Chaparral fire hazard - Pepperwood Preserve...Chaparral fires are terrifying, they can move many miles in an hour, have hundred foot flame lengths and have about 10 million\ഠpeople
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Chaparral fire hazard Kate Wilkin, Lauren Ponisio, Carmen Tubbesing, Danny Fry, Erica Newman, Jen Potts, & Scott Stephens Fire Mitigation and Forest Health Workshop for the Mayacamas to Berryessa Coast Range Region Pepperwood Preserve • May 20, 2016
Chaparral fire hazardKate Wilkin, Lauren Ponisio, Carmen Tubbesing, Danny Fry, Erica Newman, Jen Potts, & Scott Stephens
Fire Mitigation and Forest Health Workshop for the Mayacamas to Berryessa Coast Range RegionPepperwood Preserve • May 20, 2016
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Chaparral fires are terrifying, they can move many miles in an hour, have hundred foot flame lengths and have about 10 million people living in their WUI in CA. Costs are 50+ million dollars to suppress fire (likely more) More than 100 lives lost (OK)
Chaparral…is 7% of the area contains 25% of
California’s endemic plant and animals species.
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But I want to tell you a different story … California’s chaparral is a very special ecosystem. 25% of California’s endemic flora, 13% restricted to chaparral 25% of California's endemic mammals, 6% restricted to chaparral
Richard Halsey
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Famous photo by Richard Halsey
Chaparral fire hazard
Cost
Native plants
Non-native plants
Wildlife
Fuel load
Flammability
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Short-term studies suggest land managers face an “acute dilemma” between protecting people or ecosystems. However, the long-term ecological trajectories and fire risks of fuel treatments are often poorly understood.
Chaparral fire hazard reduction has drawbacks for biodiversity
Kate Wilkin, Lauren Ponisio, Carmen Tubbesing, Danny Fry, Erica Newman, Jen Potts, & Scott StephensFire Mitigation and Forest Health Workshop for the Mayacamas to Berryessa Coast Range Region
Pepperwood Preserve • May 20, 2016
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Back in 2000 Northern Ca, N of Berkeley, by about 80 miles north and 10 miles west of clear lake …Jennifer Potts found excited and skilled fire managers who wanted to participate …on South Cow Mountain BLM Off-Road Vehicle park , UC Hopland Extension, and Eaglepoint Ranch in Lake County … described type of chaparral … steep, thin soils, poor nutrients, couldn’t be treed. Chamisal plant community.
Treatment season
Treatment type
Fuel hazard
Wildfire problem
Accept
Reduce
Fire
Fall
Winter
Spring
MasticationFall
Spring
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Questions they posed at the beginning of the study: Should we treat? What type of treatment? When should we treat? Large experiment: 24 ~2 hectare experimental units
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What did the study area look like: Chamise dominated chaparral. Steep, dry slopes with very little top soil. Trees cannot make it here. BLM’s Cow Mountain Recreation Area: Cow Mountain Ridge: 6 plots masticated plots at bottom left and top right. All other plots are fire. Unit boundaries included the two-track road to the top, riparian area to the bottom, and drainages or ridges in between units.
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What did the treatments look like? Control / Pre-treatment, Prescribed fire, and Mastication with DRUM blade. Trade-offs of treatments due to implementation, cost, and neighbors: Prescribed fire Potential fuel hazards Public perception that you are not protecting them Prescribed fire Risk of escape Air quality concerns Public perception of fire Mastication Low slopes only High cost No remote access
Immediate post-treatment structure
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After fire shrubs still have branch architecture remaining --- Important deer habitat and barrier for deer herbivory Mastication --- restructures shrubs as woody debri
Immediate post-treatment fuel bed
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Creates microclimates … Small woody debri may (1) retain moisture, (2) block sun, and (3) act as physical barrier for seeds.
Questions:
• How does nonnative plant abundance change through time?
• How does Ceanothus cuneatus (buckbrush) cover change through time?
• How do bird communities change through time?
• How does fuel load change through time?• How does flammability change through time?
How do natural communities change through time?
How does fire hazard change through time?
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Today we are asking …. Longer term questions ….Fire hazard hard to quantify, so we use shrub cover and grass count
How does fuel load change through time?
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We did two methods in field to estimate fuel load: estimate biomass with point0-intercept and calipers, and shrub cover. Results similar, so will present shrub cover, because more ecological significance.
Shrub cover
FallWinterSpring
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Explain Shrub cover is a surrogate for fuel load X-axis Y-axis Legend
Shrub cover
FallWinterSpring
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Graph explanation: Solid line = prediction mean Dots = data At 10 years fire within 2% of control and mastication 5 and 12% of control too
Fuel load remains high
Fuel load decreases, but recovers more
quickly.
For fall, slower recovery
Fuel load decreases and recovers more
slowly.
For fall, slowest recovery
FallWinterSpring
How does fuel load change through time?
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Untreated areas had persistently high shrub cover. Treatments reduced shrub cover … measured in late spring and early summer after treatment and already re-growing !!! Fuel reduction treatments greatly reduced shrub cover and then shrub cover in treatment areas increased at greater rates than in untreated areas. By about 10 years after treatment, all fire and mastication treatments rebounded to only 2% and 12% less cover than the untreated areas, respectively. Mastication applied in the fall had the lowest shrub cover compared to other treatments: fall fires, spring fire, and spring mastication have 8 to 10% more shrub cover than fall mastication 10 years after treatments. Of all the treatments, winter fires had the greatest shrub cover 10 years after treatment.
Shrub Cover
USGS Digital Ortho Quarter Quad
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Here you can see the change in shrub cover
Shrub Cover
National Agricultural Imagery Products (NAIP)
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Just one year after treatment
Shrub Cover
National Agricultural Imagery Products (NAIP)
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10 years after treatment … The fire unit has a nearly continuous shrub canopy, whereas the masticated unit has a shrub-grass matrix.
How does flammability change through time?
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How does flammability change through time? Our surrogate is non-native annual grasses. BC Few native grasses present.
Nonnative Annual Grass abundance (square root)
Count
FallWinterSpring
How does flammability change through time?
Count
FallWinterSpring
Flammability is low.
Flammability increases, but is
likely not continuous.
Flammability increases and is continuous after
treatment, especially fall treatments.
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In contrast, the untreated areas’ mean number of nonnative grasses was less than 3 individuals per year throughout the study. All fire treatments had a mean of less than 10 nonnative individuals throughout the study, and only some plots had grass present. Mastication applied in the fall had a mean of 360 nonnative annual grass individuals per square meters one year after treatment, and it declined, albeit with marginal statistical significance, to a mean of 46 individuals by ten years after treatment. AND, all plots had grass present forming a nearly continuous fuel bed. And a caveat, year 10 was sampled during a drought …. And there is still excellent grass habitat inbetween the shrubs, so grasses might respond to moisture
How does nonnative plant abundance change through time?
“We never should have waited this long…Now the weeds have completely taken over!”
Control
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Before treatments, the plots had few nonnative plants present. A few years after treatments… Fire had more. Mastication had the most. The size of the circle is the abundance 4 years after treatment and the colored circle is its CA- Integrated Pest Management Harmfulness rating. High risk plants have the capacity to dramatically change the system, but are not statistically different 10 years after treatment…
Control Fire
foxtail fescuefoxtail fescue
smooth cat's ear
red brome
Japanese hedge-parsley
tocalote thistle
soft chess brome
smilo grass
rose clover
medusahead
orchard grass
Japanese hedge-parsley
foxtail fescue
smooth cat's ear
red brome
tocalote thistle
soft chess brome
hedgehog dogtail
medusahead
orchard grass
velvet grass
common wild oat
Italian thistle
common mullein
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Before treatments, the plots had few nonnative plants present. A few years after treatments… Fire had more. Mastication had the most. The size of the circle is the abundance 4 years after treatment and the colored circle is its CA- Integrated Pest Management Harmfulness rating. High risk plants have the capacity to dramatically change the system, but are not statistically different 10 years after treatment…
Control Fire Mastication
foxtail fescuefoxtail fescue
smooth cat's ear
red brome
Japanese hedge-parsley
tocalote thistle
soft chess brome
smilo grass
rose clover
medusahead
orchard grass
Japanese hedge-parsley
foxtail fescue
smooth cat's ear
red brome
tocalote thistle
soft chess brome
hedgehog dogtail
medusahead
orchard grass
velvet grass
common wild oat
Italian thistle
common mullein
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Before treatments, the plots had few nonnative plants present. A few years after treatments… Fire had more. Mastication had the most. The size of the circle is the abundance 4 years after treatment and the colored circle is its CA- Integrated Pest Management Harmfulness rating. High risk plants have the capacity to dramatically change the system, but are not statistically different 10 years after treatment…
Control Fire Mastication
foxtail fescuefoxtail fescue
smooth cat's ear
red brome
Japanese hedge-parsley
tocalote thistle
soft chess brome
smilo grass
rose clover
medusahead
orchard grass
Japanese hedge-parsley
foxtail fescue
smooth cat's ear
red brome
tocalote thistle
soft chess brome
hedgehog dogtail
medusahead
orchard grass
velvet grass
common wild oat
Italian thistle
common mullein
High
Moderate
Limited
Risk
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Before treatments, the plots had few nonnative plants present. A few years after treatments… Fire had more. Mastication had the most. The size of the circle is the abundance 4 years after treatment and the colored circle is its CA- Integrated Pest Management Harmfulness rating. High risk plants have the capacity to dramatically change the system, but are not statistically different 10 years after treatment…
Nonnative plant abundance (square root)
Count
FallWinterSpring
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Most bad offenders filtered out and did not establish large, long-term populations. A few, such as red brome did establish populations in the mastication areas. However many low to no level weeds persisted, esp. nonnative annual grasses. Untreated areas & control : 17 to 25 per meter square Fire similar to control Mastication: fall: 333 indv Spring: 83
How does nonnative plant abundance change through time?
Count
Nonnative plants are rare.
Nonnatives invade, but don’t
persist
For fall, greater nonnative abundance
Nonnatives invade and
persist.
For fall, greatest nonnative abundance
FallWinterSpring
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How many were there? Untreated areas had a mean between 17 and 25 total nonnative plants each 253 year across an entire site . Fire: between 5 and 10 254 plants m-2. Mastication: Mastication applied in the spring had a mean of 83 individuals m-2 10 years after treatment and fall mastication had a mean of 333 m-2.
Saved the most surprising for last … our obligate fire seeder --- Buckbrush. weird ecology. Control areas decline Fire areas were nearly extirpated. And mastication increased ?!? buckbrush cover in masticated treatments has between 0.44 and 0.79% greater mean cover than fire treatments and the untreated areas. In contrast, fire treatments still had ten times less cover than the untreated areas; all fire treatments had less than 0.01% mean cover a decade after treatment. Season also influenced buckbrush cover within fire treatments: fall treatments had more cover than winter and spring and these differenced marginally increase through time. In contrast, there was no seasonal differences within mastication treatments. What is up here? Hypothesis include bimodal seed germination, reduced competition, and maybe soil heating when no shrubs were present. A study that I published in Madrono in 2013 Mimicking fire for chaparral restoratino Control 1% Heat 6% Heat + Smoke 1.33 to 17% germination (a little bit of smoke is detrimental to germination, but a lot promotes it) Keeley’s 1987 Ecology Role of fire in seed germination of woody taxa in CA chaparral Greater germination over all: 10% control germination and up to 46% with heat and charate.
How does buckbrush cover change through time?
FallWinterSpring
Buckbrush declines through
time.
Buckbrush is nearly extirpated
Fall fires allow some
regeneration.
Buckbrush increases.
How do bird communities change during the first three years?
Erica Newman, Jennifer Potts, Charles Vaughn, James Dawson, and Scott Stephens
Birds in Control plots (40 species total)
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Erica A. Newman1, Jennifer B. Potts2, Scott L. Stephens2, Charles Vaughn3, James Dawson4 Control and fall & Spring fire plots .. Fire plots have blip within one year after fire, but recover to former levels by year two. High diversity and low evenness … lots of different birds and no birds are dominant Mastication … diversity is lower, and evenness is higher … fewer birds and a few are dominant. Diversity declines and evenness increases through three years after treatment. Bird species richness and abundance recovers more quickly to control-like assemblages after prescribed fire than mastication. Bird communities are less diverse and more homogeneous after mastication than in fire and control plots. Spring fire treatments attract granivores, while winter fire treatments attract insectivores. Masticated plots are not good for insectivores, but tend to attract nectarivores. Winter fire treatments negatively impact shrub nesters
Birds in Masticated plots (21 species total)
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MLANewman, Erica A., et al. "Borrelia burgdorferi sensu lato spirochetes in wild birds in northwestern California: associations with ecological factors, bird behavior and tick infestation." PloS one 10.2 (2015): e0118146. Bird species richness and abundance recovers more quickly to control-like assemblages after prescribed fire than mastication. Bird communities are less diverse and more homogeneous after mastication than in fire and control plots. Scale of disturbance matters: small scale disturbances in the chaparral are still used by the same dominant bird species as found in untreated areas. Spring fire treatments attract granivores, while winter fire treatments attract insectivores. Masticated plots are not good for insectivores, but tend to attract nectarivores. Winter fire treatments negatively impact shrub nesters
Birds in Masticated plots (21 species total)
The birds left after mastication are a subset of the ones in the control plots– there are no new species attracted to masticated plots. The birds“selected for” by mastication include the two known carriers of Lyme Disease in California.Newman, PloS one (2015)
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MLANewman, Erica A., et al. "Borrelia burgdorferi sensu lato spirochetes in wild birds in northwestern California: associations with ecological factors, bird behavior and tick infestation." PloS one 10.2 (2015): e0118146.
Management ImplicationsPrescribed fire • Reduces fire hazard for a short time• Decreases the buckbrush, especially fire in spring and winter • Bird communities recover quickly
Mastication • Nonnative understory species invade and persist • Reduces fuel load, but increases flammable annual grasses• Increases the obligate seeder buckbrush• Bird communities decrease in diversity and are homogenous
Season of treatment• Fall treatments:
• slow shrub recovery the most• promote more nonnative plants and annual grasses
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Land managers are challenged to simultaneously protect people from fire and protect ecosystems from harmful effects of fuel reductions. A decade after treatments, mastication and prescribed fire treatments had unique adverse ecological responses. Therefore, other methods to reduce human vulnerability from fire, such as improved land-use planning and adopting more FireWise building practices, should be considered in combination with strategic fuel reduction (Mutch et al. 2011, Fire Wise Communities 2012, Moritz et al. 2014).
Treatment season
Treatment type
Fuel hazard
Wildfire problem
Accept
Reduce
Fire
Fall
Winter
Spring
MasticationFall
Spring
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Presentation Notes
Should we treat? What type of treatment? When should we treat? Managers must carefully weigh the trade-offs between treatment options, including the desires of their surrounding communities for fire risk reduction (Toman et al. 2011), cost, preserving native ecosystems, increasing flammability, and decreasing fire severity. �
Thank you!BLM staff, especially Jim Dawson and Jeff TunnelCal Fire Eaglepoint Ranch UC Hopland Research and Extension Center, especially , Bob Keiffer, Amber Shrum, and MegginLewmanUCB staff, especially Jennifer Potts, Scott Stephens, Danny Fry, Carmen Tubbesing, Chris Dow, Carolyn Richter, Keith Arnold, Erica Newman, and Josiah JohnstonNorthern California Prescribed Fire Council, especially Lenya Quinn-Davidson
Chaparral is also a special placeQuestions?
Treatment timing
Fuel reduction Season Treatment datesFire Fall November 3-20
Spring March 31- April 3Winter January 8-18
Mastication Fall November 3-20Spring April 23 - June 2
Control No treatment
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Fuel reduction treatments were completed over three seasons. Spring mastication treatments were conducted later than spring fire treatments because roads were not dry enough for masticator access. There was no winter mastication treatment because masticators damage seasonally wet roads and slopes.
