Herman Stegehuis

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Landscape Fire Assessment Framework for Fuel
Management

• Herman Stegehuis
• and
• Sherra Quintilio
• October 7, 2003

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Outline

• Sustainable Forest Management Issues
• Landscape Objectives
• Landscape Fire Assessment
• Planning Jurisdictions
• FireSmart/Fuel Management Implementation
  Strategies
• Key Messages

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Sustainable Forest Management Issues

• Forests are Finite and Heavily Committed
• Concerns Over Ecological Integrity
• Concerns Over Increased Fire Risk
• Increased Demands For Preservation
• A Wide Spectrum Of Public Values Must Be
  Accommodated
• Long Term Economic Viability Is Tied To
  Sustainable Resource Management
• Management for individual values rarely sustains
  all values Kimmins, 2003

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Fuel Management?
Politics?
Costs?
Roles and Responsibilities?
Priorities?
Ecological Integrity
Economic Viability
Stakeholders?
SFM
Legislation?
Landscape Objectives?
Social Acceptance
Scale?
Land base?
Strategies?
Jurisdiction?
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Landscape Objectives

• To Conserve Biodiversity
• To Provide for Recreation Opportunities
• To Provide Sustainable Use and Development of the
  Forest Resource
• Conservation of Soil and Water Resources
• Reduce Wildfire Threat Potential

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Why Do We Need To Consider Fire Regime?

• Fire competes with forest harvesting
• Demands for increased preservation
• Concern that tree densities, and fuel loading in
  some fire
• dependent ecosystems are greater than
  historical conditions
• Fire severity is moving outside the natural
  range of variability
• Increasing concern of firefighter safety and
  property losses in Canada
• Fire dependent plant communities (positive
  ecological effects of fire)
• Concerns over ecological integrity/forest health
  

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Fire Regime Components

• Fire Size
• Fire Frequency
• Fire Season
• Fire Type
• Fire Intensity
• Fire Severity
• Fire Cycle

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Fire Regime Implementation

• Harvest and PB in high risk areas
• Lower intensity PB in moderate risk areas
• Additive vs compensatory use of harvest and PB

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Understanding the Fire Environment
How do we use this information? Over to Herman.
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Active/Passive Land Base

• 35,000,000 ha of Forested Area in Total
• 15,000,000 ha AAC Tenure
• 20,000,000 ha Non-Operating Land Base

WMAs FMAs FMUs Parks and Protected
Areas Communities
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Scale?
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Stakeholders
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FireSmart/Fuel Management Implementation
Strategies to Achieve Landscape Objectives
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Forest Management Practices
Fuel Management Strategies
Implementing fuels management at strategic
locations on the landscape to reduce the risk of
large fires (fire door effect)
Miller Western
2098
2000
CFS
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Block design
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Control Line / Landscape Wedge
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Salvaging
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Mulching / Mowing
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Debris disposal
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Scarification
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Reforestation
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Mixedwood management
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Herbicide
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Grazing
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Linear Disturbances
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FireSmart Landscape Strategies
Prescribed Fire
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Implementation Examples

• FireSmart Landscape Website
• FireSmart Annex in revised DFMP Manual
• Prescribed fire program
• Foothills Model Forest, Highway 40 Project
• C5 Forest Management Planning
• Alberta Pacific Forest Industries wildfire threat
  assessment
• Wildfire Threat Assessment training program
• Debris Management Committee
• FireSmart Landscape Task Force
• Partners in Protection Community Planner
• Community Protection planning and projects
• Integrating Fire and Sustainable Forest
  Management Course
• Prescribed Burning Course

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Key Take Home Messages

• Landscape Fire assessments need to be an input
  into forest and land management planning
  processes, recognizing both the positive
  attribute and negative consequences of wildfire
• Consider strategies within context of Sustainable
  Forest Management
• Various fuel management strategies are available
  and need to be locally specific, and dependant on
  scale and linked back to the achievement of
  landscape objectives