5th International Fire Behavior and Fuels Conference Portland, Oregon April 11-14, 2016 Oral Presentation Abstracts 1. Is It Time To Say Goodbye to Fire Rotations? Cecil Frost, Landscape Fire Ecologist, University of North Carolina Abstract: The idea of fire rotations goes back to widespread dawning, in the 1960s, of the realization that we had to get fire back into the woods. This was a part of a ponderous midstream turnaround that began with a few small voices such as H.H. Chapman, speaking against the unresistable tide of fire suppression of the early 20th century. Movement in the new direction toward restoration of fire gained way with early publications in the Proceedings of the Tall Timbers Fire Ecology Conferences from 1960- 1966. The idea of fire rotations at its simplest was to take a natural area, say a 500,000 acre national forest, and if you had the resources to burn 5000 acres a year, start in one place, burn the next 5000 acres the next year and so on until you had reached the beginning. 500,000/5000 = 100 years to complete one rotation. This, we now can see, is a long term recipe for disaster. What we see from the most recent iterations of LANDFIRE—from Florida, through the central grasslands to the Palouse prairie of eastern Oregon and Washington—is that most of the U.S. was a non-seral landscape, naturally stabilized by frequent fire—the more frequent, the more stable. Within this fire system, recent maps show that local fire frequency at fine scales was far more complex than previously perceived. Fire frequency depends upon landscape and the natural variation in terrain in most U.S. landscapes creates hotspots and fire sheltered spots, each with its suite of fire dependent or fire refugial species. Subjecting naturally complex areas to fire rotations means eliminating all of the most fire related species and conversion to low diversity, fire refugial vegetation—the fire-excluded thickets seen all across the continent today. The alternative to fire rotations is knowledge-based focused burning. The critical needs of fire dependent species and communities (and there are more than we ever thought) demand that we burn the habitats they need, as often as they need, and leave the rest to wildfires. Keywords: Fire rotations, Focused Fire, Prescribed Fire Presenter Bio: Cecil Frost is a landscape fire ecologist with a specialty in mapping Pre-European fire regimes of the U.S. 2. Restoration of xeric oak forests in south-central United State with prescribed fire Stephen Hallgren, Assoc. Prof. Forest Ecology, Oklahoma State University Abstract: Xeric oak forests of south-central United States were regularly burned by Native Americans over thousands of years prior to Euro-American settlement. Fire suppression beginning in the mid- Twentieth Century led to increased stand density and encroachment of fire-intolerant mesophytic species. Prescribed fire has recently been rediscovered as a tool for managing these forests for biological diversity, fuel management, wildlife habitat and municipal watershed protection. Research was conducted to determine effects of long-term prescribed burning on stand composition and structure, litter decomposition, coarse woody debris, and soil nitrogen and carbon. Prescribed burning had little effect on dominant oak species and strongly reduced fire-intolerant woody species. Herbaceous vegetation showed large increases with increasing frequency of burning. Prescribed burning did not appear to strongly affect litter decomposition, perhaps because decomposition was relatively rapid in the humid subtropical climate. Likewise coarse woody debris did not show strong effects of prescribed burning even at high burn frequencies. Soil nitrogen and carbon showed only minor effects of prescribed burning. Burn frequencies similar to those used by Native Americans of one to two burns per decade produced dramatic reductions in understory woody vegetation and increases in herbaceous vegetation without strong impacts on soils. Keywords: post oak, blackjack oak, decomposition, soil carbon Presenter Bio: Steve Hallgren teaches and researches fire ecology of forest ecosystems at Oklahoma State University. In addition, he is the OSU Fulbright Program Adviser. 5th International Fire Behavior and Fuels Conference Portland, Oregon April 11-14, 2016 Oral Presentation Abstracts 3. Post-fire tree mortality model assessment following prescribed burning treatments in National Park units of the western U.S. Jeffrey Kane, Assistant Professor, Humboldt State University Additional Authors: Phil van Mantgem, Research Ecologist, United States Geological Survey Laura Lalemand, Research Technician, United States Geological Survey Abstract: A common way to assess the effectiveness of prescribed fires is through monitoring tree mortality. Managers require accurate models to predict tree mortality to maximize the effectiveness and benefits of prescribed burns. Here we assessed the performance of a commonly used post-fire tree mortality model with a geographically robust monitoring dataset of 18 tree species (12 gymnosperms, 4 angiosperms) from 16 National Park Service units in the western U.S. Model performance was generally strong with mortality predictions for 12 of the 18 species within 20% of the observed values, however, correctly classified dead trees ranged between -5 and 43%. Variation in model accuracy among species across all sites was not related to sample size (r2 < 0.08, p > 0.24), bark thickness (r2 < 0.17, p > 0.09), or percent observed mortality (r2 < 0.09, p > 0.22). Although we did find a significant relationship between bark thickness and the percentage of correctly classified live trees, where thicker bark species had more live trees correctly classified (r2 = 0.62, P = 0.0001). These results indicate that the commonly used post-fire mortality model generally performs well; however, thinned barked species and angiosperm tree species would benefit from future studies that provided model improvements. Keywords: fire ecology, fire effects, modeling, model validation, prescribed fire, tree mortality Presenter Bio: Jeff is an Assistant Professor of Fire Ecology and Fuels Management at Humboldt State University. He is also the Director of the HSU Wildland Fire Lab where he conducts research on the effects of prescribed fire and wildfire on improving forest health and biodiversity. 4. 2015 National Prescribed Fire Use Survey Pete Lahm, Air Resource Specialist, USFS Additional Authors: Mark Melvin, Conservation Management/Education Technician, Jones Ecological Research Center Abstract: In 2012 the Coalition of Prescribed Fire Councils (CPFC) and the National Association of State Foresters (NASF) partnered to produce the first-ever report that investigated national prescribed fire activity. Understanding how much and where prescribed fire occurs is important to the entire fire community; and the report has been used as an informative tool to help guide decision making, research, and policy by wildland fire agencies, prescribed fire councils, academia, and air quality agencies. In an effort to garner and maintain the most current data, the NASF and CPFC have partnered once again to produce a sister 2015 report. This 2015 survey is a national evaluation focusing on the scale of prescribed fire use, state-level supporting programs, and factors that limit more use of prescribed fire. It is based on 2014 prescribed fire activity (agricultural, rangeland and forestry burning) and utilizes the 2012 report as a comparison to illustrate and describe areas of stabilization and trends. This report uses the best information available from state forestry agencies, and 100% participation from states was achieved. The report is intended to inform the fire community by identifying challenges at a national scale, as well as defining key regional and state differences and similarities. Keywords: Prescribed Fire Use, National Presenter Bio: Air Resource Specialist for USDA Forest Service, Fire and Aviation Management Program in the Washington Office. Chair of the NWCG Smoke Committee and Forest Service Liaison to the Coalition of Prescribed Fire Councils. Smoke watcher for 25 years. 5th International Fire Behavior and Fuels Conference Portland, Oregon April 11-14, 2016 Oral Presentation Abstracts 5. The Smoke-wise Community and the Path to More Fire Peter Lahm, Air Resource Specialist, USDA-Forest Service Abstract: As we collectively strive to create more fire-adapted communities and restore fire dependent ecosystems, there is a need to progressively address the challenge of fire effects and specifically smoke. This is a challenge that many see as the key obstacle to more use of prescribed fire and use of some wildfire. The immutable reality is that smoke negatively affects many in this country who have respiratory issues, in fact one in three households has someone with these issues. So as we continue in the important path of recognizing the role of fire in our landscapes with Firewise Communities and Community Wildfire Protection Plans, the time has come to address smoke in a more earnest manner. The EPA has signaled a clear recognition of the role of fire in ecosystems and prescribed fire as an important tool to combat catastrophic wildfire in many recent rules. Efforts are underway to warn the public of hazardous air quality down-wind of significant wildfires with the Wildland Fire Air Quality Response Program. Air quality matters to the American public and where there is fire there is always smoke. Smoke which will affect more people directly and potentially just as fatally as a raging wildfire. The time has come to understand our preparation as a fire community to address smoke as part of wildland fire. Not only is this challenge for those in the public who are sensitive, but also anyone who cares about their health including firefighters. How the fire and land management communities address smoke will have a substantial impact on the outcome of our collective cohesive strategy for restoring fire-adapted ecosystems. Preparation of Smoke-wise Communities will be needed for the efforts to succeed, not only for air quality impacts from wildfire but to maintain and increase the use of prescribed fire.