NEWS RELEASE U.S.
Department of Agriculture Lassen National Forest September
30, 2002 http://www.r5.fs.fed.us/lassen/incident/conefire Cone Fire Information (530) 257-5575/9553
Cone Fire Burns Experimental Forest
(Susanville, CALIF.) The Cone Fire that began on Thursday, September 26, on the Lassen
National Forest (N.F.), is providing wildland fire experts and forestry
researchers a unique view of the effects of fuel treatments on an active
wildfire and the fire’s effects on the forest ecosystem.
This situation is unique due to the fact that the fire is
burning in areas on the Lassen N.F. that have received extensive fuel
treatments including prescribed fire and tree thinning. The fire is also burning in the Blacks Mountain Experimental Forest (BMEF), which was created
in 1934 to study extensive pine forest ecosystems.
Initial observations indicate that the experimental forest
experienced a high intensity burn in areas that received no treatment. The timber stands that had been treated with
thinning, prescribed fire, or both experienced a low intensity ground fire,
resulting in lower tree mortality.
Initial observations indicate that the treatments were very effective in
slowing down and sometimes even stopping the fire.
The BMEF is an
active research project within the forest and is one of the few forests in
America with more than 50 years of recorded data. Experimental treatments were conducted on twelve 250-acre
plots. Each of the 250-acre research
plots was mechanically thinned and half were treated by prescribed fire.
The last sizeable fire within the experimental forest was
in 1910. 1,600 acres of the 2,000-acre
Cone Fire burned in the Blacks Mountain Experimental Forest. Pacific Southwest (PSW) Station scientist
Bill Oliver, along with Eagle Lake District Ranger Bob Andrews, and District
Silviculturist Al Vazquez, surveyed the burned portions of the experimental
forest and provided the initial observations.
Bill Oliver realizes that the Cone Fire gives scientists an
opportunity to evaluate and record the effects of the fuel treatments on areas
later impacted by wildfire. In
November, Oliver will be bringing a scientific team to the burned treatment
areas to assess the effects. “We need
to analyze the treated and untreated areas that burned and document those
findings,” Oliver said Saturday afternoon.
The NorCal Interagency Incident Management Team II will be
actively managing the Cone Fire for the next few days and is available to
conduct media tours of the burned area.
Please contact Cone Fire Information at 530-257-3719 or Susanville
Interagency Fire Center at 530-257-5575 to arrange for a tour.
Additional information on the Blacks Mountain Experimental
Forest can be accessed on the Internet at www.redding.psw.fs.fed.us/bmef/html,
or call
916-246-5455.
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Fire in Treated Area Fire in Untreated Area