2nd International Wildland Fire Ecology and Fire Management Congress

7B.2

Fire Ecology Assessment Tool—Monitoring Wildland Fire And Prescribed Fire for Adaptive Management

Timothy Ogden Sexton, National Park Service, Boise, ID

Prescribed fire has been recognized for years as an effective for tool managing wildlands. However, there are many resource managers who remain sceptical that fire is the appropriate tool for managing some ecosystems and especially some specific natural or cultural resources. Questions concerning burn seasonality, frequency, intensity, patch size, as well as prescription parameters such as live and dead moisture content, firing patterns, windspeed, temperature and others create conflict between advocates and opponents of fire use. Thousands of studies have been conducted to quantify the effects of fire but little has been done to comprehensively monitor fire effects and correlate these effects to the variables associated with burns. We describe a strategy that is reaching maturity after over a decade of development within the National Park Service. The Fire Ecology Assessment Tool (FEAT) provides a complete tool for collecting, analysing, displaying and archiving data and analysis of fire effects for prescribed and wildland fire. .

Session 7B, Fire Effects Monitoring (TRACK II)
Thursday, 20 November 2003, 9:30 AM-12:00 PM

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