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Mitigating Risks With New Software

Posted on: Sunday, 7 August 2005, 03:00 CDT

WILDFIRES

The development of geographic information science tools to help rangers and forest scientists determine whether logging or prescribed burning is the best way to reduce the fuel load to mitigate the risk of devastating wildfires is the goal of software- development work being done by Chris S. Renschler of the University at Buffalo (N.Y.) in conjunction with the U.S. Forest Service.

This forest is a control unit for comparing areas that have been treated to reduce ladder fuels, which carry fire into the tree tops.

His groundbreaking work comes as the Bush Administration is reversing the roadless rule for Federal lands, potentially opening up 58,500,000 acres to logging, mining, and other commercial uses.

"Now that we have this rule change, the question is, 'Do we want to reduce the fuel load in a particular watershed by doing selected burning; should we build roads so that we can bring equipment in to log; or should we do both?' " asks Renschler, an assistant professor in the Department of Geography. 'The tools we are developing can compare those two scenarios for a specific watershed and help managers make sound decisions."

This is an upgrade of an existing software package called GeoWEPP (Geo-spatial Interface for the Water Erosion Prediction Project) developed with the Department of Agriculture Forest Service and the Agricultural Research Service.

The features of the extension, to be released for testing later this year, will allow managers to use the software to simulate and predict the effects of erosion for watersheds covering up to 250,000 acres. The result will be much more precise predictions about the amount of erosion and sediment yield that will end up in nearby rivers. Earlier versions of GeoWEPP focused on targeting soil and water conservation measures after a fire and planning fuel- management efforts to reduce the risk of wildfire.

A burn out operation consists of lighting a fire from a control line to stop the inferno's forward rate of spread by denying it fuel.

The revamped capabilities will help managers accurately compare their options-including the choice of logging and road building-for reducing the fuel load. "We are developing tools that allow managers to actually schedule their fuel-reduction efforts in space and time," explains Renschler. "Managers need to schedule them over a long time period and to properly sequence the efforts so that there's minimal impact on the environment."

Now that logging is an option in millions of acres of Federal lands, managers will need to perform further evaluations. "Naturally, roads increase erosion because the protection of the vegetation cover is gone," he relates. 'We have to plan for that now and evaluate prescribed burning or road building in ways that consider the increased runoff and erosion that will occur and compare mitigation strategies."

At the same time, with exurban sprawl spreading ever closer to forests, the decision to do a controlled burn also is becoming increasingly complex. "We need tools to explore all of these considerations," Renschler concludes. 'We need to build long-term strategies to reduce fuel loads and GeoWEPP is the best tool to support these new strategies."

The urban interface process involves trees being thinned and limbed and shrubs mowed to reduce the devastation of forest fires.

Copyright Society for Advancement of Education Aug 2005

Source: USA Today; New York

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