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DISCLAIMER: Links on this page do not constitute an endorsement of the content of any website not managed by Sequoia & Kings Canyon National Parks. We provide these links solely as an information resource.
NPS FireNet website - On the NPS Fire Management web site "FireNet" visitors to the site can easily access fire information related to the Park Service including fire jobs.
Link to information about the McNally Fire in Sequoia National Forest south of the Parks
Fire Weather Information - San Joaquin Valley, Hanford, CA.
Glossary of Fire Terms
- National Park Service
- Interagency
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- BLM, USGS, US Fish and Wildlife Service & NOAA
- State of California
- University
- International
- Journals and Periodicals
- Private Organizations
- Fire Research
- Online Fire References
- Information on Fire Prevention & Education
National Park Service
- National Park Service Reference Manual 18 - Wildland Fire Management
Wildland fire management within National Park Service units is conducted to support resource management objectives. The full range of strategic options is available to managers provided selected options do not compromise firefighter and public safety, cost-effectiveness, benefits, and values to be protected. Suppression of unwanted, potentially environmentally damaging wildland fires is guided by fire management plan direction. Fire use activities may include using fire as either a natural process or as a management tool. Fire use objectives include, but are not limited to: restoring, mimicking, or replacing the ecological influences of natural fire, maintaining historic scenes, reducing hazardous fuels, eliminating exotic/alien species, disposal of vegetative waste and debris, and preserving endangered species. - Fire Ecology in National Parks
- Fire Effects Monitoring
Link to information about long-term monitoring in fire-maintained ecosystems within the national park system. The U.S. National Park Service has developed the Fire Monitoring Handbook, which contains a standardized protocol for monitoring and documenting prescribed fire behavior and effects. The handbook provides a system to document burning conditions and fire behavior, insure fires remain within certain conditions, verify completion of burn objectives, and follow long-term trends. This information can help managers in burn prescription refinement when objectives are not met or long-term undesirable trends occur, and to identify research needs. In support of the implementation of the handbook, data forms, software, and training courses have been developed. As the program begins its tenth year, nearly 50 parks with fire management programs have incorporated these protocols into their programs. - Fire Ecology of Crater Lake National Park
Fire is as much a part of the forests in Crater Lake as are avalanches, windstorms, native insect and disease outbreaks, and volcanoes. All of these naturally occurring forces play an important role in shaping the forest landscape. - Fire History Of The Northeastern Portion of Crater Lake National Park, Oregon
A fire history chronology extending for 480 years (1501-1981) was developed from tree ring studies of fire-scarred ponderosa and lodgepole pines growing in a 640 ha (1600 ac) study area in the northeastern portion of Crater Lake National Park. - Prescribed Fire in Yellowstone
In Yellowstone prescribed fire not only means fires ignited by resource managers to attain specific management objectives but also allowing naturally occurring wildfires which do not threaten people, property or resource values to burn within "prescription". - Fire Management - Everglades National Park
Fire has always been an integral part of the Everglades. It was one of the critical influences in the evolution of south Florida habitats. Everglades National Park was established to protect the biological diversity of the area. Regular fires are needed to guarantee that protection. Without those fires much of the diversity would be lost forever and several species would face extinction. As a result, our park managers consider fire an important ally rather than a foe. - Cerro Grande Prescribed Fire Investigation Report - Bandelier National Monument
Link to the Cerro Grande Prescribed Fire Investigation Report that was delivered to the Secretary of Interior, Bruce Babbitt on May 18, 2000. - Current News and Fire Situation Update Links
From the Fire Management Program Center (NIFC), Boise, ID. - The history, intensity, and vegetational effects of fire on the Indiana Dunes
Many habitats in the Indiana Dunes are dependent upon fire for their preservation, especially oak savanna and prairie. Research is being conducted to examine the costs and benefits of various fire treatments in these natural habitats. Ongoing research using prescribed burns is producing information on many subjects including: - Fire History - Bryce Canyon National Park
Photos taken over several decades of the same spot show the effects from excluding fire over time.
Interagency
The Federal Wildland Fire Management Policy and Program Review was chartered by the Secretaries of the Interior and Agriculture to ensure that Federal policies are
uniform and programs are cooperative and cohesive. This report addresses five major topic areas, presents nine guiding principles that are fundamental to wildland fire
management, and recommends a set of thirteen Federal wildland fire policies. While unique agency missions may result in minor operational differences, having, for the
first time, one set of "umbrella" Federal fire policies will enhance effective and efficient operations across administrative boundaries and improve our capability to meet
the challenges posed by current wildland fire conditions. (VIEW or DOWNLOAD ENTIRE REPORT in HTML format [155 kb file])
The National Interagency Fire Center, in Boise, Idaho, includes the nation's primary logistical support center for wildland fire suppression. The center is home to federal wildland fire experts in fields as diverse as fire ecology, fire behavior, technology, aviation and weather.
The Joint Fire Science Program was designed to provide a scientific basis and rationale for
implementing fuels management activities, with a focus on activities that will lead to development and application of tools for managers.
- The Joint Fire Science Conference and Workshop: Crossing the Millennium: Integrating Spatial Technologies and Ecological Principles for a New Age in Fire Management. Boise, Idaho. June 15-17, 1999. Kevin C. Ryan L.F. Neuenschwander and K.C. Ryan (tech. ed.). 2000. Univ. Idaho Press
- Fire and Fire Surrogates
There has been a growing recognition over the last several years of the need for a study to compare the use of fire to non-fire treatments designed to achieve stand structure objectives. A 'Critical Finding' of the Sierra Nevada Ecosystem Project (SNEP) (1996, Executive Summary, pages 4-5) states: "Fire Surrogates: Although silvicultural treatments can mimic the effects of fire on structural patterns of woody vegetation, virtually no data exist on the ability to mimic ecological functions of natural fires. Silvicultural treatments can create patterns of woody vegetation that appear similar to those that fire would create, but the consequences for nutrient cycling, hydrology, seed scarification, nonwoody vegetation response, plant diversity, disease and insect infestation, and genetic diversity are mostly unknown. Similarly, although combining managed fire with silvicultural treatments adds the critical effects of combustion, the ecological effects and fire hazard reduction of the approach are largely unknown." The proposed long-term study described here, funded by the Joint Fire Science Program, is in response to this virtual void in our knowledge.
The Interior Fire Coordination Committee (IFCC) operates under the direction of the Directors of Bureau of Land Management, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, National Park Service, and the Deputy Commissioner of Indian Affairs for the Bureau of Indian Affairs. The Committee provides the leadership and technical expertise for development of policy, programmatic and operational direction, and resolution of issues as they affect Department of the Interior bureau fire programs. One IFCC responsibility is Wildland Fire Research Initiative management.
Geospatial Multi-Agency Coordination Group - GeoMAC is an internet based mapping application, originally designed for firefighting coordination centers and incident command teams to access online maps of current fire locations and perimeters using standard web browsers such as Netscape Communicator™ or Microsoft Internet Explorer™. However, with the growing concern of the western wildland fires, we are offering the application to the general public. We hope that you find this important information both timely and helpful.
US Forest Service
A great site, the Fire Effects Information System (FEIS) provides up-to-date information on the effects of fire on plants and animals. The searchable database has been developed as a cooperative interagency resource, and is always being improved and updated as more research and monitoring becomes available.
This US Forest Service research station includes the Riverside Fire Lab. The Articles and Publications section of the Station's Web site features on-line versions of many technical publications relating to forest management, including some on fire management. Most documents can be viewed using Acrobat Reader.
A computer program, FIRES: Fire Information Retrieval and Evaluation System, provides methods
for evaluating the performance of fire danger rating indexes. The relationship between fire danger
indexes and historical fire occurrence and size is examined through logistic regression and
percentiles. Historical seasonal trends of fire danger and fire occurrence can be plotted and
compared. Methods for defining critical levels of fire danger are provided. The paper includes a
review of NFDRS philosophy and application, a description of input and output, and a summary of fire
danger rating programs and data bases and their relationship to FIRES.
The Rocky Mountain Research Station of the USDA Forest Service
(formerly the Intermountain Research Station and the Rocky Mountain
Forest and Range Experiment Station) conducts research throughout
the nation with emphasis on the Rocky Mountains, Great Basin,
Great Plains, and the Southwest. This site includes listings of
recent publications by Station authors and major cooperators,
including reports relating to fire.
A computer program, FIRES: Fire Information Retrieval and Evaluation System, provides methods
for evaluating the performance of fire danger rating indexes. The relationship between fire danger
indexes and historical fire occurrence and size is examined through logistic regression and
percentiles. Historical seasonal trends of fire danger and fire occurrence can be plotted and
compared. Methods for defining critical levels of fire danger are provided. The paper includes a
review of NFDRS philosophy and application, a description of input and output, and a summary of fire
danger rating programs and data bases and their relationship to FIRES.
The Wildland Fire Assessment System (WFAS-MAPS) generates national
maps of selected fire weather and fire danger components of the
National Fire Danger Rating System (NFDRS). These maps are usually
updated daily during the spring, summer and fall seasons, and
weekly during the winter. WFAS is part of the USDA Forest Service,
Rocky Mountain Research Station Intermountain Fire Sciences Laboratory
Fire Behavior Research Work Unit in Missoula, Montana.
On August 5, 1949, the Mann Gulch Fire overran a crew of elite
smoke jumpers on the Helena National Forest in Montana, killing
16 firefighters. This tragic event later became the subject of
Norman Maclean's book Young Men and Fire. This paper is
an analysis of the probable behavior of the fire and the movements
of the crew during their last 20 minutes, by a Forest Service
fire behavior expert.
with fire information linkshttp://www.nps.gov/fire/fireinfo/current.htm from the US Forest Service National Headquarters.
Three major factors were identified that contributed to the blowup on the afternoon of July 6, 1994.
The first was the presence of fire in the bottom of a steep narrow canyon. Second, strong upcanyon
winds pushing the fire up the canyon and upslope. Third, the fire burning into the green (not
previously underburned) Gambel oak canopy.
On July 6, 1994, the South Canyon Fire swept up Storm King Mountain,
resulting in the deaths of 14 firefighters. A joint Bureau of
Land Management/U.S. Forest Service investigation team was chartered
to examine the accident. Following submission of the South Canyon
Accident Investigation Team report in August of 1994, the Interagency
Management Review Team (IMRT) was established to study the findings
and conclusions of the Team, to review and refine that team's
recommendations, and to propose a plan for corrective action.
The USFS desires to establish baseline information on natural fire
history and vegetation conditions in the Lake Tahoe Basin. This work
complements and will be accomplished together with the watershed
assessment. The Forest Service will use established research and study
prioritization processes to expand on recent research from the east
shore of Lake Tahoe. This research will provide reference variability
information to support both the watershed assessment and mechanical
treatment commitments.
In 1995, the Landscape Ecology Research Unit of USDA Forest Service, North Central Forest Experiment Station
(NCFES), initiated a study of Modern Lake States fire patterns initiated a study of modern Lake States fire patterns and the
factors that might influence their occurrence and frequency. The study was conducted primarily at the University of
Wisconsin-Madison, Land Information and Computer Graphics Facility, through a cooperative agreement
between the University and NCFES, as part of the Great Lakes Ecological Assessment.
The Sierra Nevada Framework for Conservation and Collaboration,
integrating science into natural resource management through improved
cooperation among tribes, local governments, state and federal agencies. Look here for more
information about the Design Paper, bighorn sheep, Cal Fed, Giant Sequoia, adaptive
management & monitoring, science, team members and forest contacts
BLM, USGS & US Fish and Wildlife Service
However, long before the devastating fires in 1999, the ecological health of the Great Basin was in jeopardy.
Exotic annual grasses and noxious weeds, multiplying at alarming rates for decades, have crept across the Great
Basin until roughly one-third of its 75 million acres are infested. The results are alarming. For one, a wildland
fire/annual grass cycle has begun that accelerates with increased weed and annual grass invasions.
Additionally, native shrubs and perennial grasses and forbs are weakened or completely lost, affecting the
diverse plants and animals for which the Great Basin is known and appreciated.
In a report, "Out of Ashes, An Opportunity" (1161 kb Acrobat PDF file) released in November 1999, the BLM addressed the Great Basin
crisis and identified the need for long-term restoration that goes beyond rehabilitation and treatment of invasive
species on a piece-meal basis. In April 2000, the BLM released a second report, or restoration strategy, entitled
"The Great Basin: Healing the Land." (10 MB Acrobat PDF file) This document reviews the background and challenges of restoration,
identifies guiding principles and strategies to help the work move forward.
Wildland fires are an important ecosystem process throughout the western United States. Coniferous forests have long been subject to a frequent
fire regime of low-intensity fires, which played an important role in reducing hazardous fuels and in rejuvenating the forests. In chaparral shrublands
of California, high-intensity crown fires have been a strong force guiding the evolution of plant life, and regulator of ecological communities. In many
desert habitats, fires have been far less frequent, and often are a more severe disturbance. Today the natural role of fire in these ecosystems is
complicated by the fact that fire potentially favors plant invasions and these aliens in turn may alter fire regimes.
Early travelers and photographers in the mid-1800's recorded the
forests of the Sierra Nevada as parklike, with little undergrowth and
wide expanses of meadows. Nearly a century of fire control in the Sierra Nevada has led to
conditions that now threaten the very forests they were designed to
protect. Suppression of naturally occurring surface fires has allowed
the forest floor to become a tangle of understory vegetation and
accumulated debris. As undergrowth has increased, fuel volumes have expanded, and a
continuous ladder of fuel extends from the ground to the forest
canopy. Today, millions of hectares of forest and grasslands in the Sierra Nevada
face abnormally high risks of wildfire because of these altered conditions.
The BLM’s National Office of Fire and Aviation is headquartered
at the National Interagency Fire Center,
in Boise, Idaho, where the fire experts develop policy,
conduct wildland fire research, and coordinate with fire
managers from other firefighting organizations
In 1999, the Great Basin, which encompasses most of Nevada and portions of Idaho, Utah, Oregon and
California, suffered through its worst wildland fire season in more than four decades. Nearly two million acres of
public land burned destroying critical wildlife habitat, forage for wild horses and livestock, and private property.
Wildland fire is a serious and growing hazard over much of the United States, posing a great threat to life and property, particularly when it moves from forest or rangeland into developed areas. However, wildland fire is also a natural process, and its suppression is now recognized to have
created a larger fire hazard, as live and dead vegetation accumulates in areas where fire has been
excluded. In addition, the absence of fire has altered or disrupted the cycle of natural plant succession
and wildlife habitat in many areas. Consequently, U.S. land management agencies are committed to
finding ways, such as prescribed burning to reintroduce fire into natural ecosystems, while
recognizing that fire fighting and suppression are still important. The U.S. Geological Survey (USGS)
conducts fire-related research to meet the varied needs of the fire management community and to
understand the role of fire in the landscape; this research includes fire management support, studies
of postfire effects, and a wide range of studies on fire history and ecology.
The Fish and Wildlife Service Fire Management Branch is responsible
for overall staff direction for the Service's fire management
program. The program includes preparedness, fire use, suppression
and emergency fire rehabilitation, which functions to support
the Service missions. The Branch is located at the National Interagency
Fire Center, Boise, Idaho.
Although there is considerable literature on fire effects, most of it was collected at a small scale. CFS biologists
have identified the problems associated with "scaling up" ecological data (e.g., from a forest stand to
a larger landscape) for predicting fire effects on vegetation, especially in the context of large- scale
models. An approach was developed for modeling transitions between vegetation types for
increased fire frequencies at large spatial scales. This technique is providing an important component
for state-of-the-art simulation models (e.g., MAPSS) that predict the impacts of climate change on
vegetation at the continental scale. Techniques are also being developed to predict vegetation
transitions over time in the context of an operational planning model and GIS database for
applications in resource management.
This project involves reconstruction of environmental histories and determination of the
landscape-level ecological effects of fire in the Jemez and other southwestern mountains.
Fires are an important component of the natural environment of Florida. The climate of Florida promotes fires though seasonal dry periods and frequent thunderstorms
that produce lightning. Central Florida has some of the highest incidences of lightning strikes anywhere in the world. The vegetation and fauna of Florida have evolved in
relation to fire. Many plant communities including scrub, pine flatwoods, coastal strand, and marshes depend on fire for their continued existence. The habitat of many
threatened and endangered animals and plants depends on periodic burning. Fire suppression and landscape fragmentation mean that wildfires can no longer burn across
the Florida landscape. Land management agencies use prescribed burning to maintain the benefits of fire to natural communities, plants, and animals but reduce conflicts
with transportation, industry, and the general public.
The National Fire danger Rating System is a set of computer programs and algorithms
that allow land management agencies to estimate today's or tomorrow's fire danger for a
given rating area.
The site provides a roundup of various NOAA Web sites and information on the latest fire weather forecasts, including satellite
images and graphics. Includes some external links.
The objective of the Fire Weather Program is to provide meteorological support to wildland fire management
agencies for the protection of life and property. This support includes warnings, forecasts, on-site services
during wildfires, and meteorological training for fire fighters.
Fire scars on trees reveal the history of human use of fire in the Ozarks.
University
For 94 years, forest caretakers have restricted Mother Nature by suppressing forest fires. Now a Penn State geographer wants to know what the forests would have been like if we'd let them burn. What Beaty and Dr. Alan H. Taylor, associate professor of geography, are finding is that variation on a fairly local scale is important and that the environment, especially the topography, is key.
While not specifically fire related, this site, hosted by UC Davis,
contains large amounts of environmental data on California ecosystems
and natural resources. Links to the Sierra Nevada Ecosystem Project
(SNEP) can be found here.
The Western Forest Fire Research Center (WESTFIRE) is an interdisciplinary research facility based at Colorado State University (data
and maps presented in this home page are from a variety of sources and may not be complete or current).
The University of Arizona PRL conducts basic and applied research in fire mapping science. Remote sensing and geographic information system (GIS) technologies are used to support fire fuels mapping and modeling projects, chiefly in the Southwestern U.S.
The Biodiversity Forum hosted by UC Santa Barbara is a place on
the World Wide Web for people like you to express and exchange
views related to biodiversity and conservation. The Biodiversity
Forum draws upon case studies taken from a number of areas. Giant
sequoia management (including the role of fire) is one of the
featured case studies.
This site provides products and information related to climate,
weather and fire applied research activities at the Desert Research
Institute/Western Regional Climate Center in collaboration with
the Bureau of Land Management State of Nevada Office and the Reno
National Weather Service Forecast Office.
Only two natural stands of Torrey pine (Pinus torreyana) exist. The stand on Santa Rosa Island, California, was previously studied using fossil pollen from a sediment
core in an estuary. This study also reconstructed the settlement impacts on the island caused mainly by the introduction of large grazing animals to the island for the first
time.
Texas Tech University. The mission of the Fire Ecology Center is to train resource managers to properly apply fire, serve the natural resource community through
prescribed fire application, and scientifically evaluate the role of fire in grassland ecosystems.
Testimony for oversight hearing on preventing wildfires through proper management of the National Forests, Albuquerque, New Mexico, August 14, 2000.
Old-growth forests dominated the presettlement vegetation on the west coast of Vancouver
Island. Given that past climate variability has caused forest fire disturbance regimes to vary
over time, to what extent have old-growth forests dominated in the past?
This study was designed to: (1) document the chronology of western juniper age distribution; (2) document pre- and postsettlement mean fire intervals in a mountain big
sagebrush steppe community; and (3) determine the proportion of large to small fires, and evaluate their relationship to growing conditions in years preceding and
concurrent with fire events. The work is being conducted throughout central and southeast Oregon, and northeast California.
International
Waterton's ecosystems have evolved with and have been shaped by fire. This ecological process is as important as water, sun and wind
Given the importance of fire in the boreal forest, the fire-research community has planned a series of three large-scale experimental burns to study fire behavior and the ecological impacts of fire. These are crucial to management objectives (manipulating fire regimes and controlling
undesirable fires) and to scientific objectives of understanding the ecological and climatic consequences of boreal fires.
Information about science and research in the NSW National Parks and Wildlife Service. Good information is a necessary ingredient of efforts to implement ecologically sustainable development. It is essential to have good information on the components of biological diversity and human impacts on them to make informed decisions on heritage management and conservation. However, scientific knowledge is far from complete and there are many important questions that need to be answered.
Canadian fire management policies state that suppression should be proportional to values at risk and that fire should assume a more natural role
in managing the landscape. In comparison to fire control, fire management requires more knowledge about fire as a physical, biological, and sociological phenomenon as well as more
sophisticated decision-making and application skill. The Canadian Forest Service (CFS) Fire Research Network (FRN) will develop decision support
systems and foster implementation of technology to support Canadian fire management agencies. (Also in French) Programs include:
The Canadian Interagency Forest Fire Centre (CIFFC) provides operational fire-control services, as well as management and information services to its
Member Agencies. The web site gives detailed information on the Canadian fire management activities. Fire Statistics are provided along with fire events,
fire news etc.
Searchable online bibliography.
FireNet is a Special Interest Network (a SIN) dedicated to all aspects of fire science and management.
The purpose of this document is to review potential requirements for space-based observations in fire management. This report was
developed under the auspices of the Disaster Management Support Project (DMSP) as part of the Integrated Global Observation Strategy
(IGOS) of the Committee on Earth Observation Satellites (CEOS). This document was prepared by an international working group, which has
experience in the field of remote sensing as applied to wildland fire management.
Natural Variability and Anthropogenic Perturbations of Tropical Atmospheric Chemistry. One of the core projects of the International Geosphere-Biosphere Programme (IGBP) is the International Global Atmospheric
Chemistry (IGAC) project. The overall objectives of IGAC Focus 2 are to understand the chemical processing and transport of
gases in the tropical atmosphere, and the role of terrestrial biosphere- atmosphere trace gas exchanges in regulating atmospheric>
composition. Much of the research in this Focus is directed toward understanding the effects of human activities, especially land-use change and land-use
intensification, on trace gas fluxes and atmospheric chemistry. Several interrelated Activities are addressing these major objectives.
The Global Fire Monitoring Center (GFMC) monitors, forecasts and archives information on vegetation fires (forest fires, land-use fires, smoke pollution)
at global level. With this information decision makers at national and international levels are supported in evaluating fire situations or precursors of fire which
potentially endanger humans or may negatively affect the environment
Home page of the FireBeaters, a small group of ecologists, land managers, foresters and conservationists
interested in the history, ecology, control, and behaviour of vegetation fires in the British Isles and North-West Europe.
The objective of this work was to examine the options for fire management in the Kruger National Park, based on available data on the fire history and known effects of fire, and to devise
"thresholds of potential concern" (TPC’s) for fire management.
Journals or Periodicals
Mountains of Fire - 90 Years Ago, Wind-Driven Flames Scarred a Generation. By Sherry Devlin of the Missoulian
High Country News is a bi-weekly newspaper that reports on natural
resources, public lands, and changing communities from the Great
Plains to the Northwest, and from the Northern Rockies to the
desert Southwest. Among the articles in their on-line archives
are a number relating to fire.
A former Park Service director says the Los Alamos fire was due partly to "our refusal to live within the rules ordained by ... a high, dry, windy, rocky, sandy region." Roger Kennedy, former director of the Smithsonian's Museum of American History, served as director of the National Park Service from 1993 to 1997. He now lives in Santa Fe, New Mexico.
The writer believes that much can be learned from the Cerro Grande fire at Los Alamos, N.M., if we will acknowledge our ignorance and learn how to live in the West.
The fire-loving weed cheatgrass is taking over the Great Basin's overgrazed
sagebrush steppes, and BLM scientists are struggling to find a way to eradicate the
non-native weeds and restore the land before it all goes up in flames.
In the wake of the huge fires that swept across the Great Basin in August 1999, the
BLM is seeking ways to restore the sagebrush landscape and to control the fire-prone
cheatgrass that now infests it.
The forest fire that ravaged Los Alamos, N.M., stemming from a Park Service
prescribed burn that swept out of control, has everyone debating the whole concept
of prescribed burning in the West.
The intense blazes of 2000 may be wake-up call to return fire to forests.
This week, Missoulian reporter Sherry Devlin produced a three-day series on the
fires of 1910, which burned 3 million acres in Montana and Idaho.
Read the series, if you haven't already. It is an excellent primer for a national
debate that is already heating up. The two arguing camps are familiar by now: In one, people who basically oppose
logging on public forests and man's interference in nature; in the other are those
who argue man's work thinning, logging of forests promotes healthier
environments. The coolest spot in the argument is somewhere in between.
Nearly a century of change has created a more flammable forest. A series of photographs from the same location beginning in 1909 show dramatic changes in forest structure and composition in an experimental forest in the Bitterroot Valley, Montana.
After the historic fires of 1910, policies designed to protect forests produced thicker timber stands that burn bigger and hotter when wildfire strikes.
The 'big blowup' of 1910 burned 3 million acres of forest in
western Montana and northern Idaho, and shaped much of
the modern fire suppression effort
Fire is as much a part of the forests in Crater Lake as are avalanches, windstorms, native insect and disease outbreaks, and volcanoes. All of these naturally occurring forces play an important role in shaping the forest landscape.
There are two stories to the frequency of naturally caused fires in the Pacific Northwest: the "west side story and the "east side story".
Fire is as much a part of the forests in Crater Lake as are avalanches, windstorms, native insect and disease
outbreaks, and volcanoes. All of these naturally occurring forces play an important role in shaping the forest
landscape. For as long as there have been forests, there have been fires. All it takes is the right set of ingredients: fuel, oxygen, and a source of heat.
A fire history chronology extending for 480 years (1501-1981) was developed from
tree ring studies of fire-scarred ponderosa and lodgepole pines growing in a 640
ha (1600 ac) study area in the northeastern portion of Crater Lake National Park.
The effects of a prescribed burn on mixed-conifer forest was investigated.
Online guide to the Yellowstone fires of 1988.
Private Organizations
"The purpose of this web site is to foster communication between members of the Giant Sequoia Ecology Cooperative and to share information regarding giant sequoia with all interested parties".
Tall Timbers Research Station was established in 1958 as a non-profit
scientific and educational organization dedicated to ecological
research, conservation and management of wildlands in the Southeastern
Coastal Plain. The Station is recognized as a leader in land management,
conservation activities, ecological research, and particularly
fire ecology. (See Fire Ecology Database below)
This database is a unique resource for locating a broad range of
fire-related information. Literature on control of wildfires as well as applications of
prescribed burning is included. The database is international in scope with
emphasis on North America and in particular, the southeastern United States.
Citations include references to books, chapters within books, journal articles,
conferences and conference papers, state and federal documents.
Abstracts are often included as part of the citations. The database is
updated on a continuous basis, with information both current and
historical. At present there are over 10,800 citations are in the database.
There is no cost for accessing the database.
The goal of The Nature Conservancy is to preserve biodiversity, and fire plays a role in maintaining
populations of rare species and natural communities. Over 190 G1 and G2* species are found on properties
identified for prescribed fire management.
The Fire Research Institute (FRI) is a not-for-profit wildland fire library
holding 65,000 books, journal articles, videos, training manuals,
dissertations, news reports, and other material on wildland fire. The web
site allows users to search the entire collection online.
Report by "Taxpayers for Common Sense".
ESRI Conservation Program Resources
Fire Research
A great site, the Fire Effects Information System (FEIS) provides up-to-date information on the effects of fire on plants and animals. The searchable database has been developed as a cooperative interagency resource, and is always being improved and updated as more research and monitoring becomes available.
This US Forest Service research station includes the Riverside Fire Lab. The Articles and Publications section of the Station's Web site features on-line versions of many technical publications relating to forest management, including some on fire management. Most documents can be viewed using Acrobat Reader.
The Rocky Mountain Research Station of the USDA Forest Service
(formerly the Intermountain Research Station and the Rocky Mountain
Forest and Range Experiment Station) conducts research throughout
the nation with emphasis on the Rocky Mountains, Great Basin,
Great Plains, and the Southwest. This site includes listings of
recent publications by Station authors and major cooperators,
including reports relating to fire.
Tall Timbers Research Station was established in 1958 as a non-profit
scientific and educational organization dedicated to ecological
research, conservation and management of wildlands in the Southeastern
Coastal Plain. The Station is recognized as a leader in land management,
conservation activities, ecological research, and particularly
fire ecology.
The Joint Fire Science Program was designed to provide a scientific basis and rationale for
implementing fuels management activities, with a focus on activities that will lead to development and application of tools for managers.
There has been a growing recognition over the last several years of the need for a study to compare the use of fire to
non-fire treatments designed to achieve stand structure objectives. A 'Critical Finding' of the Sierra Nevada Ecosystem
Project (SNEP) (1996, Executive Summary, pages 4-5) states:
"Fire Surrogates: Although silvicultural treatments can mimic the effects of fire on structural patterns of
woody vegetation, virtually no data exist on the ability to mimic ecological functions of natural fires.
Silvicultural treatments can create patterns of woody vegetation that appear similar to those that fire would create, but
the consequences for nutrient cycling, hydrology, seed scarification, nonwoody vegetation response, plant diversity,
disease and insect infestation, and genetic diversity are mostly unknown. Similarly, although combining managed fire
with silvicultural treatments adds the critical effects of combustion, the ecological effects and fire hazard reduction of the
approach are largely unknown."
The proposed long-term study described here, funded by the Joint Fire Science Program, is in response to this virtual void in our knowledge.
Given the importance of fire in the boreal forest, the fire-research community has planned a series of three large-scale experimental burns to study fire behavior and the ecological impacts of fire. These are crucial to management objectives (manipulating fire regimes and controlling
undesirable fires) and to scientific objectives of understanding the ecological and climatic consequences of boreal fires.
Wildland fire is a serious and growing hazard over much of the United States, posing a great threat to life and property, particularly when it moves from forest or rangeland into developed areas. However, wildland fire is also a natural process, and its suppression is now recognized to have
created a larger fire hazard, as live and dead vegetation accumulates in areas where fire has been
excluded. In addition, the absence of fire has altered or disrupted the cycle of natural plant succession
and wildlife habitat in many areas. Consequently, U.S. land management agencies are committed to
finding ways, such as prescribed burning to reintroduce fire into natural ecosystems, while
recognizing that fire fighting and suppression are still important. The U.S. Geological Survey (USGS)
conducts fire-related research to meet the varied needs of the fire management community and to
understand the role of fire in the landscape; this research includes fire management support, studies
of postfire effects, and a wide range of studies on fire history and ecology.
The Bor Forest Island experimental site is typical of pine-lichen forests of Western Siberia.
Generally, in the taiga zone, dominant pine stand age is
dependent on the time period since the last intense fire. Pine stands on sands are represented primarily by pine-lichen forest types. Species composition of
postfire woody plant regeneration is typically similar to prefire composition. The time it takes for a young stand canopy to become closed after fire
depends on burned area size, seed sources available, and seed production in the years following the fire. Because of insufficient surface fuel loads, fires
typically are patchy and cover relatively small areas. As a result, seed sources are generally available nearby. Only young and pole stands, and sometimes
middle-aged stands, tend to burn out completely.
Online and Searchable Fire Reference Databases
The Fire Research Institute (FRI) is a not-for-profit wildland fire library
holding 65,000 books, journal articles, videos, training manuals,
dissertations, news reports, and other material on wildland fire. The web
site allows users to search the entire collection online.
This database is a unique resource for locating a broad range of
fire-related information. Literature on control of wildfires as well as applications of
prescribed burning is included. The database is international in scope with
emphasis on North America and in particular, the southeastern United States.
Citations include references to books, chapters within books, journal articles,
conferences and conference papers, state and federal documents.
Abstracts are often included as part of the citations. The database is
updated on a continuous basis, with information both current and
historical. At present there are over 10,800 citations are in the database.
There is no cost for accessing the database.
A great site, the Fire Effects Information System (FEIS) provides up-to-date information on the effects of fire on plants and animals. The searchable database has been developed as a cooperative interagency resource, and is always being improved and updated as more research and monitoring becomes available.
Information on Fire Prevention & Education
Prescribed burning is a tool used by land managers to reduce the vegetation that can build up in forested areas. In addition to protecting neighborhoods and businesses,
prescribed burning improves the health of Florida's ecosystems. Fire has always been a natural part of Florida's landscape. Fires play an important role in maintaining
and regenerating forests and grasslands and the wildlife that depend on them.
Information on protecting homes from wildland fire by the National Wildland/Urban Interface Fire protection Program.
The Firewise Home Page was created for people who live or vacation in fire prone
areas of North America. The information contained here will help you to become a
firewise individual, and acquaint you with the challenges of living around interface/intermix
wildfire. These pages provide information that may lessen the risk of wildfire loss for you,
your family and your neighbors. You will find online wildfire protection information
designed to help you avoid unnecessary fire loss. You will also find a list of offline wildfire
protection information as well as links to off-site fire resources
Every year many families unnecessarily lose their homes and
possessions to wildland fire. These losses can be minimized if
homeowners take the time to become aware of safety measures to
help protect their homes and complete some effective actions.
At this site information is provided on fire resistant building materials and on
how to maintain a survivable space around a home.
Utilizing the combined expertise, resources and distribution channels of its members, the
Fire Safe Council fulfills its mission to preserve California's natural and manmade
resources by mobilizing all Californians to make their homes, neighborhoods and
communities fire safe.
FireSafe is the home page/resource directory for Safety Information.
This series includes an update of portions of the I-Zone book published by the California State Fire Marshal's Office in 1996, as well as new information on fire hazard mitigation.
A compilation of fire performance ratings of residential landscape plants. This vegetation guide was developed as part of a larger fire mitigation research project under way at the University of California Forest
Products Laboratory. The purpose of this guide is to provide information on the properties of some common California landscaping plants that
can be used to determine how a particular plant will behave when burned. It is a referenced database that compiles the information found in
available lists and supplements information on plant characteristics that are known to affect fire performance.
Objectives are to develop new, environmentally-friendly, fire-safe materials principles, fire performance
prediction capability, and relevant fire test methods for U.S. industry and government agencies to assure that
modifications to their products/materials will manifest the intended fire performance, and the test methods will
measure materials' and end products' fire performance relevant to intended fire scenarios; the principles would be
used by U.S. industry to produce new/improved end products for domestic & international markets, and to
evaluate their economic impacts.
"Fight Fire with Fire!" is a web site designed for Floridians to learn how to protect themselves and their homes from the threat of wildfire.
Wildland fires destroy hundreds of homes and acres of land every year across the
country. Fire-safe landscaping is an effective tool that creates an area of
defensible space between your home and flammable vegetation that protects
against devastating fires.
