enhanced Smoke Management Program
• Emission reduction techniques
• Regional Coordination
• Applies to Forest Land
• Daily approval for each large burn
• 100 tons, 300 tons
• Small fires
• lt 100 tons
• call 1-800-323-BURN
• The DNR website provides an emissions calculator
  for piles

• http//www.dnr.wa.gov/RecreationEducation/Topics/F
  ireBurningRegulations/Pages/rp_burn_fireburnfuelmg
  t.aspx

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Washington State Agricultural Burning Program

• Applies to
• Crop residue
• Fruit tree debris
• Cereal grain stubble
• Rangelands

• http//www.ecy.wa.gov/programs/air/aginfo/agricult
  ural_homepage.htm

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Washington State Agricultural Burning Program

• A daily burn call is made based on
  meteorological conditions, air quality, acreage
• Burn Zones (some metering)
• Central Washington
• Eastern Washington
• Yakima, Benton, Spokane Counties

• http//www.ecy.wa.gov/programs/air/aginfo/dailybur
  ncallpage.htm

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EPA Region 10 Smoke Management Group

• Washington, Oregon, Idaho
• Steve Body, EPA
• Annual Meetings
• Alternatives to Burning (theme for 2009)
  http//yosemite.epa.gov/r10/airpage.nsf/Smoke/09M
  eeting/

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Fire Weather and Smoke Management Tools

• Fire Weather
• Smoke Dispersion Weather Products
• Smoke Dispersion Modeling
• Satellite Fire and Smoke Information

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Washington State Fire Weather Information

• http//www.dnr.wa.gov/RecreationEducation/Topics/F
  ireInformation/Pages/rp_fire_fireweatherbriefing.a
  spx
• http//www.wrh.noaa.gov/firewx/?wfosew

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Smoke Dispersion Meteorologically- based
Information

• Use to help plan day(s) to burn for optimal smoke
  dispersion
• 3-day 7-day forecasts
• Information about
• Ventilation Index
• Mixing Height
• Transport Winds
• Haines Index
• Google-earth interface
• http//cefa.dri.edu/FCAMMS

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Washington State Air Quality Monitoring System

• Color-coded by air quailty index
• Links to the 5 Forest Service Smoke Monitors
• Download data
• Updated hourly

• https//fortress.wa.gov/ecy/enviwa/Default.htm

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Dispersion Modeling

• Answer the question Where is my smoke going to
  go? How thick could it be?
• Simple Smoke Screening Tool
• Standalone Dispersion Models (ex. VSMOKE)
• Centralized web-based smoke dispersion systems
  (eg. BlueSky, ClearSky)

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Simple Smoke Screening Tool

• http//shrmc.ggy.uga.edu/
• Select Smoke Products -gt Smoke Screening
• Google Map application
• Zoom-in
• View Smoke Sensitive Areas
• Enter Location, Acres, Fuel type, ignition
  method, wind direction
• Can also do manually on a map

• From the Southern Forestry Smoke Management
  Guidehttp//www.srs.fs.usda.gov/pubs/viewpub.php?
  index683

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BlueSky Smoke Modeling Framework

• Surface PM2.5 Concentrations from wildfire and
  prescribed fires
• Centralized web-based

Black Area
Meteorology
Fuel Loading
Fuel Consumption
Emission Factor
Emission Production
Dispersion/Concentration
Centralized websites under development www.bluesk
yframework.org, www.getbluesky.org
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Satellite Fire Detections and Smoke Plumes

• NOAA Hazard Mapping System (HMS)
• Satellite Fire Detections, Plume Analysis
• Current conditions
• NOAA HYSPLIT Dispersion Model
• Smoke Plume Forecast
• Based on Satellite Fire Detections

• http//www.osdpd.noaa.gov/ml/land/hms.html
• http//www.arl.noaa.gov/smoke_forecast.php

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• NASA Earth Observatory
• Natural Hazards

http//earthobservatory.nasa.gov/
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NWCG Smoke Committee(SmoC)

• One of 14 Committees chartered under the National
  Wildfire Coordinating Group (NWCG)
• Current Members USFS, NPS, FWS, BLM, BIA, NASF,
  NRCS, NACAA
• Products, Topics and Issues
• Training
• www.nifc.gov/smoke
• www.myfirecommunity.net Air Quality and Fire
  Issues Neighborhood
• Fire emissions Black Carbon, NO2, GHGs,
  Mercury, PM2.5, Ozone precursors
• Smoke Monitoring
• Exceptional Events
• Federal Fire Policy

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Thank you! Questions, Comments, Discussion

• Susan ONeill
• NRCS Air Quality and Atmospheric Change Team
• susan.oneill_at_por.usda.gov
• 503-273-2438

The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA)
prohibits discrimination in all its programs and
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is derived from any public assistance program.
Photo courtesy Lorraine Vogt