Researcher: Greg Baxter
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Researcher: Greg Baxter
|
Introduction:The Alberta forest industry, which includes both Governmental agencies and Private Companies, have determined there is a need to evaluate the fire problems associated with pile burning. In this project pile burning is synonymous with slash . The LFS has approached FERIC to undertake an analysis of existing fire history data to determine if top piles constitute a fire problem in terms of potential ignition points or as areas posing other fire control problems. If top piles are found to be problematic, possible alternatives to top-piling will be investigated. This project is the consequence of 'recent and frequent observations of problematic fire behaviour encountered during the 1998 fire season at a number of large fires in west-central Alberta where top-piling is a common fuel treatment. A fire history study will be conducted focusing on the slash fuel type (S-1, S-2) to quantify the problem and then this data may be used as the foundation for determining possible fuel treatment and or harvesting techniques.
Considerable progress was made on all three of these objectives and resulted in the completion of a number of outputs for this project. The first two objectives are addressed in the fire history report and the third in the Interim report.
The Interim Report for 2001 provides general background information regarding
this project, and details the work has taken place during the first year. It
also includes a brief overview of some of the key findings included in the fire
history report. The fire history report documents the history of fire in 'slash' fuels for the period 1961-2000 in Alberta. The data for this study comes primarily from the Provincial fire history database that is available on-line on the Governments web-site (SRD) on both their Internal and External sites. Historic data not contained in this database including winter 'industry' fires was sought from the various companies, but very little of this data came forward. A comparison of Weldwoods own fire history data and that of the provincial dataset was almost identical. This fire history report presents an analysis of the number of slash fires by location, cause, ignition date, and FWI indices. An analysis of wind speeds taken from the initial attack fire report forms for slash fuels is also presented. This report will also be available on this website. Based on the field trips, fire history data and conversations with industry and government personnel, it has become clear that top-pile burning and the issues surrounding it are regional in nature, and therefore regional solutions will be required. Four regions of the province have been identified based on their distinct biogeography, the resulting influence of this on the fire behaviour triangle (fuels, topography and weather) and the regions own slash fire history. The four regions identified for this study, separated by the above characteristics are:
Of these, the first region selected for an in-depth study of its fire history
and the development of pile burning recommendations is the south-east slopes
region of the province. This is the area south of 53o N latitude (or a line
equivalent to Cadomin). A breakdown of the number of provincial fires based
on latitude reveals a distinct change in the number of fires that have occurred
north and south of this line (53.00 N), and therefore this line was selected
to separate the regions. The foothills north of this line will be included as
part of the 'West-central' region of the province, and have their own set of
recommendations based on its own fire history and geographical factors. This year (2002), recommendations for top-pile management will be developed
for the other regions of the province. Work will also include a summary review
of the mechanical alternatives currently available for debris management. These
alternatives include chipping, grinding, mechanical spreading and the use of
the debris for co-gen purposes. These alternatives are known to industry, but
at this time are considerably more expensive than the current costs of burning,
and because of this have not been seriously considered as potential alternatives.
But, in our world of changing values and powerful lobby groups, these alternatives
may in-fact become 'required', and thus should be identified. |
Costs and nenefits of seven post-harvest debris treatments in Alberta forests 3/10/2010 Advantage Report - Management of harvesting debris in northern Alberta 10/15/2004 Advantage Report - Management of harvesting debris in west-central Alberta 8/3/2004 Management of harvesting debris in east-central Alberta 3/8/2004 Pile burning in the NWT 7/23/2003 Heart Lake Prescribed Burn 2003 5/22/2003 |
