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WORKSHOPS
AND FIELD TRIPS
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Landscape
models of fire and vegetation dynamics in research and management
-- A strategy for future development
Bob
Keane
USDA Forest Service
Missoula Fire Sciences Laboratory
Rocky
Mountain Research Station
Missoula, Montana, USA
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| FHAES
Demonstration: the Fire History Exploration and Analysis System
Dr.
Elaine Sutherland
USDA Forest Service
Rocky Mountain Research Station
Missoula, Montana, USA
Objective:
The most commonly used software tool to analyze fire event
data is FHX2, a DOS-based program written by Dr. Henri Grissino-Mayer
in the early 1990’s. A group of scientists, including
Dr. Grissino-Mayer, is collaborating to update this tool and
make it freely available on the Internet, more user friendly,
and with additional analytical options. The software has been
renamed FHAES: the Fire History Analysis and Exploration System.
The objective of this workshop is to introduce interested
users to the new system, demonstrate its capabilities, help
attendees to try it out, and to gain feedback from them.
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FIELD TRIPS
LIVING
WITH SAN DIEGO’S NATURE AND FIRE
Fire is a major landscape disturbance shaping southern California
ecosystems--and yet, as recent fire storms in 2003 showed, the
public and policy makers need a greater understanding of wildfire
processes in order to make sound public policy decisions. The
field trip will tour San Diego City canyons and view the canyon-development
interface, and vegetation reduction to implement city/county
codes. The afternoon will end with a visit to the San Diego
Natural History Museum to view their award-winning exhibit,
“Earth, Wild and
Wildfire” (http://www.sdnhm.org/exhibits/fire/index.html).
This exhibition is a testimonial to the splendor of nature,
the power and inevitability of fire, the responsibility humans
have for living with nature and fire, and the inspiration of
recovery in nature and the community |
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POST-FIRE
REHABILITATION
This field tour will look at one of a set of three study catchments
(~5 acres each) that evaluates the effectiveness of aerial hydromulch
at reducing watershed erosion after the Cedar Fire. The methods,
instrumentation, and results to date will be discussed. This
is part of a larger monitoring effort looking at the effectiveness
of post-fire emergency stabilization treatments throughout the
western U.S. We will also visit silt fences that measured the
effectiveness of aerial hydromulch on reducing hillslope erosion.
Brushy
conditions can be expected at this site; sturdy walking shoes
required. |
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SAN
DIEGO’S CHAPARRAL AND FORESTS: LANDSCAPES SHAPED BY FIRE
San Diego’s biodiversity, fire-adapted landscapes, and
rapid rate of development offer unique and unequaled challenges,
and this field trip will highlight all three. Start the field
trip by driving through miles of suburban sprawl and thousands
of chaparral burned on both sides of Interstate 8 during the
Cedar Fire in October 2003. The first stop will be along the
interstate to discuss fire frequency, the response of
chaparral after wildfires in 1970, 2001 and 2003, and the implications
of increasing development on fire regimes and natural landscapes.
The second stop will be on Pine Creek Road to get an overview
of the Tragedy Springs prescribed burn (a joint project with
the Cleveland National Forest, California State Parks and Recreation,
and California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection) and
its effectiveness during the Cedar Fire. Stops at the Cleveland
National Forest will show fuels treatments that include repeated
underburning in Jeffrey and coulter pine stands over the past
20 years, green-tree thinning, and brush mastication. Lunch
will be provided at Horse Heaven Campground. Another stop will
be made at Garnet plantation off Sunrise Hwy, consumed in the
Cedar Fire of 2003. Dead trees were removed and chipped; snags
were removed along highway, 10 acres of Jeffrey pine were replanted;
pockets of Coulter pine regenerated naturally; and Black Oak
and ceanothus have resprouted. The field trip will traverse
Rancho Cuyamaca State Park where 25,000 acres were burned in
the Cedar Fire, and stops will highlight post-fire recovery,
particularly the regeneration of oaks, limitedrecovery of pines,
current conditions and challenges, and planned managementactions
by California State Department of Parks and Recreation. |
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| SAN
DIEGO WILDLAND-URBAN INTERFACE FIRE ISSUES
Visit four canyon-urban interface sites that sustained losses
in the October 2003
wildfires or have high risks of future property losses. First
field trip stop at Mt. Soledad with City of San Diego Fire
and Rescue wildfire specialists to view canyon conditions
with steep and narrow streets, old water lines and hidden
hydrants, heavy ladder fuels, false sense of security from
frequent marine layer, high winds that dry vegetation and
spread fire, and challenges of managing brush adjacent to
55,000 to 77,000 private land parcels within the city of San
Diego. Second field trip stop with Rancho Santa Fe Fire Protection
District to discuss strict review of site and building plans
that are focused on access, slope setbacks, construction,
landscape plans, and education. Third stop with Scripps Ranch
FireSafe Council leaders to view Eucalyptus trees, undergrowth,
and litter before the October 2003 fires, and recent brush
reduction principles, codes, and practices. Last stop with
Talmadge FireSafe Council to view homeowner’s investments
in building code compliance and vegetation reduction, with
neighbor’s wooden fences, large conifer trees, and wooden
deck illustrating dependence on neighbors’ awareness
and actions. Field trip leader is Anne Fege, Ph.D., retired
Forest Supervisor of the Cleveland National Forest and principal
investigator on Joint Fire Sciences grant for educating the
business sector on reducing wildfire risks.
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