Biomass Disposal Methods
The economic utilization of forest biomass is often infeasible due to low or no value of the materials and high transportation cost of delivering it to the market. However, biomass still needs to be removed from the forest, as it attracts insects and creates fuel loads that can contribute to catastrophic wildfire. Air curtain burners are being evaluated as a tool to dispose unusable biomass, in addition to other disposal methods, such as natural decay, pile and burn, and in-woods processing.
Fact Sheet: The Cost of Forest Thinning Operations in the Western United States: A Literature Review
An increase in frequent, catastrophic wildfires is a challenge to forests and communities across the western United States. Forest thinning treatments can reduce the risk of catastrophic fires and improve forest health. However, the cost of treatments varies depending on factors such as slope gradients, small-diameter trees, silvicultural prescriptions, and harvesting systems and methods. Land managers often use thinning treatments as a management approach, and broader knowledge on the productivity and costs of harvesting machinery can assist in their planning efforts.
Special Report: Managed Wildfire: A Research Synthesis and Overview
All wildfires in the United States are managed, but the strategies used to manage them vary by region and season. “Managed wildfire” is a response strategy to naturally ignited wildfires; it does not prioritize full suppression and allows the fire to fulfill its natural role on the landscape, meeting objectives such as firefighter safety, resource benefit, and community protection. This wildfire management strategy can be effective for reducing tree densities, landscape homogeneity, fuel load continuity, and future fire behavior, while also working to reintroduce fire to fire-prone ecosystems. Research on managed wildfire has expanded significantly in recent years. This synthesis is designed to distill the current science on managed wildfire to foster a wide discussion of the strategy among managers, practitioners, and the knowledgeable public.
Journal Article: Climate influences on future fire severity: a synthesis of climate‑fire interactions and impacts on fire regimes, high‑severity fire, and forests in the western United States
Increases in fire activity and changes in fire regimes have been documented in recent decades across the western United States. Climate change is expected to continue to exacerbate impacts to forested eco-systems by increasing the frequency, size, and severity of wildfires across the western United States (US). Warming temperatures and shifting precipitation patterns are altering western landscapes and making them more susceptible to high-severity fire. Increases in large patches of high-severity fire can result in significant impacts to landscape processes and ecosystem function and changes to vegetation structure and composition. In this synthesis, we examine the predicted climatic influence on fire regimes and discuss the impacts on fire severity, vegetation dynamics, and the interactions between fire, vegetation, and climate.