Fire and Environmental Research Applications Team

Newly Published Information Kit Connects Stakeholders with Pacific Wildland Fire Sciences Laboratory

The Pacific Wildland Fire Sciences Laboratory (PWFSL) recently released an information kit that will help to connect the media, congressional staffers, and other stakeholders with its fire science and smoke research and expertise. The kit contains short fact sheets that discuss the fire and smoke research being conducted at PWFSL, researchers based at PWFSL who have expertise in climate and climate change, fuels, fire ecology, fire weather, and smoke and emissions, and key fire and smoke software and tools developed at PWFSL. The kit also contains a listing of recommended publications, complete with embedded links to electronic copies available online.

The Evaluation of Meta-Analysis Techniques for Quantifying Prescribed Fire Effects on Fuel Loadings

Karen Kopper, along with FERA scientists Don McKenzie and David L. Peterson, has published a Forest Service research paper comparing models and effect-size metrics in four separate meta-analyses quantifying surface fuels after prescribed fires in ponderosa pine forests of the Western United States. All analyses yielded significant effect sizes for each class of fuels, although mixed-effects models had larger confidence intervals around mean effect sizes and smaller ranges in those means.

Additional Photo Series for Brazil a Possibility

Characterizing fuels in the cerrado ecosystem and other regions of Brazil was the center of discussions on a recent trip to Brasilia sponsored by U.S. Forest Service International Program. FERA’s Roger Ottmar and Bob Vihnanek, along with long-time collaborator Ernesto Alvarado of the University of Washington, met with colleagues from the University of Brasilia to consider various possibilities for extending the natural fuels photo series. The initial volume was published in 2001 in both Portuguese and English, includes sites in 5 physiognomic forms.

Spanish Scientist Explores U.S. Fire and Fuels Research

FERA is pleased to host a 2-month visit by Spanish fire scientist Albert Alvarez Nebot. He is visiting PWFSL from the Centre for Ecological Research and Forestry Applications (CREAF) at the Autonomous University of Barcelona to work with Morris Johnson and Ernesto Alvarado on fuels characterization. Mr. Alvarez recently presented a seminar on the relationship between forest fuels, fire types and severity in Catalonia, Spain.

Work Begins to Study Effects of Season of Burn on Southeastern Fuel Dynamics

Next month, work will begin on research sponsored by the Joint Fire Science Program to look at the effect of season of burning on fuel regrowth and accumulation following prescribed fires in typical southern fuelbeds. FERA’s Clint Wright, Bob Vihnanek and Jim Cronan will identify potential study sites at Elgin Air Force Base and nearby Blackwater River State Park, the Apalachicola National Forest, and St. Mark’s National Wildlife Refuge on the Florida panhandle. Field sampling will begin this winter.