Fire and Environmental Research Applications Team

Abstracts

When Logged Units Burn in a Wildfire, Does Slash Treatment Mitigate Smoke Effects?

Major wildfires have affected millions of acres of forest lands in the continental United States during recent years. Often, these wildfires burn through intensively managed, timber producing areas. This study presents a comparison of fuel consumption, soil fire severity, and smoke pollutant production from logged units treated with prescribed fire, and logged units that were left untreated, then burned during the Shady Beach wildfire in western Oreqon. There was an average of 55 percent less fuel consumed when the Shady Beach wildfire burned across a treated unit as compared to an untreated unit. The treated units had a lower index rating for soil fire severity and produced 59 percent less smoke than the untreated units.

U.S. Forest Service - PNW- FERA
Last Modified: Friday, 22 March 2013 at 15:10:26 EDT