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2013 Rim Fire Fuel Treatment Effectiveness Summary

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2013 Rim Fire Fuel Treatment Effectiveness Summary United States Department of Agriculture 2013 Rim Fire Fuel Treatment Effectiveness Summary Forest Pacific Southwest R5-MR-060 April 2015 Service Region 2013 Rim Fire Fuel Treatment Effectiveness Summary Shelly Crook, Carol Ewell, Becky Estes, Frankie Romero, Lynn Goolsby and Neil Sugihara USDA Forest Service Dec. 1, 2014 Contents Introduction ................................................................................................. 5 Conditions Leading to August 17 ......................................................................5 Chronology of the Rim Fire ..............................................................................8 Sidebar 1. Fight fire with fire ................................................................... 12 Ecological Setting Prior to the Rim Fire .........................................................13 Fire History and Fire Return Interval Departure (FRID) ................................15 Severity patterns within the Rim Fire ..............................................................17 Fuel Treatments ......................................................................................... 20 Fuel Treatment Objectives ...............................................................................20 Fuel Treatment Effectiveness Monitoring (FTEM) .........................................20 Fuel Treatment Effectiveness Case Studies ............................................ 23 Combined Mechanical and Prescribed Fire Treatment....................................25 Combined Mechanical and Prescribed Fire Treatment....................................27 Wildland Urban Interface Protection ...............................................................29 Sidebar 2. Rim Truck Trail ......................................................................... 30 Sidebar 3. Tuolumne Trails ....................................................................... 31 Combined Mechanical and Prescribed Fire Treatment....................................32 Wildfire Managed for Resource Benefit Objectives .......................................34 Sidebar 4. Managing Wildfires for Natural Resource Benefits ............... 37 Rim Fire Fuel Treatment Effectiveness Summary ................................... 38 Sidebar 5. Fire Behavior Assessment Team (FBAT) ............................... 38 Were the Rim Fire Fuel treatments effective? .................................................39 1. Rim fire intensity and burning conditions are important .............................39 2. Fuel treatment design and objective ............................................................39 3. Fuel treatment age is important ...................................................................41 Information needs ..................................................................................... 42 Lessons Learned/areas for improvement ................................................ 42 Acknowledgements ................................................................................... 43 References ................................................................................................. 44 2013 Rim Fire Fuel Treatment Effectiveness Summary | 2 List of Figures Figure 1. Rim Fire Histogram. ..........................................................................7 Figure 2. Aerial view. ......................................................................................10 Figure 3. Ground view. ....................................................................................10 Figure 4. Aftermath of the Fire. ....................................................................... 11 Figure 5. Rim Fire progression from August 17 to September 15, 2013. ....... 11 Figure 6. Left—Aerial ignition burn-out operation. ........................................12 Figure 7. Right—Drip torch. ...........................................................................12 Figure 8. Vegetation of the Rim fire and Surrounding Area. ...........................13 Figure 9. Fire regimes for the Rim Fire area. ..................................................14 Figure 10. Fire history. ....................................................................................16 Figure 11. Fire return interval departure. ........................................................16 Figure 12. Vegetation severity. ........................................................................18 Figure 13. Left — Vegetation severity all burn days. ......................................19 Figure 14. Middle — Vegetation severity for August 21st and 22nd.................19 Figure 15. Right — Vegetation severity excluding August 21st and 22nd. .......19 Figures 16 and 17. Treated and Untreated vegetation severity. .......................22 Figures 18 and 19. Vegetation severity by fuel treatment type........................23 Figure 20. Fuel treatment map. .......................................................................24 Figure 21. Peach growers. ...............................................................................25 Figure 22. Structure protection. .......................................................................26 Figure 23. Stand protection. ............................................................................26 Figure 24. Bear Mountain. ..............................................................................27 Figure 25. Reduced fire intensity. ....................................................................28 Figure 26. Reduced fire severity. .....................................................................28 Figure 27. Feretti Road/Pine Mountain Lake. .................................................29 Figure 28. Shaded fuel break (left). .................................................................30 Figure 29. Dozer line (right). ...........................................................................30 Figures 30 and 31. Tuolumne Trails. ...............................................................31 Figure 32. North Granite Stewardship Project. ...............................................32 Figure 33. Mechanical thinning. ......................................................................33 Figure 34. Kibbie Fire. ....................................................................................34 Figure 35. Kibbie fire re-burn. ........................................................................35 2013 Rim Fire Fuel Treatment Effectiveness Summary | 3 Figure 36. Kibbie Fire re-burn vegetation severity. .........................................36 Figure 37. Spotted owl. ...................................................................................37 Figures 38–39. Before and after photos. .........................................................38 List of Tables Table 1. Rim Fire Summary Information ..........................................................5 Table 2. Major vegetation types. .....................................................................14 Table 3. Fire Regimes. .....................................................................................15 Table 4. Case Study Areas. ..............................................................................24 2013 Rim Fire Fuel Treatment Effectiveness Summary | 4 Introduction The Rim Fire started from an escaped campfire on Saturday, August 17, 2013 about 18 miles southeast of Sonora, California on the Stanislaus National Forest. Over the next several weeks it grew mostly to the north and east and burned across 257,314 acres of the Stanislaus National Forest (Stanislaus NF), Yosemite National Park (Yosemite NP), and private land making it the largest fire recorded in the Sierra Nevada Mountains over the last 100 years. An overview of the Rim Fire is presented to provide context (Table 1). To assess the initial effectiveness of the fuel treatments in the Rim Fire, we considered the objectives, design, age and location of the treatments as well as the weather, fuel conditions, intensity of the fire at the time it burned into the treatments, and severity of the fire near and within the treatment. The results are summarized for all treatments since 1995 within the Rim fire and case examples are presented to highlight fuel treatment effectiveness. Table 1. Rim Fire Summary Information Overview information for the Rim fire. Information Detail Date of origin August 17, 2013 Official containment date October 24, 2013 Cause Campfire Stanislaus NF (154,428 acres), Yosemite NP (78,753 Location acres), Private lands (22,973 acres), Bureau of Land Management (129 acres) Total area burned 257,314 acres (104,131 hectares or 402 square miles) Structures burned 11 residences, 3 commercial properties, 98 outbuildings Conditions Leading to August 17 During the summer of 2013, the central Sierra Nevada Mountain Range was experiencing a second year of significant drought conditions (NOAA 2013; Palmer 1965). Precipitation for the previous two years was 50–70 percent of average, and less than 50 percent for that time of the year for the 8 months prior to the fire. The Energy Release Component (ERC) is the primary fire index utilized by the Stanislaus NF for assessing fire season outlook and fire behavior potential. As live fuels cure and dead fuels dry, the ERC index increases, reflecting drying conditions and predicting potential fire behavior. The Mt. Elizabeth Remote Automated Weather 2013 Rim Fire Fuel Treatment Effectiveness Summary | 5 Station (RAWS) is used by the Stanislaus NF as the primary station for
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