Pacific Southwest Research Station

Forest Fuels and Vegetation Management

Clearcutting during the Comstock era, followed by decades of fire suppression, caused the condition of Tahoe forests to become denser and less resistant to severe wildfire. Development of homes and communities has created a large wildland urban interface that is vulnerable to wildfire. That vulnerability was recently demonstrated by the Angora wildfire in 2007, which was economically the most destructive fire to occur in the Tahoe basin to date. Forest treatments to reduce wildfire hazards, including prescribed burning, are being planned and implemented throughout the Basin. Research is examining the effects of both wildfires and fuel treatments (including, understory burns, pile burning, thinning, and mastication) on forest health, wildlife, water quality, air quality, and other values. Vegetation management research is considering not only wildfire and fuel treatments, but also diseases, insects, and climate change.

Publication available for download:

Effects of Fuel Management in the Tahoe Basin: A Scientific Literature Review, November 29, 2009 [pdf 3MB]
A project of the USDA Forest Service, Pacific Southwest Research Station and the Tahoe Science Consortium

Efforts to manage vegetation and reduce fuel loads need to consider the tradeoffs between reducing the risk of severe wildfire, protecting and restoring ecological values, and wisely using economic resources.  To evaluate these tradeoffs, the Pacific Southwest Research Station commissioned literature reviews on the effects of fuels treatments in the Tahoe basin on air quality, water quality, soils, vegetation, and wildlife.  The resulting papers and an associated on-line searchable database of publications address previous calls to make scientific information more available to guide decisions.

Contents:

• Executive Summary
• Introduction to the Effects of Fuels Management in the Tahoe Basin
• Vegetation Response to Fuels Management in the Lake Tahoe Basin
• Effects of Fuels Management on Future Wildfires in the Lake Tahoe Basin
• Soil and Water Quality Response to Fuels Management in the Lake Tahoe Basin
• Effects of Wild and Prescribed Fires on Lake Tahoe Air Quality
• Wildlife Habitat and Community Responses to Fuels Management in the Lake Tahoe Basin
• Appendix A: Current Tahoe Basin Experimental and Modeling Studies of Fuel Treatment Effects

Research Projects

• Estimates of Surface and Mass Erosion Following the 2016 Emerald Wildfire
• Ecosystem response to aspen restoration
• Development of an Online Watershed Interface to predict the effects of forest and fire management on sediment and phosphorus loads in surface runoff in the Lake Tahoe Basin
• Incorporating project-level analysis and enhanced decision support into the OptFuels fuel treatment planning system for the Lake Tahoe Basin
• Assessment of fire hazard/risk in the Wildland Urban Interface "WUI" and stream environment zones "SEZs"
• Improving meteorological data and forecasts for prescribed fire burn day decisions for the Lake Tahoe Basin
• Particulate Emissions from Biomass Burning: Quantification of the Contributions from Residential Wood Combustion, Forest Fires, and Prescribed Fires
• Evaluation of Montane Forest Genetic Resources: Implications for Conservation, Management, and Restoration of Whitebark Pine (Pinus albicaulis) in the Lake Tahoe Basin
• Defensible Space-Erosion Protection Tools Development
• Ecological succession in the Angora fire: Forest management effects on woodpeckers as keystone species
• Stocking Guidelines for Aspen Restoration
• Management options for reducing wildlife risk and maximizing carbon storage under future climate changes, ignition patterns, and forest treatments
• Evaluation of montane forest genetic resources in the Lake Tahoe basin: Implications for conservation, management, and adaptive responses of Pinus monticola to environmental change
• Biodiversity response to burn intensity and post-fire restoration
• Effects of pile burning in the Tahoe basin on soil and water quality
• Integrated decision support for cost effective fuel treatments under multiple resource goals
• Silvicultural prescriptions to restore forest health
• Evaluating alternative fuel treatments in the South Shore wildland urban interface area
• Modeling the influence of management actions on fire risk and spread under future climatic conditions
• Nutrient and sediment loading predictions for prescribed fire using optimized WEPP model
• Identifying Spatially Explicit Reference Conditions for Forest Landscapes in the Lake Tahoe Basin, USA
• Balancing fuel reduction, soil exposure, and erosion potential
• Developing FCCS Fuelbeds for the Angora Fire Region
• Upland Fuel Reduction Treatments in the Lake Tahoe Basin: Forest Restoration Effectiveness
• Analysis of 15 years of data from the California State Parks Prescribed Fire Effects Monitoring Program
• Natural and anthropogenic threats to white pines from lower montane forests to subalpine woodlands of the Lake Tahoe basin: an ecological and genetic assessment for conservation, monitoring, and management
• Restoration and fuel treatment of Lake Tahoe's riparian forests
• Potential nutrient emissions from prescribed fire in the Lake Tahoe basin