Fuel Treatment Effectiveness
Date: 8 December 2010
Sugarloaf Wildfire, Hat Creek Complex
Station DFPZ Fuel Treatment Effectiveness
Location Information
Region: 5
Forest: Lassen
District: Hat Creek
Wildfire Information (consistent with 5100-29)
Fire Number: USF 05062009000050
Fire Name: Sugarloaf Fire, Hat Creek
Complex
Date of Fire Start: Aug 1, 2009
Final Fire Size (acres): 9354
Date When Fire Entered Treatment: Aug 4, 2009
Treated Area Burned (acres): 283 acres
Date Fire Contained: Aug 12, 2009
Fuel Treatment Information and Background:
The “South Station Timber Sale”, “Station 2” and “Hwy 44 Overlook” projects were
completed to create a Defensible Fuel Profile Zone (DFPZ), part of a shaded fuel break
network completed across the Hat Creek Ranger District as part of the Herger-Feinstein
Quincy Library Group project. These projects were planned as part of the South Station
Environmental Assessment.
These commercial and precommercial thinning projects reduced crown and ladder fuels
to break up the continuity of vertical and horizontal fuels. Other than the “Hwy 44
Overlook” project, none of the treated areas had the planned follow-up prescribed burn
treatments implemented to make them fully effective shaded fuel breaks. The biomass
removal portion of these projects removed live vegetation, but did not remove existing
dead and down fuels. Due to the high fuel loading in some portions of the area, the
District Fuels Management Officer had planned to grapple pile and burn piles prior to
conducting underburn treatments.
The “Station 4” project had been planned and awarded for commercial and
precommercial thinning to reduce hazardous fuel conditions. No treatment had occurred
in any of these units prior to the Sugarloaf Fire. Some areas were salvaged after the
Sugarloaf Fire, but because there was no treatment, no analysis of effectiveness could be
performed.
Sugarloaf Fire, Region 5, Lassen National Forest
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Fuel Treatment Effectiveness
Figure 1. Map of the Sugarloaf fire and completed HFQLG projects in the vicinity.
Sugarloaf Fire, Region 5, Lassen National Forest
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Fuel Treatment Effectiveness
Treatment Type and Acres
FACTS subunit ID
050653 T031000003 000
Station 2 Project
050653 T032000013 000
South Station Timber Sale U-15
050653 F032000004 000
Hwy 44 Overlook
050653 T032000017 000
Station 4 Project
050653 T032000019 000
Station 4 Project
050653 T032000015 000
Station 4 Project
Treatment Prescription,
date completed
and total acres
Commercial Thinning and
Biomass Removal
June – August 2008
1523 acres
Commercial Thinning
Sept 2008
49 acres
Precommercial Thinning,
Piling, Burn Piles
Jan 2005
53 acres
Commercial Thinning and
Biomass Removal
Planned, but untreated
112 acres
Commercial Thinning and
Biomass Removal
Planned, but untreated
92 acres
Commercial Thinning and
Biomass Removal
Planned, but untreated
66 acres
Acres overlap with
Sugarloaf Fire
211 acres
19 acres
53 acres
59 acres
14 acres
22 acres
Narrative of Fire Interaction with Fuel Treatment
The Sugarloaf Fire was a lightning caused fire that started on Sugarloaf Mountain,
approximately 2 miles to the west of the Station treatment area on August 1, 2009.
Initially there were two fires that started on Sugarloaf Mountain, one near the top and the
other one mid-slope (found on August 2), that later merged together. The Sugarloaf fire
was first managed by local initial attack resources as a Type 3 Incident until the incident
management team arrived to manage the Hat Creek Complex. The Sugarloaf Fire was
part of a large scale lightning event which showered the Lassen National Forest in new
starts. The Hat Creek Ranger District alone had detected over 37 new starts, the Sugarloaf
Fire included. Resources on the forest had been depleted, communications limited at
best, logistics overburdened, and structures threatened throughout the complex.
Due to an abundance of fire activity on the forest, minimal resources were available in
the suppression effort of the Sugarloaf Fire. On August 2, Sugarloaf fire was considered a
low priority fire and resources on the district were committed to other fires in the Hat
Creek Complex. The Sugarloaf fire grew upslope through the night and on the afternoon
of August 3 the prevailing winds pushed the fire towards the community of Old Station.
Sugarloaf Fire, Region 5, Lassen National Forest
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Fuel Treatment Effectiveness
Initial attack to protect Old Station was done with several engines, the Old Station
volunteers, one bull dozer, and 4 hot shot crews.
On August 4 the fire burned up the Hat Creek Rim rapidly and with high intensity in
untreated areas and continued to burn into the southeastern portion of this wildfire area
into the commercially thinned units with heavy surface fuels present. Surface fuels had
not yet been treated and the result was a high intensity fire that burned out of control,
through a quarter mile-wide partially constructed fuel reduction project, and killed the
existing trees.
Furthermore, fire fighters were unable to stop the forward progression of the fire even
though the commercially thinned area was a quarter mile in width in some locations. The
lesson learned here is that it is critical that surface fuels are treated in order to have a
successful defensible fuel profile zone.
Further north in the vicinity of the Hat Creek Rim overlook north towards Plum Valley
Reservoir the fire did not burn up the Hat Creek escarpment with much intensity. The
vegetation below the rim in this area was largely brush in rocky terrain and the fire
arrived in the treated area without a large head of steam behind it. The treatment in this
area included precommercial thinning, piling, and burning piles. The fuel loading in this
area was much lower and the resulting fire was low intensity with low flame lengths and
a low rate of spread. The fire did not cause much damage in this area.
Weather observations are included in the table below, according to the Ladder Butte
RAWS Station in Redding.
Conditions When Fire Entered Treatment
Date and Source of Observations: Aug 4, 2009, 13:18 hrs
Ladder Butte Raws Station
ERC (value and percentile):
Windspeed and Direction: 9mph @ SSE
degrees (wind gust to 20 mph)
Temperature: 79 F
RH: 12%
Fuel Model Inside Treated Area: 10
Fuel Model Outside Treated Area: 10
Flame Length Inside Treated Area: 8-10
Flame Length Outside Treatment: 8-10
Fuel Moistures
1 hr:
10 hr: 6 gm
Live Fuel Moisture:
Sugarloaf Fire, Region 5, Lassen National Forest
100 hr:
1000 hr:
Measured or Estimated? 10hr were
measured.
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Fuel Treatment Effectiveness
Figure 2 shows interaction of fire and treatment unit. Photo points are labeled and
the photographs are included on the following pages.
Sugarloaf Fire, Region 5, Lassen National Forest
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Fuel Treatment Effectiveness
Photos
Point 1 - Station 2 after wildfire
and after salvage – This project area
had been commercially thinned and
biomass had been removed.
However, no surface fuel treatments
had occurred. This stand had a crown
fire run through much of it and killed
all of the trees. All trees less than 30
inches diameter were salvage logged
prior to this photo. The lesson
learned here is that surface fuel
treatments are necessary to complete
DFPZ treatments.
Point 2 - Untreated area after
wildfire – This forest was not treated.
It is located to the east of the 34N15
road in the SE corner of the fire. This
stand could not be used during
firefighting efforts due to the dense
forest and dangerous burning
conditions. Had the stand been
treated, the resulting stand would
probably look much different.
Photo point 3 - Station 4 area after
wildfire – This proposed project area
had been planned for fuel reduction
treatment, but had not yet been
treated. It is located to the east of the
34N15 road in the SE corner of the
fire, approximately 1/10 mile south of
the photo above. This stand could not
be used to aid firefighting efforts due
to the dense forest and dangerous
burning conditions.
Sugarloaf Fire, Region 5, Lassen National Forest
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Fuel Treatment Effectiveness
Station 2 treated area after wildfire (left, photo point 5) and adjacent
untreated area (photo point 4) – these two photographs were paired on
opposite sides of the 33N90 road in the eastern edge of the fire. Although both
stands had near 100% mortality, the stand on the left had some post wildfire
needle cast onto the soils which helps prevent surface soil erosion. The lack of
surface fuel treatment was believed to be the reason that the treated stand did not
survive the wildfire.
Photo point 9 - Station 2 after
wildfire and after salvage – This
project area had been commercially
thinned and biomass had been
removed but no surface fuels were
treated. This photo is located at the
top of the Hat Creek Rim escarpment
at the southern boundary of the fire.
The fire grew into a crown fire as it
raced up the Hat Creek Rim and
continued to carry much intensity
through the stand due to the lack of
surface fuel treatments. Most dead
trees less than 30 inches diameter were
Sugarloaf Fire, Region 5, Lassen National Forest
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Fuel Treatment Effectiveness
Station 2 treated area after wildfire (left, photo point 12) and adjacent treated
area outside of the fire perimeter (photo point 13) – these two photographs were
paired on opposite sides of the fire line at the NE edge of the Sugarloaf fire
immediately west of the 34N34 road south of Plum Valley Reservoir. The photo on
the left illustrates the thinned forest after biomass tree removal was completed. The
photo on the right shows the unburned surface fuel conditions. The relatively light
surface fuel loading is thought to be representative of the adjacent burned areas prior
to the Sugarloaf Fire. The light surface fuel loading in combination with less severe
fire weather conditions combined to create a light underburn with low flame lengths.
Fire fighters were able to put in a fire line adjacent to the burn and stop the forward
progression of the fire in this treated stand.
Additional Documentation
Recommend Additional Documentation? No
Name and Title of Person Completing the Report
Narrative by:
Colin Dillingham
Monitoring Team Leader
Herger-Feinstein Quincy Library Group Implementation Team
Debbie Mayer
District Fuels Officer
Hat Creek Ranger District, Lassen National Forest
Plumas National Forest
Contact
Information
E-mail
Telephone
cdillingham@fs.fed.us
dmayer@fs.fed.us
(530) 283-7881 (Dillingham)
(530) 336-5521 (Mayer)
Sugarloaf Fire, Region 5, Lassen National Forest
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