Equipping Tomorrow’s Fire Managers

Fire managers are challenged with an ever-increasing array of both responsibilities and critics. As in the past, fire managers must master the elements of fire behavior and ecology using the latest technologies. In addition, today’s managers must be equipped with the skills necessary to understand and liaise with a burgeoning group of vocal stakeholders while also facing the complications of a changing landscape, particularly an increasing wildland-urban interface. These challenges have been embraced in the Fire and Fuels Management program of study at Cal Poly State University, San Luis Obispo. There, classes are offered in fire suppression, ecology, and management. Other required courses address the historical role of fire in society and its subsequent effects on current policies, the evolution of fire technologies, and the management of the wildland-urban interface. Throughout their tenure in the program, students are perpetually immersed in an atmosphere in which they must develop innovative and realistic solutions to real-world problems. This “learn by doing” philosophy is fostered by course assignments, a mandatory internship and senior project, and in various research opportunities. This paper discusses the successes and lessons learned at Cal Poly and examines the future of equipping tomorrow’s fire managers

Management Strategies in the Wildland-urban Interface of Southern California and Their Effect on Fire Behavior and Environmental Impacts

This paper discusses varying management strategies in wildland-urban interface communities of southern California in terms of their effects on potential fire behavior and residual environmental impacts. A century of fire exclusion policies there and throughout the United States has led to immense fuel loading and declining ecosystem health, which coupled with a burgeoning population relocating to wildland areas, has annually heightened the threat of devastating wildfires. Successful management strategies must consider elements of suppression needs, community education, construction and development standards, and vegetation manipulation, each of which will vary dependant on the ecosystem and socioeconomic conditions of the area considered. Fire and fuels management in the wildland-urban interface is a complex array of biophysical and sociopolitical factors. Regularly, the fire suppression community seeks to largely eliminate fuels in interface communities with minimal regard to the environmental benefits that vegetation provides such as carbon sequestration, stormwater absorption, energy conservation, wildlife habitat, and others. Thus, to best insure sustainable communities in the wildland-urban interface, stakeholders from a diversity of disciplines and worldviews must collaborate to develop a management plan for a given area that minimizes fire risk while simultaneously maximizing the benefits that distinct vegetation communities provide. It is hoped that the successes and lessons learned in California can be applied to other similar regions of the world

The Relationship of Biomass Allocation and Nutrient Dynamics in Loblolly and Slash Pine Forests.

Aboveground biomass allocation and its effect on various aspects of N and P dynamics were investigated in loblolly pine (Pinus taeda L.) and slash pine (Pinus elliottii Engelm.) stands planted at different spacings. Further, the relationship of nutrient demand and root production was investigated to validate the functional balance hypothesis in forest stands. N mineralization was greater in loblolly pine stands than slash pine, corresponding with greater needle litter N concentration. Both N and P mineralization increased in loblolly pine stands with increasing stand density, the result of greater nutrient input through increased litterfall. There were no species differences in total standing N at wider spacings, but slash pine had greater standing N at narrower spacings. There were no species differences in total standing P at any spacing. With increasing stand density in loblolly pine, total N and P increased then decreased. The majority of standing N and P was located in the crown. Loblolly pine had more standing N and P in the crown than slash pine. With increasing stand density, the fraction of total standing biomass, N, and P in the crown decreased. There were no species differences in apparent N and P demand (total N and P in annual aboveground production minus retranslocation). Apparent N and P demand in loblolly pine stands increased with stand density then decreased. Retranslocation minimized variation in apparent N and P demand between species and densities. Conflicting with apparent N and P demand, actual N and P uptake were greater in loblolly pine, and actual N uptake was positively and linearly related to stand density. Fine root production did not differ between species. The proportion of total net primary production allocated to fine roots was lower than reported in other studies and may be related to a drought that forced roots below the maximum sampling depth. For loblolly pine, stand density appears to have influenced annual aboveground biomass allocation and subsequent N demand and uptake which was positively and linearly related to fine root production, thus supporting the functional balance hypothesis. However, there was no evidence for the functional balance hypothesis in slash pine

Tree-Soil Interactions Affect Production of Loblolly and Slash Pine

Species-related differences in needle litter nutrient concentrations and subsequent N mineralization were examined in 17-year-old stands of loblolly pine (Pinus taeda L.) and slash pine (Pinus elliottii Engelm.) at a common site. Results of this common-garden study indicate that a feedback may exist between foliar litter nutrient concentration and soil N mineralization. Net N mineralization (to 30 cm) was significantly greater in loblolly pine than in slash pine stands, which was attributed to greater litter nutrient concentrations in loblolly pine. Stand volume production was also greater in loblolly pine than in slash pine and was positively correlated with N mineralization. Although lower litter nutrient concentrations may have reduced productivity of slash pine relative to loblolly pine in this study, they may serve as a mechanism to increase the relative fitness of the species by lowering the soil nutrient availability below the optimum of loblolly pine

The Impact of California\u27s Changing Environmental Regulations on Timber Harvest Planning Costs

The primary purpose of this study is to establish basic and supportable information on the impact of environmental regulations on California’s forest products industry. More specifically, the study focused on the effects of changing forest practice regulations on timber harvest planning and preparation costs. A survey of wood-processing and forestry consulting firms was conducted in the Summer and early Fall, 2004 seeking data on Timber Harvest Plan (THP) preparation costs, a major component of the transactions cost in California’s timber market. Despite the short data collection period, 607 sample observations were obtained. Analysis of the sample data clearly indicate significant cost increases resulting from ever-intensifying forest practice regulations, especially as a result of rule amendments in the early 1990s. Over the 30-year span, THP costs increased at a compound annual rate of about 4%, above inflation. Around 1993, there was a dramatic increase in these costs as THP costs, increasing nearly 60% within one or two years. As a result, a typical THP costs around $30,000 to prepare today, whereas 30 years ago it cost less than$2,500 (in today’s dollars). But these increases only reflect harvest planning costs under routine conditions. California’s Forest Practices Act can force considerable alteration of logging operations, increasing logging costs which in turn reduce economic rents (a.k.a. “stumpage”) to timberland owners. Thus, California timberland owners are “squeezed” on both cost and revenue sides. Landowners facing uncompetitive returns from managing their lands for wildland resource values, like timber, are increasingly inclined to sell their land for higher returns. In California this frequently means conversion to housing, a far more environmentally degrading land use. In other words, California’s increasingly strict environmental regulations of forestland are, in many cases, having precisely the opposite effect from that which was intended. Well-publicized urban sprawl and urban migration to historically rural areas is evidence of this effect

Reduction of Potential Fire Behavior in Wildland-urban Interface Communities in Southern California: A Collaborative Approach

This manuscript details a collaborative effort that reduced the risk of wildfire in an affluent, wildland-urban interface community in southern California while simultaneously minimizing the environmental impact to the site. FARSITE simulations illustrated the potential threat to the community of Rancho Santa Fe in San Diego County, California, where multimillion-dollar homes were located immediately above a designated open space area that consisted primarily of 60-year-old, decadent chaparral. Post-treatment fire behavior simulations demonstrated the potential ability to moderate fire behavior. Results of the fire behavior modeling led to a recognition for the need for fuels treatments by both homeowners and regulatory agencies that were originally adverse to any type of treatment. Through a collaborative process, these diverse stakeholders worked to create and maintain an effective fuel treatment that was cost effective and environmentally sound. This shared approach by fire personnel, homeowners, and regulatory agencies in Rancho Santa Fe is a success story that could be a template for interface communities throughout southern California