Research Support for Crisis Strategy Prescribed Burns

The Forest Service’s Crisis Strategy aims to expand fuel reduction efforts over the next decade. One of the 10 initial targeted landscapes is the Central Washington Initiative (CWI) comprising 124,000 acres belonging to a variety of federal, tribal, state, and private owners.. At least part of this will involve prescribed fire.

The USFS AirFire Team, University of Washington, Okanogan-Wenatchee National Forest, and Washington State Department of Natural Resources worked together to identify weather-related challenges to implementing the CWI. Understanding the weather tools available, how they apply to smoke dispersion and fire behavior, and how the weather will affect various aspects of the prescribed burns are necessary to avoid undesired consequences. Of these concerns, the most directly limiting on ability to accomplish acres is the potential smoke impacts.

The team developed tools and analyses to allow higher confidence that prescribed fires in the CWI would succeed in minimizing smoke impacts on communities in the region, while successfully reducing fuel. This poster describes the custom tools land managers requested or found most helpful. We will discuss how those were chosen, developed, and used, and early lessons learned from the partnership.