Landscape Management & Harvest ModelLandscape Management & Harvest Model

A Case Studies from Chequamegon National ForestA Case Studies from Chequamegon National Forest

EEES4760/6760

April 15, 2009

• HARVEST used to simulate different landscapes

• Fire spread in different land mosaics

• Local and landscape diversity under different landscape mosaics

Landscape Management:Landscape Management: Managing landscapes in space and time.

Harvest Model Harvest Model (http://nrs.fs.fed.us/tools/harvest/): was designed as a strategic research and planning tool, allowing assessment of the spatial pattern consequences of broad timber management strategies. The model is well suited to evaluate alternative strategies, providing comparable predictions about how the alternatives affect the age (or successional stage) distribution and forest type composition of the forest, the spatial distribution of forest interior and edge habitats, and the patch structure of the resulting forest landscape. With HARVEST, the object is not to find a scheduling solution (i.e., determining the order in which individual stands should be harvested), but to assess the spatial pattern consequences of general management strategies.

Simulating fire spread with landscape management scenariosSimulating fire spread with landscape management scenariosJacob J. LaCroix, Soung-Ryoul Ryu, Daolan Zheng and Jiquan Chen

Forest Science, 2006

Objectives: Objectives:

1)To simulat fire spread on five landscapes, each with a different structure resulting from harvest simulations using HARVEST,

2)To xamined how weather (rain and wind) affects fire spread on all five landscapes, and

3)To explored spatial variation among fires ignited in different parts of the landscape (i.e., different mosaics).

1

4

3

9

5

10

126

7

11

8

2

WI

Fuels

Washburn Ranger District of the Chequamegon National Forest, Washburn Ranger District of the Chequamegon National Forest, WisconsinWisconsin

Simulations: Simulations:

•The current landscape was considered as the non-harvested (i.e., control) to be compared with four other hypothetical landscapes created with the HARVEST model: two types of harvesting methods, clustered (C) and dispersed (D) patterns and two levels of amount of harvest (i.e., 2% & 4% harvest of the total landscape)

•Mean wind speed was 8 km/hour from multiple directions. The mean temperature for this time was 18.1 oC. Humidity varied from 43% to 99%

•Rain and wind were set to increase by 100% and decrease by 50% to simulate the highs and lows within the range that occurred over the past 100 years

•The nine combinations of the weather were applied equally to each of the five landscapes at the same 12 ignition locations, resulting in a total of 540 simulations

One simulated fireOne simulated fire

Harvest Percent area in each fuel type

Landscape

Area Units Brush Pine Hardwood Slash MPS AWMSI

(ha) (#) (5) (8) (10) (11) (ha)

Control N/A N/A 23.0 14.0 53.0 10.0 2.14 8.77

D2 718.9 74 23.0 13.7 51.8 11.5 2.10 8.95

C2 730.8 75 23.0 13.8 51.6 11.6 2.10 8.93

D4 1382.3 140 23.0 13.9 50.5 12.6 2.07 9.27

C4 1380.8 141 23.0 13.8 50.6 12.6 2.07 9.09

Landscape structure among the five landscapes generated from Landscape structure among the five landscapes generated from combinations of two levels and two methods of harvestingcombinations of two levels and two methods of harvesting

Location Control D2 C2 D4 C4

(ha)(ha) (ha) (ha) (ha)

13583 (113) 3566 (115) 3551 (110) 3514 (107) 3530 (93)

24001 (153) 3931 (147) 3956 (149) 3998 (145) 3906 (153)

35498 (250) 5409 (244) 5355 (235) 5330 (250) 5297 (250)

44630 (130) 4578 (84) 4368 (163) 4430 (135) 4399 (160)

54225 (104) 4170 (102) 4221 (119) 4202 (118) 4135 (95)

64257 (135) 4222 (133) 4213 (136) 4180 (136) 4166 (130)

74892 (142) 4864 (160) 4805 (164) 4815 (155) 4781 (139)

81630 (75) 1648 (73) 1647 (74) 1649 (75) 1649 (75)

93279 (118) 3244 (118) 3207 (119) 3195 (117) 3209 (101)

103930 (189) 3860 (164) 3876 (183) 3818 (164) 3810 (166)

114126 (176) 4029 (162) 4056 (168) 3961 (181) 3951 (175)

123784 (154) 3725 (152) 3722 (151) 3700 (144) 3724 (158)

Mean3986 3937 3915 3891 3880

STD950 928 909 909 895

Minimum1630 1647 1646 1649 1649

Maximum5498 5408 5355 5330 5297

The mean burned area of five different landscapes at each The mean burned area of five different landscapes at each fire-ignition locationfire-ignition location

Effect of landscape structure caused by harvesting Effect of landscape structure caused by harvesting on burned area (ha). on burned area (ha).

The influence of location on the area of fire spreadThe influence of location on the area of fire spread

Burned area among five landscapes by changing rainfallBurned area among five landscapes by changing rainfall