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Advances In Fire Practice

Advances in Fire Practice WINTER 2009-2010

Decision Support
Understanding El Nino for Your Management Unit

By Tim Brown and John Abatzoglou

The Desert Research Institute recently published a science brief describing the El Nino weather pattern and its relationship to fire risk and other land management concerns. The brief also introduces a new monthly El Nino risk mapping product that DRI helped to shape.

Decision Support
New Center Aims to Bridge Research and Field Application Gap

By Josh McDaniel

WINTER 2010
Topics: Decision Support, Fire Management

The goal of NFDSC is to provide a key link between wildland fire science development and the appropriate application of that science.

Carbon Management
Carbon Takes Center Stage at 4th International Fire Congress

By Josh McDaniel

WINTER 2010
Topics: Climate, Fire Ecology, Fuels

Land managers will soon be faced with the apparent paradox of simultaneously managing forests for both fire management and carbon sequestration. Research presented at the conference showed that researchers will be working alongside land managers to solve that puzzle.

AFP VIDEO
Is Climate Change Behind Recent Increase in Fire Activity?

It has become conventional wisdom that a warming climate has led to larger and more severe fires in the western US over the past few decades. The West is definitely warmer, but is it part of a long term warming trend connected to global climate change?

AFP VIDEO
Black Saturday Bushfires

The Black Saturday bushfires ignited across the Australian state of Victoria on and around Saturday, February 7th 2009 during extreme bushfire-weather conditions, resulting in Australia's highest ever loss of life from a bushfire. 173 people died as a result of the fires, 414 were injured, and over 1600 residences were burned. This video looks at the conditions that led to Black Saturday, as well as the issues the fires have raised for the Australian bushfire Community.

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Fall 2006

That Thing Was Rolling: The Cavity Lake Fire
Seven years of endless meetings, exhaustive planning, repetitive training, and a controversial and unprecedented

Summer 2009

People of the Prairie, People of the Fire
Restoration is a slippery concept. In some places it means mostly finding ways to preserve and enhance

Summer 2008

After the Smoke Clears, Debris Flow Threat Emerges
This past spring, I visited the aftermath of a debris flow in Amago Creek on the La Jolla Indian Reservation

Fall 2007

The Zaca Fire: Bridging Fire Science and Management
The Figueroa RAWS (Remote Automated Weather Station) sits at 3200 ft on a grassy knob in the mountains

Winter 2008

Wildfire and the Global Carbon Cycle
Large fluxes of carbon into the atmosphere from wildfires can have an impact on the global carbon cycle,

Fall 2006

SPLATS, SPOTS and the Future of Fuels Treatment
Sitting around tables in the darkened room, a group of federal land managers, environmentalists, local

Summer 2009

Missouri Compromise
America's fire polity has split into two dominant confederations. One looks to wilderness as a guide,

Winter 2008

The Carbon Leakage Problem
Forests absorb billions of tons of CO2 globally per year, amounting to about 30% of all CO2 emissions

Fall 2008

Wildfire and Beetle Kill Across the Rocky Mountains
Lodgepole pines throughout the Rockies are dying. The culprit is a tiny beetle, no bigger than some of

Spring 2008

Fire Risk and the Southeastern Drought
For Georgia forestry and fire officials, 2007 will also go down as one of the busiest in history. A complex

Spring 2008

Are Western Wildfires “The Smoking Gun” of Climate Change?
Toby Richards, a fire management officer for New Mexico's Gila National Forest, realized that something

Winter 2007

Southern California Fires: The Big Questions
During the southern California fires, TV viewers saw aerial views of flames coming out of the canyons

Spring 2007

Fire Education with One Foot in the Black
The remarkably original approach to fire education at Sequoia & Kings Canyon National Parks illustrates

Fall 2006

When Things Get Busy: FSPro and RAVAR
On July 23 and 24, 2006, the Shasta-Trinity National Forest in California was hit by a series of lightning

Summer 2006

Igniting Fire Use on the Gila NF
The ponderosa pine forest on the mountain was a “dog- hair thicket,” small trees in need of thinning.

Summer 2006

Bioenergy and Forest Restoration in the White Mountains
Woody biomass is showing growing potential as a major source of alternative energy. The White Mountain

Summer 2006

Matters of Trust: Collaboration and Outreach in Fire Management
While research on the social side of the ecosystem management equation has been embraced more slowly

Fall 2009

The Emergence and Potential of New Risk Assessment Tools
How do we measure the effects of fuel treatments on a potential fire? New, powerful wildfire simulation

Summer 2007

Applying Australia's Stay or Go Approach in the US? Would it Work?
There has been a growing interest in the United States in exploring alternatives to mass evacuation such

Winter 2008

Stay Cool: There are Ways to Avoid an Entrapment
The nature of fire remains unpredictable. Staying out of harm’s way may be the best advice—but what if

Fall 2008

Chaparral Fire Science Debate Continues
The latest in an ongoing scientific debate as to whether the massive Southern California fires are natural

Spring 2008

Battling Cheatgrass at Zion National Park
Not everyone is ready to surrender to cheatgrass. Zion National Park is tackling the cheatgrass problem

Fall 2009

Economics of Wildland Fire Risk Management
New risk management tools are changing approaches to fire management and economists are playing a key

Winter 2006

Facing Up to Reality in the WUI
In June, 2003 the Aspen Fire burned through the village of Summerhaven, a mountain getaway in the Santa

Fall 2009

U.S. Wildfire Cost-Plus-Loss Economics Project: The "One-Pager" Checklist
What are the actual costs of a wildfire? A more complete accounting would include environmental, health,

Winter 2006

American, Australian, and Canadian WUI programs Hitting Home
There are three main WUI education programs in the United States, Australia and Canada, respectively:

Summer 2009

Patch Burning
It is here that storm surges of fire, roaring over the long fetch of the Great Plains, whipped by the

Winter 2006

Time for a National Flame Zone Atlas
Once more, all across the foothills of the West, construction crews are in a race with fire crews. Some

Spring 2009

Complicated Fires Require a Simple Message
Many fire information officers can probably recite a long list of instances where the media got it wrong

Spring 2007

The Gift of Fire
As Salish and Pend d’Oreille people, our view of fire was and is quite different from the modern western

Spring 2009

The Development of Safety Training after Mann Gulch
In the decade following the Mann Gulch fire in 1949, the U. S. Forest Service created technical and research

Spring 2007

Every Fire is a Teachable Moment
For me, every fire is a teachable moment, be it with a single homeowner, neighborhood, community, television

Spring 2009

Questioning Mann Gulch
On August 5, 1949, a surging wildfire trapped fifteen smoke jumpers and one fireguard in a chimney-shaped

Fall 2007

Fire Effects Planning Framework
The Fire lookouts began calling in at 4:30 P.M. on Saturday July 20 2004. There were several fires on

Summer 2007

Delivery and Acceptance of "Stay or Go" Messages in the Blue Mountains
The Blue Mountains, west of Sydney, covers 1,433,000 hectares and is one of the most bushfire-prone areas

Fall 2007

WFDSS: Taking Decision Support into the 21st Century
Fire behavior modeling, geospatial analysis, remote sensing, and weather forecasting, are available today

Summer 2007

The Australian ‘Stay or Go’ Approach: Factors Influencing Householder Decisions
While there is increasing evidence that the ‘stay or go’ is based on good evidence about the nature of

Winter 2007

The 2007 Southern California Fires: Science and the Chaparral
The October fires in southern California brought national media attention to many of the issues that

Fall 2008

Only 14% of Potential WUI Currently Developed
As bad as the WUI problem has become for wildland fire managers, a new study published by the Montana-based,

Winter 2007

Changing Face of Fire Management in the Northern Rockies
AMR is many things—it is the latest buzzword, it is also a substantive change in wildland fire policy,

Summer 2008

Colorado National Forest Manages WFU in City Watershed
The Grand Mesa National Forest in western Colorado has never had a fire like the Coal Creek Fire, a 1,485

Summer 2008

National BAER Team Responds to SoCal 2007
I am Fred Nelson, tribal member of the La Jolla reservation – tribal treasurer for the tribe. To start

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Disclaimer: Information is provided with the intent to share knowledge to improve safety, performance, efficiency and organizational learning throughout the entire wildland fire community. However, no warranties or guarantees are implied because much of the data provided is beyond the control of the Center. No endorsement of any company or product is given or implied.