Synonyms
Definition
An activity fuel is defined as live or dead vegetative matter that has accumulated or has been altered through active vegetation management such as timber harvest, thinning, pruning, mastication, chipping, or a combination of approaches.
Introduction
Wildland fuels are defined as the live and dead vegetative matter that contributes to wildland fire (Davis 1959). The fuels include the boles and canopies of trees, shrub stems and leaves, grass and herbaceous vegetation, sound and rotten woody material, needle and leaf litter, moss, lichen, and decayed organic material often referred to as duff. The vegetative biomass is often arranged into distinct categories including trees, shrubs, grasses, wood, litter, and duff (Fig. 1, Ottmar et al. 2007). The array of these categories is defined as a fuel bed and has unique characteristics of loading, depth, height, and bulk density that, along with...
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution.
References
Davis KP (1959) Forest fire: control and use. McGraw-Hill, New York
Keane R (2015) Wildland fuel fundamentals and applications. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-09015-3
Lutes DC, Keane RE, Caratti JF, Key CH, Benson NC, Sutherland S, Gangi LJ (2006) FIREMON: Fire effects monitoring and inventory system. General technical report RMRS-GTR-164. U.S. Department of Agriculture, Forest Service, Rocky Mountain Research Station, Fort Collins, CO.https://doi.org/10.2737/RMRS-GTR-164
Ottmar RD, Hardy CC (1989) Stereo photo series for quantifying forest residues in coastal Oregon forests: Second-growth Douglas fir-western hemlock type, western hemlock – Sitka spruce type, and red alder type. General technical report PNW-GTR-231. U.S. Department of Agriculture Forest Service, Pacific Northwest Research Station, Portland, 67 p
Ottmar RD, Sandberg DV, Riccardi CL, Prichard SJ (2007) An overview of the fuel characteristic classification system – quantifying, classifying, and creating fuelbeds for resource planning. Can J For Res 37(12):2383–2393
Prichard SJ, Sandberg DV, Ottmar RD, Eberhardt E, Andreu A, Eagle P, Swedin K (2013) Fuel characteristic classification system version 3.0: technical documentation. General technical report PNW-GTR-887. U.S. Department of Agriculture, Forest Service, Pacific Northwest Research Station, Portland, 79 p
Prichard SJ, Andreu AG, Ottmar RD, Eberhard E (2019) Fuel Characteristic Classification System (FCCS) Field sampling and fuelbed development guide. General technical report PNW-GTR-972. US Forest Service Pacific Northwest Research Station, Portland, 86 p
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Section Editor information
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2019 Springer Nature Switzerland AG
About this entry
Cite this entry
Ottmar, R.D. (2019). Activity Fuels. In: Manzello, S. (eds) Encyclopedia of Wildfires and Wildland-Urban Interface (WUI) Fires. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-51727-8_232-1
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-51727-8_232-1
Received:
Accepted:
Published:
Publisher Name: Springer, Cham
Print ISBN: 978-3-319-51727-8
Online ISBN: 978-3-319-51727-8
eBook Packages: Springer Reference EngineeringReference Module Computer Science and Engineering