Prescribed Fire Monitoring

AFR
Spring Underburning on Federal Land  

PRESCRIBED FIRE MONITORING
Measurement and monitoring fire effects in the Ashland watershed is a collaborative effort led by researchers with The Nature Conservancy in Southern Oregon. Selected locations are evaluated shortly after prescribed burning for summaries of the overall fire effects. A prescribed fire monitoring guide is used for tracking the fire effects accomplishments during and after a prescribed underburn. Every prescribed fire has a burn plan with collected data on forest treatments and historic data.

A fire effect monitor (FEMO) collects data as the prescribed fire is conducted and shortly after burn operations are completed.The FEMO tracks fire weather, fuel moisture, smoke and fire behavior as context for understanding fire effects relative to the prescription ranges in the burn plan. Fire effects researchers collect data for analysis of resource objectives accomplished by reviewing how the prescribe fire:

  1. Restored forest stand conditions
  2. Enhanced wildlife habitat
  3. Reduced hazardous fuels and promoted the values at risk (municipal watershed, property and safeguard of human life)
  4. Retained the late successional forest structure and biological diversity  

PRESCRIBED FIRE OBJECTIVES MEASURED

  1. Reduce litter and light surface fuels (1 to 100-hr) by 30 - 80%
  2. Retain >30% of shrubs and understory trees (< 5" DBH)
  3. Limit mortality of intermediate trees (5-12" DBH) to < 40%
  4. Retain > 90% dominant/codominant trees (> 12" DBH)
  5. Retain >97% of conifers >30” DBH and hardwoods >20” DBH
  6. Retain approximately 90% large down logs or snags (>20" diameter)
  7. Minimize fire intensity in leave areas, with crown scorch of canopy trees <20%
  8. Retain an unburned strip of duff 25’-50’ wide and coarse woody material within 50’ of perennial streams.
  9. Retain overall effective ground cover for the unit based on soil erosion hazard class:
  • Moderate (< 35% gradient), > 60% year-1, > 70% year-2;
  • Severe or higher (> 35% gradient), > 70% year-1, > 85% year-2

FIRE EFFECTS MONITORING REPORTS
 
  1. AFAR 2020
  2. AFAR 2019
  3. AFAR 2018
  4. Legacy Tree Monitoring 2017
  5. AFAR 2017
  6. Skyline 2017
  7. Rollins Property and AFR Unit 14b
  8. Forest Service Unit 12 
 


 

 

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