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Prescribed Burning in the Kings River Ecosystems Project Area: Lessons

prescribed fire program on the Sierra National Forest is in its infancy. Prescription burning was initiated in 1994 in two 32,000-acre watersheds in the Kings River District of the Sierra National Forest. Primary objectives are to return fire to a more historical role in forest ecosystems and to provide opportunities for scientists from the Pacific Southwest Research Station, and elsewhere to study various effects of these fires. Approximately 11,900 acres of prescription burns were completed by the end of 1999, and documents required by the National Environmental Policy Act have been completed for burning on about 23,000 additional acres. A Draft Landscape Analysis Plan has been prepared and reviewed, and a final draft is presently in preparation. Two fuels-reduction projects are nearly completed, using small-group selection, thinning of conifers, conversion of brush patches to conifer stands, and prescribed burning. A second fuels-reduction project is currently being planned. Many lessons have been learned that relate to needed equipment, crew size, lighter experience, and ignition methods; indicators of appropriate times and places to burn; weather patterns; indicators of desirable flame lengths and fire intensities; indicators of the effects of burns on fuels, duff layer, and soil; and measures of the extent of brush, surface fuels, and ladder fuels removed by burns differing in intensity. Past efforts to underburn with prescribed fire on the Kings River Ranger District of the Sierra National Forest consisted of isolated, 100- to 1,000-acre projects spread over the district during the 1970's. The main objective was to improve summer forage for mule deer (Odocoileus hemionus) of the North Kings herd (Eaton 1978). These projects were single-entry burns done mainly during fall in mixed-conifer and red fir (Abies magnifica) vegetation types, although some burning in the ponderosa pine (Pinus ponderosa) type occurred during spring months. Opinions varied about whether these burns were successful forest management practices. Some evidence indicated improved forage for deer (Bertram and others 1978), although several fire-salvage timber harvests were done in the area immediately after the prescribed burns in the 1980s. We have no records of underburning between 1980 and 1989. With the exception of a 60-acre underburn in 1990 in the area covered by the Kings River Sustainable Forest Ecosystems Project, the current underburning program began in 1994. We presently have 23,000 acres of underburning covered by National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) documents for the Kings River District, and all but 3,000 of those acres are within boundaries of the Kings River Project (fig. 1). Prescribed burning has been completed on 11,900 acres during the past 6 years, 3,900 acres of which are second-entry burns (that is, burned twice). Most of the prescribed burns are routinely accomplished without thinning or other mechanical pretreatment of fuels. Much of the landbase has not seen fire of any type for over 100 years.