Reduced fire severity in fuel-treated forests at the Wildland-Urban Interface during the Caldor Fire (2021)
/This study assessed tree and stand characteristics and metrics of fire severity in areas within the footprint of the Caldor Fire that had experienced fuel reduction by the Forest Service between the early 2000s and 2019. Treatments were varied, and included hand-thinning and piling (HTP) followed by pile-burning, HTP where the piles were still onsite, and areas where treatment involved two rounds of “cut to length” tree-felling (DBH < 76.2 cm) followed by mastication and surface fuel redistribution to stay below a threshold of 15 cm depth (CPCM). Pre- and post-treatment fuel loadings, stand densities, and basal areas were calculated by combining field data, allometric modeling methods (Forest Vegetation Simulator), and photo series. Each of these metrics was significantly lower in treated stands.
Under Review
Hugh Safford and Saba Saberi. “Fuel treatment effects on fire severity during the Caldor Fire (2021), Lake Tahoe, California, USA.” under review, Forest Ecology and Management.
