An important component to reduce wildfire risk around communities is fuel modification. Thinning is one treatment and is advocated in the FireSmart Manual (Partners in Protection 1999, Edmonton, Alberta). The manual advocates a 1-2 metre crown width spacing to be used adjacent to values at risk when there is no slope. Using this as a guideline, FERIC has identified two plots at the Community Fire Protection Treatment and Demonstration Trials where crown fire behaviour will be observed in thinned stands.

Two plots (75 x 100 m) thinned to 3-m inter-crown spacing will be set up adjacent to control plots. In the first case, fire will burn from the control into the thinned plot, and both plots will be ignited simultaneously in the second case. All four plots are characterized by mature jack pine with minimal understory and no slope. The thinning prescription will approximate 2-m crown width spacing.

The objective is to document the behaviour of an intense crown fire as it burns into a thinned stand. The results will provide direction for future research, and a measure of validation for the Fire Smart prescription. Thinning and fuel measurement will be done this summer, with burning during 2004 if conditions permit.