Skip to main content

Fuel Concepts

  • Chapter
  • First Online:
Wildland Fuel Fundamentals and Applications
  • 823 Accesses

Abstract

Many concepts used in fire management concern how fuels are interpreted, used, and manipulated in fire management. Often, these concepts have limitations that may make their use inappropriate for some circumstances. This chapter presents four common fuel concepts employed in wildland fire management and science and discusses their limitations in the context of wildland fuel ecology.

Sometimes a concept is baffling not because it is profound but because it is wrong

E.O. Wilson, American ecologist

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this chapter

Chapter
USD 29.95
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
eBook
USD 84.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as EPUB and PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
Hardcover Book
USD 109.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Durable hardcover edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info

Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout

Purchases are for personal use only

Institutional subscriptions

References

  • Agee JK, Skinner CN (2005) Basic principles of forest fuel reduction treatments. For Ecol Manage 211:83–96

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Anderson HE (1966) Flammability features of forest fuels. Unpublished Report on file at the Missoula Fire Sciences Laboratory, Missoula, MT 22 pp

    Google Scholar 

  • Bachmann A, Allgower B (2001) A consistent wildland fire risk terminology is needed! Fire Manage Today 61(4):28–33

    Google Scholar 

  • Bessie WC, Johnson EA (1995) The relative importance of fuels and weather on fire behaviour in subalpine forests. Ecology 76(3):747–762

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Burgan RE, Rothermal RC (1984) BEHAVE: fire behavior prediction and fuel modeling system–FUEL subsystem. USDA Forest Service

    Google Scholar 

  • Crow TR, Gustafson EJ (1997) Ecosystem management: managing natural resources in time and space. In: Kohm KA, Franklin JF (eds) Creating forestry for the 21st century. Island Press, Washington, DC, pp 215–229

    Google Scholar 

  • Dimitrakopoulos AP (2001) A statistical classification of Mediterranean species based on their flammability components. Int J Wildland Fire 10(2):113–118. doi:10.1071/WF01004

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Dimitrakopoulos AP, Papaioannou K (2001) Flammability assessment of Mediterranean forest fuels. Fire Technol 37(2):143–152. doi:10.1023/a:1011641601076

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Finney MA (2005) The challenge of quantitative risk analysis for wildland fire. For Ecol Manage 211:97–108

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Finney MA (2006) An overview of FlamMap fire modeling capabilities. In: Andrews PL, Butler BW (eds) Fuels management—how to measure success, Portland, OR, 28–30 March 2006. U.S. Department of Agriculture, Forest Service, Rocky Mountain Research Station, Proceedings RMRS-P-41, pp 213–220

    Google Scholar 

  • Fosberg MA (1970) Drying rates of heartwood below fiber saturation. For Sci 16:57–63

    Google Scholar 

  • Gisborne HT (1947) Fundamentals of fire behavior. Fire Control Notes 9(1):13–24

    Google Scholar 

  • Hardy CC (2005) Wildland fire hazard and risk: problems, definitions, and context. For Ecol Manage 211:73–82

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Jenkins MJ, Page WG, Hebertson EG, Alexander ME (2012) Fuels and fire behavior dynamics in bark beetle-attacked forests in Western North America and implications for fire management. For Ecol Manage 275:23–34. doi:http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.foreco.2012.02.036

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Jolly WM, Parsons RA, Hadlow AM, Cohn GM, McAllister SS, Popp JB, Hubbard RM, Negron JF (2012) Relationships between moisture, chemistry, and ignition of Pinus contorta needles during the early stages of mountain pine beetle attack. For Ecol Manage 269:52–59. doi:http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.foreco.2011.12.022

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Kane JM, Varner JM, Knapp EE, Powers RF (2010) Understory vegetation response to mechanical mastication and other fuels treatments in a ponderosa pine forest. Appl Veg Sci 13(2):207–220. doi:10.1111/j.1654-109X.2009.01062.x

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Keane RE, Finney MA (2003) The simulation of landscape fire, climate, and ecosystem dynamics. In: Veblen TT, Baker WL, Montenegro G, Swetnam TW (eds) Fire and global change in temperate ecosystems of the Western Americas, vol 160 (Ecological Studies). Springer-Verlag, New York, pp 32–68

    Chapter  Google Scholar 

  • Kreye JK, Kobziar LN, Camp JM (2014) Immediate and short-term response of understory fuels following mechanical mastication in a pine flatwoods site of Florida, USA. For Ecol Manage 313:340–354. doi:http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.foreco.2013.10.034

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Liodakis S, Bakirtzis D, Dimitrakopoulos A (2002) Ignition characteristics of forest species in relation to thermal analysis data. Thermochim Acta 390(1–2):83–91. doi:http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/S0040-6031(02)00077-1

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Mak EHT (1988) Notes: measuring foliar flammability with the limiting oxygen index method. For Sci 34(2):523–529

    Google Scholar 

  • North M, Collins BM, Stephens S (2012) Using fire to increase the scale, benefits, and future maintenance of fuels treatments. J For 110 (7):392–401. doi:10.5849/jof.12-021

    Google Scholar 

  • NWCG (2006) Fire terminology. http://www.nwcg.gov/pms/pubs/glossary/. Accessed 1 June 2014

  • Parsons RA, Mell WE, McCauley P (2010) Linking 3D spatial models of fuels and fire: effects of spatial heterogeneity on fire behavior. Ecol Model 222(3):679–691

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Philpot CW (1969) Seasonal changes in heat content and ether extractive content of chamise. Res. Pap. U.S. Department of Agriculture, Forest Service, Intermountain Forest and Range Experiment Station, Research Paper INT-61, Ogden, UT, 10 pp

    Google Scholar 

  • Pollet J, Omi PN (2002) Effect of thinning and prescribed burning on crown fire severity in ponderosa pine forests. Int J Wildland Fire 11:1–10

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Reinhardt ED, Keane RE, Calkin DE, Cohen JD (2008) Objectives and considerations for wildland fuel treatment in forested ecosystems of the interior western United States. For Ecol Manage 256(12):1997–2006. doi:10.1016/j.foreco.2008.09.016

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Schoennagel T, Veblen TT, Negron JF, Smith JM (2012) Effects of mountain pine beetle on fuels and expected fire behavior in lodgepole pine forests, Colorado, USA. PLoS ONE 7(1):e30002

    Article  CAS  PubMed Central  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Thaxton JM, Platt WJ (2006) Small-scale fuel variation alters fire intensity and shrub abundance in a pine savanna. Ecology 87(5):1331–1337. doi:10.1890/0012-9658(2006)87[1331:SFVAFI]2.0.CO;2

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

Authors

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Robert E. Keane .

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

Copyright information

© 2015 Springer International Publishing Switzerland

About this chapter

Cite this chapter

Keane, R. (2015). Fuel Concepts. In: Wildland Fuel Fundamentals and Applications. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-09015-3_10

Download citation

Publish with us

Policies and ethics