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One of the outcomes of the FY 2000 fires was the clear need to increase treatment of forest fuels. Several efforts are currently underway to develop models and decision support systems to assess the economic, temporal, and spatial dimensions of fuel treatments. One major problem is that estimates of fuel treatment costs are broad averages and lack the detail for site-specific analyses. In FY 2002, the RWU will develop a prospectus, study plan, and initiate data collection and analysis. This line of research will: 1) use the forest-condition framework of historic fire regime and stand condition class found in the Cohesive Strategy; 2) follow Forest Service fire management convention when categorizing fuel treatment alternatives (i.e., general, pile burn, hand fire, aerial fire, broadcast, understory, general fuel reduction zone, and wildland-urban fuel reduction zone); and 3) be coordinated with a biobased products research program that focuses on utilization of small diameter materials for both products and bioenergy.
Principal Investigators:
Hayley Hesseln
Krista Gebert
Ervin Schuster
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