Evaluating the Burn

1. Evaluating the Burn Belize Fire Workshop Rio Bravo Conservation and Management Area Scott Simon

2. Burn Evaluation Objectives • Describe several ways to evaluate the effectiveness of the burn • Post operation report • Photo-monitoring • Post burn fire effects assessment • Plant community and faunal monitoring

3. Why evaluate a burn? • Did the burn proceed as planned - operationally? • Did the burn accomplish desired objectives? • Is fire management, over time, accomplishing plant community structure and composition goals for the unit? • Are the prescribed burns, over time, achieving • landscape and program goals?

4. Weather Fuel conditions Timing Firelines Equipment Crew Fire behavior Public relations Fuel reduction Ecological effects What do you evaluate?

5. Weather Fuel Conditions • Were the fuel condition within plan guidelines? • Were the plan guidelines adequate? • Was on-site weather within prescription? • As forecasted? • Changes in weather during the burn? • Suitable for desired fire behavior?

6. Equipment Firebreaks • Was the equipment in the plan available? • Did the equipment work? • Was the equipment appropriate? • Were the firebreaks installed as planned? • Were the firebreaks wide enough to hold the fire? • Were hazards along the line minimized?

7. Timing Crew and Briefing • Did the burn start on time? • Was the perimeter fire ignited within the predicted time? • Did the unit burn out as scheduled and expected? • Were the crew number, training, and assignments appropriate? • Did the crew understand what they were doing?

8. Desired fire behavior Was the rate of spread, fire intensity, and flame lengths as predicted? Smoke? What smoke? Was smoke behavior as predicted? Public Relations Were the public interactions safe, informative and satisfactory to all?

9. Coverage Char height Char degree Scorch height Scorch percent Substrate severity Understory severity Burn Severity - Organic Substrate Did The Burn Meet Burn Objectives? • Light - Litter partially blackened, duff unchanged • Moderate - Litter partially consumed, upper duff burned • Heavy - Litter and duff consumed, leaving white ash, duff deeply burned

10. Burn Severity - Understory • Light - Foliage scorched and attached to twigs • Moderate - Foliage and small stems consumed • Heavy - All plant parts consumed leaving some or no major stems/trunks Mortality from the burn Where there any surprises???

11. Recommend Plan Adjustments • How make burn safer and smoother in the future? • How change prescription to achieve objectives? • General recommendations for future burns at this site.

12. Flora and fauna monitoring to determine 2nd order effects • Plant community structure and composition • Plant community mosaic (size, shape, patterns) • Fauna (sensitive species, indicator species) • Rel. freq., cover, and dom. summarized in I.V. • Correlate with severity, seasonality, frequency of burns - fire regime

13. Fire Program Goals • Acres burned per year • Safety • Cost • Status of species of concern • Fuel reduction • Public perceptions • A good post burn evaluation