Curriculum

It all starts with the soil. In fact, 2015 has been dubbed the International Year of Soil. In that spirit, throughout this year we will make a special effort to pass along grassland soil science relevant to the fire community.

The Journal of Ecology has a special virtual issue focused on below ground interactions. This issue contains several papers related to grasslands that might spark your interest.

www.journalofecology.org/view/0/VI_Soil.html 

This report looks at the economic and social impacts of fuels treatments in an effort to answer persistent questions asked by Congress as they consider funding levels. Although this report is focused on woodlands, especially in the Southwest, I think the implications are important for the whole fire community. The sections on the wildland urban interface (where the natural areas meet the cities) are particularly important in the Great Plains.

Considerable prescribed fire research has been conducted on Ashe juniper (Juniperus ashei) and redberry juniper (J. pinchotii) communities in Texas. Prescribed fire is an effective, cost competitive method of controlling juniper. This paper outlines how to safely and efficiently conduct prescribed fires in juniper communities and discusses vegetation responses in the two major juniper types found in Texas.

In 1963, Omer C. Stewart, Professor of Anthropology at the University of Colorado, wrote an article about the use of fire by aboriginal peoples. This publication was not regarded with much importance when Stewart first presented it, but now his ideas are more respected within the fire community. Stewart focused on the value of learning about the ways indigenous peoples used fire as an ecological management tool. His article “Barriers to Understanding the Influence of Use of Fire by Aborigines on Vegetation” discusses the importance of taking time to learn from aboriginal people about their historical use of fire. In addition, Stewart addresses several reasons that historical information acquired from indigenous people is often disregarded in the realm of science.

In this article, Twidwell and others compared accident and fatality rates for wildland fire (wildfire and prescribed fire) to related occupations such as construction, animal production, crop production, and logging. Firefighters had the least fatalities from 2006-2013. Prescribed fire had far fewer fatal injuries than wildfire from 1963-2013. The authors caution that the datasets have limitations and really provide an approximation.

This report describes a new set of standard fire behavior fuel models for use with Rothermel’s surface fire spread model and the relationship of the new set to the original set of 13 fire behavior fuel models. To assist with transition to using the new fuel models, a fuel model selection guide, fuel model crosswalk, and set of fuel model photos are provided.

This handout was published in 2005, but it contains good information. Topics covered include history of fire use in Texas, fire ecology in different ecoregions, use of fire in wildlife management, several case studies, roles of fire management agencies, and increasing stakeholder involvement.

The recent increase of wildfires in the southern Great Plains has illustrated a need for development and application of fuels (vegetation) management techniques in the region. Fuels management is crucial to fire suppression and fire fighter safety, as the amount of fuel directly influences flame lengths. Flame lengths, in turn, are among the primary factors used to describe fire intensity, which has a direct impact on the ability to suppress wildfires.