Berni Bahro, Regional Fuels Planning Specialist
Pacific Southwest Region
Hazardous Fuels and Vegetation Treatment Processes and Tools
Under Development by R5, PNW Research Station and RM Research Stations
1. Tool Name: Fireshed Assessment: An integrated approach to landscape planning.
2. Brief Description of Tool: Firesheds are large (thousands of acres) landscapes, delineated
based on fire regime, condition class, fire history, fire hazard and risk, and potential wildland fire
behavior. Fireshed assessment refers to an interdisciplinary and collaborative process for
designing and scheduling site-specific projects that are consistent with the goals of the Healthy
Forests Restoration Act of 2003, National Fire Plan, and national forest land and resource
management plans.
Steps in the fireshed assessment process include:
• delineating firesheds;
• selecting a fireshed for assessment based on national, regional, and forest priorities;
• describing goals and desired conditions;
• describing existing conditions for fire behavior, habitat, forest health, and community
protection; and
• identifying opportunities and project proposals to move the existing landscape toward desired
conditions for fire behavior, forest health, and habitat.
3. Scale Tool is Applicable: Fireshed assessments are conducted at the landscape scale to allow
managers to assess their progress toward meeting:
• National Fire Plan goals for: (1) reducing hazardous fuels to reduce the risk of unplanned and
unwanted wildland fire to communities and to the environment and (2) restoring,
rehabilitating, and maintaining fire-adapted ecosystems, and
• Sierra Nevada Forest Plan Amendment goals for: (1) strategically placing treatment areas
across landscapes to interrupt potential wildland fire spread, reducing the extent and severity
of these fires and (2) improving the continuity and distribution of old forests across
landscapes.
4. Analyst Requirements: Fireshed assessments consider an array of landscape-scale desired
conditions and environmental changes in a spatially explicit manner. As such, they require a
moderately high level of GIS, fire behavior modeling, silviculture, programming, and analytical
support.
5. Data Inputs: To model changes in fire behavior, fireshed assessments use the following
raster landscape themes: elevation, slope, aspect, fuel model, canopy cover, canopy height,
crown base height, crown bulk density, duff loading, and coarse woody material. Fire weather
variables are also used as data inputs.
Changes in vegetation, habitat, and treatment costs are assessed using the following raster
landscape themes: California Wildlife Habitat Relationships (CWHR) types, vegetation type, tree
size, canopy cover, protected activity centers (PACs), California spotted owl home range core
areas (HRCAs), treatment prescriptions, tree lists, volume, and biomass potential. Timber
stumpage values are also used as input variables to assess treatment costs.
Disclaimer: The views in this report (presentation) are these of the author(s) do not necessarily represent the views of the
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Forest Service.
Berni Bahro, Regional Fuels Planning Specialist
Pacific Southwest Region
6. Model Outputs: Fireshed assessments spatially display opportunities for meeting multiple
objectives (reducing the size and severity of wildland fires, enhancing resilience of forest stands
to insect- and drought-related tree mortality, and conserving habitat for at-risk wildlife species) at
the landscape-scale. The assessments also provide a spatially-explicit, preliminary assessment of
changes in fire behavior, vegetation, habitat, and economics under different scenarios, with each
scenario designed to move existing fireshed conditions toward desired landscape-scale
conditions.
7. Application of the Model: Fireshed assessments are used to:
• Develop a Program of Work. Interdisciplinary teams use a logical, step-by-step process to
design, test, and schedule fuels and vegetation management projects to meet multiple
resource objectives.
• Ensure Forest Plan Consistency. Results from a fireshed assessment document the
interdisciplinary team’s journey in arriving at a strategic design of treatments across the
fireshed, clearly demonstrating consistency with forest plan strategies for managing fire
and fuels at the landscape scale and National Fire Plan goals for reducing hazardous
fuels, protecting communities and restoring fire-adapted ecosystems.
• Invite Interagency and Public Participation at an Early Stage in the Planning Process. By
themselves, fireshed assessments do not result in decisions. Assessments identify
opportunities for needed projects, making them an ideal platform from which interagency
partners, collaborators, stakeholders, and the public can participate in the process of
developing and testing landscape-scale treatment designs.
• Assess Cumulative Effects. As part of the fireshed assessment process, interdisciplinary
teams look at potential changes in fire behavior, habitat, and watershed conditions at a
landscape scale. The results from these tests can ultimately feed into cumulative effects
analyses that are conducted as part of site-specific project planning.
8. Linkage to Other Models: Fireshed assessments rely on a variety of tools, including Forest
Vegetation Simulator (FVS), FARSITE, FLAMMAP, and ArcGIS tools, such as focal mean. The
products from a fireshed assessment can be linked to various reporting systems, including
FACTS, NFPORS, (My Fuels Planner), and treatment scheduler.
9. Partners: Regional and forest analysts, biologists, fire and fuels specialists, silviculturists,
GIS specialists, landscape architects, and other specialists are partners in the fireshed assessment
process.
10. Current Status: A regional cadre of resource specialists has been working to develop, test,
and refine the fireshed assessment process to make it a truly useful tool to forests and districts as
they propose projects and develop out-year programs of work. The cadre has conducted beta-tests
of the fireshed assessment process during workshops with the Modoc, Mendocino, and Stanislaus
National Forests. The remaining forests in the Pacific Southwest Region will be scheduled for
workshops by July 2004.
At each workshop, the cadre works through the fireshed assessment process with a forest or
district interdisciplinary team on an actual fireshed. The cadre members complement the skills
and experience of the workshop interdisciplinary team, acting as an extension of the team and
filling in gaps. The cadre provides “real time” spatial analysis products displaying changes in fire
Disclaimer: The views in this report (presentation) are these of the author(s) do not necessarily represent the views of the
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Forest Service.
Berni Bahro, Regional Fuels Planning Specialist
Pacific Southwest Region
behavior, habitat, and economics and helps the team learn how to produce similar products. After
the workshop, the cadre continues to provide advice and support to workshop participants to
facilitate refinements to their continued work on fireshed assessments.
11. Training Availability: None, at this time.
12. Example of Model/Tool Applications: See attached.
Disclaimer: The views in this report (presentation) are these of the author(s) do not necessarily represent the views of the
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Forest Service.
Berni Bahro, Regional Fuels Planning Specialist
Pacific Southwest Region
Sample Products from Fireshed
Assessment
Figure 2. Treatment area opportunities.
Figure 1. Fireshed delineation.
Figure 4. Focal mean analysis of California
spotted owl habitat in the treated landscape.
Figure 3. Potential wildland fire behavior in
the treated landscape.
Disclaimer: The views in this report (presentation) are these of the author(s) do not necessarily represent the views of the
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Forest Service.