Frog Fire Salvage -...
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Fuels Report Frog Fire Salvage
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Frog Fire Salvage
Fuels Report
Prepared by:
Don H. Glenn
Zone Fuels Specialist
For:
Big Valley Ranger District
Modoc National Forest
03/15/2016
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Introduction This report summarizes fuels conditions within the affected project area and the effects of
implementing each alternative within the Frog Fire Salvage. The Frog Fire was started by
lightning on July 30, 2015, and burned a total of 4872 acres before being controlled on October
28, 2015.
Proposed Action See the Frog Fire Salvage EA for a full description of proposed actions.
Methodology for Analysis Data Collection
Data was collected in 30 random plots spread throughout the proposed salvage units. 1/10 acre
plots were established and tree less than 15 inch DBH were measured for height and diameters.
Analysis
Collected data was entered into FS Cruiser V2. Processed data was used to determine future fuel
loadings from standing dead trees less than 15 inch DBH.
Existing Condition
Fire History and Historical Fires Eastside pine ecosystems are adapted to frequent low intensity fire. Due to the start of fires
suppression around the turn of the century, these ecosystems have missed several rotations of
low intensity fire.
The project and surrounding area has experienced fire caused by human and lightning activity,
with the majority of the fire starts originating from lightning. Fire history (Table 1) for the
project area shows that the majority of the fires are less than 10 acres in size, with approximately
2,636 total acres burned (Figure 1) within the footprint of the Frog Fire since 1910.
Table 1. Historical Fires Recorded in the Vicinity of the Frog Project Area.
Decade Number of fires
<10 acres
Large Fires >10 acres
Prior to 1970 38 1910 Glass Mtn. 99501 ac.
1920 Unnamed 304 ac.
1970-1979 8 1977 Scarface 78167 ac.
1980-1989 5 1987 Quaking 4811 ac.
1990-1999 10
2000-2009 5
2010-2015 1
Source: 2015 Modoc National Forest Fire Records.
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Figure 1. Fire History 1910-Present
Current and Future Condition
Trees that were killed by the Frog Fire pose a hazard to the public and forest workers that are
traveling and working in these areas. As snags deteriorate over time, they become less stable and
increase the safety risk to all forest users (Ritchie et al. 2013).
The Frog Fire resulted in a reduction to near total elimination of surface and small understory
(ladder) fuels (Figure 2). In the short-term, this change in fuel loading and composition is
expected to reduce wildfire intensities. However, as the standing dead trees decay and fall to the
ground, these areas would become occupied by high snag densities and a complex arrangement
of fallen trees, broken tops, and branches intermixed and suspended within an increasingly heavy
shrub component. In the longer-term, these conditions would result in a heavily increased surface
fuel loading. Data showed 23 tons per acre are expected from snags 15 inch and less that are left
standing. Over time, these snags would fall, providing future surface fuels.
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Figure 2. Fire severity within the Frog Fire
Studies have shown there is a strong positive relationship between initial fire severity and
severity of a subsequent reburn (e.g. Holden et al. 2010; Thompson and Spies 2010; Van
Wagtendonk et. al. 2012; Parks et al. 2014). The two principal mechanisms identified as being
strongly tied to fire severity in the initial fires and the reburn were snag basal area and shrub
cover. Results suggest that high to moderate severity fire in an initial fire can lead to an increase
in standing snags and shrub vegetation, which in combination with severe fire weather, can
promote high severity fire in the subsequent reburn of an area. Areas that initially burned at
higher severities tended to reburn at higher severities, whereas areas that initially burned at lower
severities tended to reburn at lower severities. Studies have shown that fuels can recover to their
pre-burn levels in 9 to 15 years (Van Wagtendonk and Sydoriak 1987; Thompson and Spies
2009; Van Wagtendonk and Moore 2010). The window of low reburn potential can close
relatively quickly (5 to 10 years) as vegetation regenerates and litter accumulates on the surface
(Donato et al. 2013).
In areas of uncharacteristically large patches of high- and moderate-intensity burn, the fuel
loading is a long-term concern. Typically 8 to 20 years following a fire, standing dead trees fall
to the ground and become down woody material, known as coarse woody debris (CWD). CWD
is typically defined as dead standing and downed pieces larger than three inches in diameter,
which corresponds to the size class that defines large woody debris.
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Studies have shown that the initial pulse of elevated surface fuels in logged stands is relatively
short-lived, as deposition and accumulation of surface fuels from decaying snags causes surface
fuel loadings in unlogged stands to exceed those in logged stands within 5 to 10 years after
wildfire (Monsanto and Agee, 2008; Keyser et al., 2009; Ritchie et al. 2013; Peterson et al.
2015).
Desired Condition
The goals of the salvage harvest and fuel treatments are to reduce the density of standing dead
trees to help reduce future surface fuels, so that another wildland fire burning under 90th
percentile weather conditions would produce on average a flame length of four feet or less and
fireline intensities and fire severity would be reduced. The desired fuel conditions would reduce
the chance of a “reburn”. Reburn results when fall down of the old burned forest contributes
heavily to the fire behavior and fire effects of the next fire (Brown et al. 2003).
The desired fuels conditions within the project area include a reduction of the surface fuels in
order to reduce the predicted flame lengths, fire intensities, resistance-to-control, probability of
future crown fire initiation and spread, and predicted mortality within the stands. Fuels
management can include reducing the loading of available fuels, lowering fuel flammability, or
isolating or breaking up large continuous bodies of fuels (DeBano et al. 1998). Studies have
shown that post-fire harvest can reduce future surface woody fuel levels and the threat of high-
severity fire in forests regenerating following wildfires (Ritchie et al. 2013, Peterson et al. 2015).
For these reasons, the comparison of alternatives in this analysis focuses on the reduction of
surface fuels and resistance-to-control.
Environmental Effects
Alternative 1 – No Action Under Alternative 1, no salvage would be implemented and no fuels treatments would occur.
Direct, Indirect, and Cumulative Effects to Safety
Trees that were killed by the Frog Fire pose a hazard to the public and forest workers that are
traveling and working in these areas. As snags age over time, they become less stable and
increase the safety risk to all forest users. In the event of a wildfire this limited access to areas
would slow firefighter access for direct attack suppression methods. Hazard trees/snags are a
major safety issue for firefighters. In recent years there have been several fatalities associated
with hazard trees/snags.
• On August 12, 2012 firefighter Anne Veseth was killed when a hazard tree fell and hit
another hazard tree as she tried to get out of the way of the first tree (Steep Corner Fire
Fatality).
• In June 10, 2013 smoke jumper Luke Sheehy was killed on the Modoc N.F. when the
top of a hazard tree fell and hit him as the group of jumpers were constructing fire line
(Saddleback Fire Learning Review).
• In 2013, Deschutes National Forest, two contractors hit by falling snags, one injury and
one fatality.
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If the hazard tress/snags are not removed, for safety, firefighters would have to work 2.5 tree
lengths from any burning snag. This could lead to an increase in fire size and the numbers of
resources need to manage the fire. Firefighter safety would not be improved due to the amount of
standing snags still remaining throughout the project area.
Cumulative Effects of the No Action Alternative on Wildfire Management Ability and the
Risk of a High-Severity Fire Occurrence
No known past management actions are considered relevant to this project.
With no fuel reduction treatments, fuels would continue to build and contribute to increased
impacts from wildfires and contribute to reducing the effectiveness of fire management efforts.
Wildfires would continue to be managed in order to protect resources and property. If fire
suppression continues to be successful, the no-action alternative would allow for vegetation to
continue to grow denser and increase the risk for high intensity wildfires. Costs associated with
fire management activities will continue to increase. There would be no reasonably foreseeable
vegetation and fuels activities that would occur within the project area.
Direct Effects and Indirect Effects of the No Action Alternative on Air Quality
There would be no quantifiable direct effects to air quality from the No Action alternative, since
no prescribed burning would occur. If a wildfire should burn the site in the future, air quality
impacts from smoke could affect the area for several days or more, depending on the size and
intensity of the fire. Wildfire would most likely occur during the summer months when visitor
and recreation use in the area is the highest.
Cumulative Effects of the No Action Alternative on Air Quality
There are no anticipated cumulative effects to air quality as a result of other actions combining
with the No Action Alternative.
Alternative 2 - Proposed Action On acres identified for machine piling or removal within the high severity fire areas, piling
would include standing trees 15 inch DBH or less and any other dead and down material on the
ground. These areas would be treated and all burning would be take place on permissive burn
days. Machine and landing pile burning would take place in the fall.
Depending on weather conditions and timing of other projects, it could take between three to five
years to treat these areas following the completion of salvage harvest.
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Direct and Indirect Effects
The direct effect of salvage harvest and area fuel treatments would be a reduction of snags on the
landscape. Treatments in Alternative 2 would help remove future surface fuels, which would
reduce the vertical arrangement and horizontal continuity of the surface fuels (Peterson et al.
2005, Graham et al. 2004). Post-fire logging would remove a substantial portion of the large
woody fuels that would contribute to a future complex arrangement of dead and live surface
fuels. Whole-tree yarding would be used, during salvage operations, to reduce the creation of
slash generated by harvest activity. Removal of limbs and tops by such methods would greatly
reduce activity-generated surface fuels (Agee and Skinner 2005).
In the long term, within the proposed treatment areas, fire behavior and fire severity would be
expected to be lower due to the decrease in coarse woody debris compared to no treatment.
Salvage harvest would remove the larger diameter merchantable material from the site. Machine
piling and pile burning would treat the smaller diameter material and material that may be treated
in the salvage treatment. During the felling and removal process, it is anticipated that there
would be higher than normal breakage typically associated with timber felling. This compacted
material would have minimal effect on fire behavior and resistance-to-control. Fuels on the forest
floor would consist of small diameter material and scattered larger logs.
Reducing the surface fuel loading would decrease the potential for reburn and fire severity would
be decreased, which would reduce the damaging effects to soils. In the areas proposed for
reforestation, this effect would decrease over time. As the vegetation matures, fuel loadings
would eventually increase. Out-year fire effects are expected to be dominated by young shrubs,
small trees and conifers reoccupying these sites.
Within the treated units, the reduction of course woody debris (CWD) through salvage harvest
and treatment of non-merchantable fire killed material would lower fire intensities, fire effects
(Peterson et al. 2009), and provide advantageous areas for fire suppression actions (Fites et al.
2007). The reduction in snags would result in reduced spotting that is associated with snags when
they burn. Resistance-to-control would be reduced and suppression forces would not be hindered
by the high density of snags or CWD and could enter these areas and take appropriate actions to
manage wildfires.
Alternative 2 would result in relatively lower surface fuel loads, lowering potential flame,
fireline intensities, resistance-to-control, and potential mortality within the timbered areas. While
there is still potential for future mortality in treated areas, it would remain lower than that of
Alternative 1 for wildfires occurring under 90th percentile weather conditions.
Direct and Indirect Effects to Safety
Worker safety would be increased within the treatment areas, due to the reduction of standing
snags and overhead hazards.
Alterative 2 moderates the fire hazard by treating potential surface fuels created by the Frog fire.
Flame lengths and fireline intensities would be reduced within the treatment areas. Resistance-to-
control would be improved; the reduction of snags and large down materials reduces sources of
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combustion, ember production and spotting receptors. If the hazard trees/snags are not removed,
for safety, firefighters would have to work 2.5 tree lengths from any burning snag.
This would lead to an increase in fire size and the numbers of resources needed to manage the
fire.
Direct and Indirect Effects to Reburn Potential and Resistance to manage fire
Initially the fire risk is low throughout the project as there is not a fuel bed to carry fire through
the area. Brush and herbaceous cover is expected to quickly recolonize the site. Over time the
combination of this vegetation and the planted trees would create this fuel bed, making fire
management efforts very difficult.
Timbered stands with no prior treatment and wildlife retention islands not treated under
Alternative 2 would develop into a fuel model (FM) 12 once the snags begin to fall. Fires in
these conditions would be high intensity. Flame lengths would preclude the use of direct attack
by either handcrews or equipment. Fireline construction rates would be slower allowing the fire
to become larger and harder to control. Fires may present serious control problems such as
torching, crowning, and spotting.
Direct and Indirect Effects of the Proposed Action on Air Quality
Proposed prescribed pile burning would emit smoke in and around the planning area. Directly,
this would raise short-term local air particulate matter levels. Indirectly, smoke emissions could
cause harmful health effects and reduce visibility in communities and along roads. An approved
burn plan and its associated smoke management plan would mitigate against adverse smoke
effects. These plans would not allow burning in conditions that would cause high smoke impacts
to special areas of concern, including the Lava Beds National Park. The smoke management plan
would also ensure that prescribed burning emissions do not exceed state and county air quality
regulations.
Cumulative Effects of the Proposed Action on Air Quality
The effects of prescribed burning emissions are short in duration. Because of this, there should
be no overlap of prescribed burning air-quality impacts with impacts of other past, present, and
reasonably foreseeable future actions.
Monitoring
Photo monitoring would be used pre and post treatment to ensure objectives of pile burning and
other fuels treatments are met. Monitoring as required in the Prescribed Fire Burn Plan would
also take place during implementation of burning. The monitoring would include measurements
and estimates of temperature, humidity and smoke dispersal.
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Forest Plan and Other Regulatory Direction
This proposal would improve fire suppression ability and decrease severe fire potential by
modifying fuel conditions that currently have the potential to support a high-intensity crown fire.
This would reduce the risk posed to firefighters, the public, local communities, and ecosystem
sustainability. Activities within the Modoc National Forest are guided by the Forest Land and
Resource Management Plan (Forest Plan) as amended. In January 2004, the Sierra Nevada
Forest Plan Amendment (SNFPA) Record of Decision (ROD) was signed “to reduce the risk of
wildfire to communities in the urban –wildland interface while modifying fire behavior over the
broader landscape” (Sierra Nevada Forest Plan Amendment – Final Supplemental Environmental
Impact Statement, Record of Decision, January 21, 2004). Standards and guidelines within the
SNFPA direct fuels treatments across the landscape to interrupt fire spread and achieve
conditions that reduce the size and severity of wildfires, and result in stand densities that
maintain forest health during drought conditions. Additionally, the standards and guidelines
identified are intended to retain important components of habitat that are believed to be
important to species associated with old forests, including large trees, structural diversity and
complexity, and moderate to high canopy cover” (SNFPA, ROD Appendix A, Management
Standards and Guidelines, pp 49 – 66) maintain old forest characteristics, apply treatments to
accelerate development of key habitat and old forest characteristics, minimize old forest habitat
fragmentation,
Amended direction also includes the Record of Decision for Amendments to Forest Service and
Bureau of Land Management Planning Documents Within the Range of the Northern Spotted
Owl and Standards and Guidelines for Management of Habitat for Late-Successional and Old-
Growth Forest Related Species Within the Range of the Northern Spotted Owl (“Northwest
Forest Plan” or “NWFP”) (USDA and USDI 1994). This decision documented the need for a
healthy forest ecosystem that will support native species associated with late-successional and
old growth forests. The ROD also identifies a need for forest products from forest ecosystems
that will help maintain the stability of local and regional economies.
The National Fire Plan
The Clinton Administration and Congress developed the National Fire Plan in response to the
devastating 2000 fire season. From this, governmental and non-governmental stakeholders
collaborated to develop a 10-year comprehensive strategy to reduce the risk of wildfires to
communities and the environment (see U.S. Secretary of Agriculture et al. 2001). Improving fire
prevention and suppression and reducing hazardous fuels are included in the key goals of this
strategy. Among others, the strategy identifies the following actions to be taken:
Reduce the incidence of injury to life and property resulting from catastrophic wildland
fires.
Reduce the total number of acres at risk to severe wildland fire.
Ensure communities most at risk in the wildland-urban interface receive priority for
hazardous fuels treatment.
Expand and improve integration of the hazardous fuels management program to reduce
severe wildland fires to protect communities and the environment.
Develop strategies to address fire-prone ecosystem problems that augment fire risk or
threaten sustainability of these areas.
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Federal Wildland Fire Management Policy
In 1995 the National Fire & Aviation Executive Board Policy Directives Task Group released the
Federal Wildland Fire Management Policy and Program review (see National Fire and Aviation
Executive Board Policy Directives Task Group 1995). This document served to ensure that
Federal policies are uniform and programs are cooperative and cohesive. In 2001, the 1995
policy was replaced by the Review and Update of the 1995 Federal Wildland Fire Management
Policy (see Interagency Federal Wildland Fire Policy Review Working Group 2001). In 2003 the
Wildland Fire Leadership Council approved the Interagency Strategy for the Implementation of
Federal Wildland Fire Management Policy (see US DOI and USDA FS 2003). The 1995 policy,
the 2001 update, and the 2003 implementation strategy explicitly provide for treating lands with
hazardous fuels to ensure public and firefighter safety and ecosystem sustainability.
Forest Plan
The Modoc National Forest Land and Resource Management Plan (see USDA FS 1991)
identifies hazardous fuels management among its Forest Program Goals and Standards and
Guidelines:
Protect national forest resources commensurate with values, hazards, risks, and
management objectives
Treat fuels commensurate with hazards, risks, economics, values, and losses which
could be sustained in the project area. Manage fuels to prevent fire and to complement
other resource management direction.
Use fire as a management tool
Use treatments, such as prescribed fire and fuel utilization, on natural fuels of high risk
to reduce wildfire hazard.
Fire Management
The Modoc N.F. Fire Management Plan identifies the following goals;
Response to wildfire protects human and forest resources commensurate with values,
hazards, risks, and management objectives (Modoc LRMP 1991, pg. 4-2).
Fire and Fuels Management reduces threats to communities and wildlife habitat from
large, severe wildfires and re-introducing fire into fire-adapted ecosystems (SNFPA
2004, pg. 34).
Wildland fires are suppressed at minimum cost, considering firefighter and public safety,
benefits, and values to be protected, consistent with resource objectives (Guidance for
Implementation of Federal Wildland Fire Management Policy - 2009).
Additional goals cited in the Forest Plan as amended include:
Treating fuels in a manner that significantly reduces wildland fire intensity and rate of
spread, thereby contributing to more effective fire suppression and fewer acres burned
(SNFPA 2004, pg. 34).
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Treating hazardous fuels in a cost-efficient manner to maximize program effectiveness
(SNFPA 2004, pg. 34).
Actively restoring fire-adapted ecosystems by making demonstrated progress in moving
acres out of unnaturally dense conditions (SNFPA 2004, pg. 34).
Use fire as a management tool (Modoc LRMP 1991, pg. 4-2).
Cohesive Fuels Treatment Strategy
The intent of the U.S. Department of the Interior and USDA Forest Service’s 2006 Cohesive
Fuels Treatment Strategy is to, “…lessen risks from catastrophic wildfires by reducing fuels
build-up in forests and woodlands…” (See US DOI and USDA FS 2006). The strategy’s first
principle – fuels treatment prioritization –emphasizes that fuels treatment priority be given to 1)
areas within the wildland urban interface (WUI) and 2) places outside the WUI that are of value
to local communities and the risk of catastrophic fire is high.
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