United States Department of Agriculture JANUARY 2021 • VOL. 79 • NO. 1 Developments in Wildland Fire Research Fire Management Today is published by the Forest Service, an agency in the U.S. Department of Agriculture, Washington, DC. The purpose of Fire Management Today is to share information related to wildland fire management for the benefit of the wildland fire community. Fire Management Today is available on the World Wide Web at https://www.fs.usda.gov/managing-land/fire/fire-management-today. Victoria Christiansen, Chief Forest Service Patricia Grantham, Acting Director Kaari Carpenter, General Manager • Hutch Brown, Editor Fire and Aviation Management Daniel Dey, Ph.D., Issue Coordinator In accordance with Federal civil rights law and U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) civil rights regulations and policies, the USDA, its agencies, offices, and employees, and institutions participating in or administering USDA programs are prohibited from discriminating based on race, color, national origin, religion, sex, gender identity (including gender expression), sexual orientation, disability, age, marital status, family/parental status, income derived from a public assistance program, political beliefs, or reprisal or retaliation for prior civil rights activity in any program or activity conducted or funded by USDA (not all bases apply to all programs). Remedies and complaint filing deadlines vary by program or incident. 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Submit your completed form or letter to USDA by: (1) mail: U.S. Department of Agriculture, Office of the Assistant Secretary for Civil Rights, 1400 Independence Avenue, SW, Washington, D.C. 20250-9410; (2) fax: (202) 690-7442; or (3) email: [email protected]. USDA is an equal opportunity provider, employer, and lender. Trade Names The use of trade, firm, or corporation names in this publication is for the information and convenience of the reader. Such use does not constitute an official endorsement of any product or service by the U.S. Department of Agriculture. Individual authors are responsible for the technical accuracy of the material presented in Fire Management Today. JANUARY 2021 • VOL. 79 • NO. 1 www.fs.fed.us #forestservice On the Cover: Cross-section of a shortleaf pine (Pinus echinata) that grew in the Missouri Ozarks from 1577 to 1934. Shortleaf pine requires frequent fire for regeneration and survival, and land managers commonly use controlled burning to manage shortleaf pine ecosystems. Old fire-scarred trees like this give researchers valuable information about how forests, fire, climate, and people have interacted through time. IN THIS JANUARY 2021 • VOL. 79 • NO. 1 ISSUE Anchor Point: Science You Can Use Indigenous Fire Stewardship: Federal/Tribal Shawna A. Legarza. .................. 4 Partnerships for Wildland Fire Research and Management The Photoload Technique for Sampling Frank Kanawha Lake ................. 30 Surface Fuel Loadings Robert E. Keane, Heather Heward, Past to Present Human Influences and Chris Stalling ..................... 5 on Fire Regimes: Lessons Learned From Missouri The Prescribed Fire Science Consortium Michael C. Stambaugh and Nicholas Skowronski, Bret Butler, Daniel C. Dey ....................... 40 J. Kevin Hiers, Joseph O’Brien, and J. Morgan Varner .................... 10 Coproducing Science on Prescribed Fire, Thinning, and Vegetation Dynamics on a Can Targeted Browsing Be a Useful National Forest in Alabama Surrogate for Prescribed Burning? Callie Schweitzer and Daniel Dey ....... 43 Gina Beebe, Lauren S. Pile, Michael Stambaugh, Brian Davidson, and Learning To Live With Fire: Managing the Daniel Dey ......................... 12 Impacts of Prescribed Burning on Eastern Firefighter Hardwood Value Bark Beetle and Fire Interactions in Western Daniel C. Dey, Michael C. Stambaugh, and Coniferous Forests: Research Findings Callie Schweitzer .................... 52 and public Christopher J. Fettig, Sharon M. Hood, Justin B. Runyon, and Chris M. Stalling .. 14 Data and Dialogue: Assessing Forest Service Risk Management Assistance safety is Atmospheric Turbulence in Wildland Chad Kooistra and Courtney Schultz .... 61 Fire Environments: Implications for Fire Behavior and Smoke Dispersion Moneyball for Fire our first Warren E. Heilman. 24 Nicholas F. McCarthy, Matthew P. Thompson, and David E. Calkin. 69 priority. GUIDELINES for Contributors Fire Management Today 3 ANCHOR POINT Interest in the evolution of fire regimes in the United States in tandem with Tribal cultures has long been growing, and two articles explore some of the implications. Science You Indigenous knowledge can help identify trigger points, thresholds, and indicators for ecosystems, habitats, and resources Can Use of interest; one article is a primer that id you know that Gifford nonindigenous fire managers can use for Pinchot, the founder of the thoughtful and respectful engagement Forest Service, was one of with Tribal communities. our earliest fire researchers? In 1899, D Prescribed fire is of tremendous and Pinchot published an article on “the growing importance for the Forest Service relation of forests and forest fires” By Shawna A. Legarza, Psy.D. in improving forest conditions across the (Pinchot 1899). That was well before Former Director, Fire Nation. Several articles explore fire-related the Nation’s forest reserves were and Aviation Management issues in Alabama and Missouri, with transferred to USDA in 1905 to become USDA Forest Service useful findings for fire managers across the National Forest System. The Bureau many Southern and Eastern States. of Forestry—the Forest Service’s Management. The Forest Service’s predecessor organization in USDA, land management and wildland All articles in this issue reflect the headed by Pinchot—had a vigorous fire management have always been spirit of “Science you can use,” the research program devoted to forestry interdependent with our Research slogan of Forest Service Research and and conservation, and Pinchot himself and Development mission area. It’s a Development. Researchers and fire was a contributor. longstanding relationship and a classic managers have long been strengthening case of interdependence as a core value their ties. Increasingly, they are designing So it is no surprise that Forest Service for the Forest Service. projects together, achieving outcomes Research and Development is so deeply together, and opening new opportunities ingrained in the mission of the Forest In this issue of Fire Management Today, for collaborative projects in both fire Service—and so intertwined with you can see that interdependence research and wildland fire management. our programs for Fire and Aviation in various ways. Wind and weather effects have long complicated wildland In the spirit of “Science you can use,” fire management, and you can read I am pleased and proud to present the Prescribed fire is about the implications for both fire developments in wildland fire science behavior and smoke dispersion of contained in this issue. of tremendous and atmospheric turbulence in wildland growing importance fire environments. New techniques LITERATURE CITED for the Forest Service for sampling fuel loadings will help Pinchot, G. 1899 [reprinted 1999]. The relation fire managers anticipate fire behavior of forests and forest fires. Forest History in improving forest Today. Spring: 29–32. and severity. Another article explores conditions across the implications for wildland fire ■ the Nation. management of forest dieoff in the West due to bark beetle epidemics. Fire Management Today 4 JANUARY 2021 • VOL. 79 • NO. 1 conducted countless fuel loading inventories using only three to five transects, all less than 30 meters (100 feet) long. We knew there were problems with planar intersect sampling: The Photoload z It concerns only down dead woody fuels; z It is difficult to repeat across samplers; z It can’t easily be meshed with other fixed-area plot sampling Technique procedures; and z It doesn’t provide a visual reference for loading in the field (so you need to for Sampling convert intersects to loading later on, after leaving the field). But we didn’t know that the planar intersect technique failed to capture the Surface Fuel variability of fuel loadings across the appropriate spatial scales (Keane and Loadings others 2012). ARE THERE ALTERNATIVES? Robert E. Keane, Heather Heward, and Chris Stalling The high sampling intensity demanded by planar intersect sampling, coupled with its other shortcomings, certainly ow many miles of Brown’s enormous number of transects— begs the question: Are there viable (1971) transects have you done corresponding to long transect lengths— alternatives to this “tried-and-true” in your lifetime? Collectively, for a realistic estimate of fuel variability.