PROJECT GOAL Given the objectives of protecting values at risk and supporting fire suppression operations, develop a decision support tool which establishes a priority ranking system for maintaining the existing system of fuel breaks Strategic Fuel on the Los Padres National Forest. Prepared by: Adaptive Management Services Enterprise Team Break Assessment Establishing priorities for maintaining Fuel Breaks on the Los Padres National Forest Table of Contents Introduction ..................................................................................................................................................................................... 3 Current Management Direction ...................................................................................................................................................... 4 Vegetation Management ............................................................................................................................................................. 5 Fuel Break Analysis Project Direction .............................................................................................................................................. 5 The Los Padres National Forest Setting ........................................................................................................................................... 6 Weather as it affects the Forest .................................................................................................................................................. 7 Use of fuel breaks ............................................................................................................................................................................ 7 Fuel break design ......................................................................................................................................................................... 7 Fuel breaks as wildfire control features ...................................................................................................................................... 8 Challenges of constructing, maintaining and utilizing fuel breaks as a tactical wildfire control feature .................................. 10 Historic use of fuel breaks ......................................................................................................................................................... 12 Current use of fuel breaks ......................................................................................................................................................... 12 Fuel Break Analysis Project ............................................................................................................................................................ 13 Scope of the analysis ................................................................................................................................................................. 13 Methodology ............................................................................................................................................................................. 13 Fuel break data set ................................................................................................................................................................ 14 Weather data ......................................................................................................................................................................... 15 Fuel break characteristics evaluated ......................................................................................................................................... 17 Tier 1 Elements ...................................................................................................................................................................... 17 Tier 2 Elements ...................................................................................................................................................................... 18 Tier 3 Elements ...................................................................................................................................................................... 19 Results ........................................................................................................................................................................................... 20 Recommendations ......................................................................................................................................................................... 22 Fuel break Gap Analysis ............................................................................................................................................................. 22 Connectivity with Adjacent Forests and Other Agencies .......................................................................................................... 22 References ..................................................................................................................................................................................... 24 Appendix A - Methodology ............................................................................................................................................................ 25 Fuel break data set .................................................................................................................................................................... 25 Weather Analysis ....................................................................................................................................................................... 26 Fire Modeling ............................................................................................................................................................................. 28 Analysis .......................................................................................................................................................................................... 30 Tier 1 .......................................................................................................................................................................................... 30 Modeled arrival time ............................................................................................................................................................. 30 Historic ignitions .................................................................................................................................................................... 31 Page | 1 Historic Burn Frequency......................................................................................................................................................... 31 Fire Suppression Response Time -Travel from Nearest Fire Station(s) along Connected Roads ............................................ 31 Tier 2 .......................................................................................................................................................................................... 31 Population Density ................................................................................................................................................................. 31 Homes .................................................................................................................................................................................... 32 Infrastructure - Communication Sites, Power Transmission and Telephone Lines ................................................................ 32 Wildland Urban Interface (WUI) ............................................................................................................................................ 32 Tier 3 .............................................................................................................................................................................................. 32 Safety ..................................................................................................................................................................................... 33 Existing Vegetation Condition ................................................................................................................................................ 33 Maintenance Workability (Average Slope) ............................................................................................................................. 33 Maintenance Cost .................................................................................................................................................................. 34 Management Concerns .......................................................................................................................................................... 34 Scoring Matrix ............................................................................................................................................................................ 35 Page | 2 Introduction The use of fuel breaks as fire control features on the landscape of the Los Padres National Forest dates back to the 1930 and road, trail and fuel break construction work performed by the Civilian Conservation Corps. Since the 1930s the forest has continued to construct new fuel breaks and maintain existing