An Assessment of Fuel Treatment Effects on Fire Behavior, Suppression Effectiveness, and Structure Ignition on the Angora Fire

Appendix B: Treatment Prescriptions

* This representsthe year the burning was completed. Thinning was completed in previous year.

**All Activities completed except pile burning.

Table 1 Area Fuels treatment prescriptions on National Forest System lands
Angora fire Area Pre-Fire Treatment Unit Prescriptions
Unit	Acres Treated	Year Completed	Activity
6	78	1995	Pre-Commerical Thinning / Activity Fuels Pile Burn
7	33	2007	Commericial and Pre-Commerical Thinning / Salvage / Activity Fuels Pile Burn
8	91	2007	Commericial and Pre-Commerical Thinning / Activity Fuels Pile Burn
11	14	1997	Commericial and Pre-Commerical Thinning / Salvage / Activity Fuels Pile Burn
12	12	2006	Commericial and Pre-Commerical Thinning / Salvage / Activity Fuels Pile Burn
13	8	2007	Commericial and Pre-Commerical Thinning / Salvage / Activity Fuels Pile Burn
14	17	2007	Pre-Commerical Thinning / Activity Fuels Pile Burn
16	27	2006	Pre-Commerical Thinning / Activity Fuels Pile Burn
17	18	2006	Commericial and Pre-Commerical Thinning / Activity Fuels Pile Burn
18	11	2006	Commericial and Pre-Commerical Thinning / Salvage / Activity Fuels Pile Burn
19	25	2006	Pre-Commerical Thinning / Activity Fuels Pile Burn
20	60	**	Commericial and Pre-Commerical Thinning / Salvage / Activity Fuels Pile Burn
21	87	2005	Pre-Commerical Thinning / Salvage / Activity Fuels Pile Burn
22	123	2005	Commericial Thinning / Salvage / Activity Fuels Pile Burn
28	21	2006	Pre-Commerical Thinning / Activity Fuels Pile Burn
29	26	2005	Commericial and Pre-Commerical Thinning / Salvage / Activity Fuels Pile Burn
30	35	2005	Commericial and Pre-Commerical Thinning / Salvage / Activity Fuels Pile Burn

Unit 6:

Units 7, 8, 11, 12, 13, 17, 18, 19, 21, 23, 29,30:

Cut all dead trees less than 30" dbh.
Retain 5 to 8 snags per acre greater than 30"
Understory thin trees greater than 10" dbh to achieve a residual stocking level of ~160 square feet per acre.
Remove suppressed and intermediate crown class trees and some codominants to achieve the residual stocking level.
Select white fir, incense-cedar, and lodgepole pine for removal over Jeffrey and sugar pine.
Lop and scatter all slash to a height not to exceed 18". Pile all slash within 100' of roadside corridors for Forest Service burning.

Units 7, 8, 11, 12, 13, 17, 18, 19, 21, 29, 30 (follow-up to mechanical thinning): Units 14, 16, 20, 22, 28 (hand thinning prescription only):

Selection of Cut Trees:

Cut all excess trees greater than 24 inches in height and less than 14" dbh.
Cut all dead trees between 2" dbh and 20" dbh.
Cut all damaged trees less than 14" dbh unless selected as a leave tree per item #4 below.
Do not cut live trees within a Stream Environment Zone (SEZ) area identified with red and black striped flagging.
Dead trees less than 20" dbh shall be cut within the SEZ.

Selection of Leave Trees:

Leave trees shall generally be those of tallest height, largest crown, straight bole, and greatest vigor that are free of damage due to insects, disease, physical and mechanical causes.
Select leave trees using the following priorities:
- Leave all damaged or undamaged conifer trees, which exceed 14 inches dbh.
- Leave all hardwood trees.
- Leave all sugar pine and incense cedar.
- Select leave trees from healthy undamaged conifers less than 14 inches dbh, as necessary to achieve a spacing of 20 feet between edges of tree boles with the exception of sugar pine.
- If no healthy undamaged tree exists at the required spacing interval, leave the best tree with minor damage.
- Select taller trees with good form (e.g. no vertical branching, no two way sweep, and no spiral grain) at the same time maintaining species distribution.
- Species selections for leave trees shall be in this order:
  - Sugar pine, incense cedar,
  - Jeffrey pine/ponderosa pine,
  - White/red fir,
  - Lodgepole pine.

Stump Height:

All trees greater than 24 inches in height other than leave trees shall be cut.
White fir or red fir and all trees under 1 inch stump diameter which are cut will be cut below the lowest live limb unless prevented by a natural obstacle.
Stump heights for all cut trees shall not exceed six inches above ground level or four inches above natural obstacles.

Feeling:

Cut trees shall be felled away from unit boundaries, roads, power lines, and stream environment zones. Any trees falling on such areas shall be removed immediately.
All thinning slash shall be placed on or near the ground surface so that it will not lean against or be suspended by an uncut tree.

Bucking:

All cut trees and limbs over five feet in length shall be cut into five foot lengths from the butt end for piling.

Piling:

Hand pile all slash and existing down bole material smaller than 20 inches in large end diameter and greater than 3 feet in length.
Existing logs that have decayed so that 2 to 3 inches of the log has settled into the soil/duff layer (little to no bark left intact) shall not be piled. Piles shall be at least six feet from residual trees.
Minimum spacing between piles shall be equivalent to one and one-half (1-1/2) the diameter of the adjacent pile.
Slash piles shall be located outside of all designated SEZ boundaries. SEZ boundaries are identified with red and black striped flagging.

The thinning prescription goal is focused at improving defensible space to adjoining private lands and reducing stocking levels to resist insect activity and improve forest health.
The hazard tree goal is to remove identified hazard trees; remove dead trees, thin brush (remove from drip lines of leave trees, thinning in a mosaic pattern leaving 30% - 50% of the brush on site, non riparian species only).
Thin from below removing suppressed, intermediate and some codominant trees (with the goal of achieving spacing of 10 feet between tree crowns and basal area of 90-120). Remove only dead and dying trees in SEZ's.