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Considerations in Selecting a Landscape Disturbance Model

A key feature of FETM that distinguishes it from other vegetation dynamics models is its linkage between vegetation composition (fuel loading) and wildland fire behavior and effects.  For example, an increase in the proportion of highly flammable vegetation classes in an area will produce a concomitant increase in the number of acres burned annually by wildland fire.  Over time, the increased number of wildland fire acres burned (a form of natural fuel treatment) will, in combination with other management actions, reduce the proportion of highly flammable vegetation classes across the landscape and eventually lead to a reduction in the number of annual wildland fire acres .  This cyclic pattern in the number of wildland fire acres over time is evident in the output from FETM. 

The amount of wildland fire and other fuel treatments required to “tip the scales” in favor of lower average flammability (and lower numbers of annual wildland fire acres ) depends on the magnitude of the fuel treatments (outflow) versus the rate of recruitment into the more flammable vegetation classes (inflow) resulting from a combination of natural disturbances (e.g., insects, disease, and wind throw), management activities (e.g., timber harvesting), and natural succession.

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