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Overview
Basics
Basics
Around Lake Tahoe, sections of the Stream Environment Zone, especially those that contain the terminal portions of streams feeding into the lake, are within the Wildland Urban Interface where potential impacts from wildfire are a key concern. A considerable effort has been underway within the LTB to mitigate these potential impacts. An understanding of how wildfire can impact both the WUI and SEZ, along with an assessment of mitigation efforts to date, is therefore critical.
This study characterized conditions in the WUI and assessed the current potential for crown fire initiation and probability of burning for all mapped SEZ and WUI areas in the Lake Tahoe Basin under extreme conditions.
Completed
2010
2011
2012
$157,961
Pat Manley (pmanley@fs.fed.us)
10/31/2017
10/31/2017
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| Location Information | Location Notes |
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Organizations
EIP Details
EIP Basics
EIP Basics
04.01.01.0120 - P078: Assessment of Fire Hazard/isk in the Wildland Urban Interface “WUI” and Stream Environment Zones “SEZs”
Performance Measures
Expected Performance Measures
Expected Performance Measures
No expected performance measures set for this project.
Reported Performance Measures
Reported Performance Measures
No annual performance measure accomplishments entered for this project.
Funding
Expected Funding
Expected Funding
$157,961
$157,961
$0
| Total | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Southern Nevada Public Land Management Act (Pacific Southwest Research Station) (USFS - PSW) | $157,961 | $157,961 | $0 |
| Grand Total | $157,961 | $157,961 | $0 |
Reported Expenditures
Reported Expenditures
| Total | 2012 | 2011 | 2010 | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Southern Nevada Public Land Management Act (Pacifi... | $157,961 | $52,654 | $52,654 | $52,653 |
| Grand Total | $157,961 | $52,654 | $52,654 | $52,653 |
Photos
Other Details
Watersheds
No watersheds set for this project.
Threshold Categories
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Around Lake Tahoe, sections of the Stream Environment Zone (SEZ), especially those that contain the terminal portions of streams feeding into the lake, are within the Wildland Urban Interface (WUI) where potential impacts from wildfire are a key concern. A considerable effort has been underway within the Lake Tahoe Basin to mitigate these potential impacts.
Local and Regional Plans
No Local and Regional Plans set for this project.
Related Projects
Related Projects
No Related Projects set for this project.
External Links
No external links entered.
Notes
Notes
| 10/31/2017 3:52 PM | Matt Driscoll | Match Funding: $ 4,451 | ||
| 08/03/2017 2:35 PM | Kiara Cuerpo-Hadsall | Lead Implementer: Spatial Informatics Group, LLC |
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| 07/26/2017 9:43 PM | Kiara Cuerpo-Hadsall | Objectives: 1: Examination of fuel treatment compliance and implementation in the LTB. 2: Analysis of severity distributions within WUI areas and SEZs within historical fires in the LTB. 3: Fire behavior and probability analysis for the LTB, summarized for all WUI areas and SEZs. 4: Fire behavior and probability analysis for the LTB (simulated with future treatments complete) summarized for all WUI areas and SEZs. |
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| 07/26/2017 9:39 PM | Kiara Cuerpo-Hadsall | Findings: As with much of the Sierra Nevada Range, fire, whether ignited by lighting or from indigenous burning, was common in the Lake Tahoe Basin prior to the late nineteenth and early 20th centuries. There continues to be a relatively stable number of ignitions per year, with the majority of these ignitions being human caused. The vast majority of these fire starts are controlled before they can grow to an acre or more in size, resulting to a near absence of fire on the landscape over the 20th century. While there have been several fires over 100 acres in size in the last decade, current policies focused on fire exclusion and difficulties implementing large scale prescribed burning have essentially removed fire as an ecosystem process at a landscape scale from the Lake Tahoe Basin over the last century. As has been noted in several previous studies, the historic and contemporary fire history and fire management within the Lake Tahoe Basin reflects larger trends seen across the Sierra Nevada Region. • Areas that were treated within the Wildland Urban interface (WUI), riparian areas, or otherwise, consistently had a lower probability for passive or active crown fire for both 2010 and 2020. These findings are consistent with findings in the existing literature from both local and regional studies in similar coniferous vegetation types. • Treatments greater than 15 years old consistently had a lower potential for passive or active crown fire when compared with areas that were not treated at all. • Full implementation of the 10 Year Plan as reflected in the proposed and planned treatment units and areas would result in decreased conditional burn probability within the WUI and would generally increase the WUI area modeled as having flame lengths less than 4 feet in 2020. • Given the existing riparian vegetation GIS dataset, we were unable to clearly distinguish differences in fire hazard between coniferous and deciduous dominated riparian vegetation types, though treatments in both types were effective at reducing the potential for active and passive crown fire. |
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| 07/26/2017 9:37 PM | Kiara Cuerpo-Hadsall | Management Implications: • An approach to fire and ecosystem management that recognizes that large fires may occur is important in designing a fuel treatment network to mitigate them and planning for a future vegetation structure and distribution, which can incorporate their potential beneficial effects over the long term. • Continued collaborative incorporation of local knowledge from fire managers and others with on the ground experience with local fire conditions, WUI protection and evacuation procedures, resource managers with detailed understanding of local ecological conditions, and other scientists with local expertise is critical to the continued long term planning and success of any fuel management strategy. |