Wildland Urban

1
SWFCO 2003
Wildland Urban Interface
2
WILDLAND URBAN INTERFACE (WUI)
The WUI includes those areas of resident
populations at imminent risk from wildfire, and
human developments having special significance.
These areas may include critical communications
sites, municipal watersheds, high voltage
transmission lines, observatories, church camps,
scout camps, research facilities, and
other structures that if destroyed by fire, would
result in hardship to communities. These areas
encompass not only the sites themselves, but also
the continuous slopes and fuels that lead
directly to the sites, regardless of the distance
involved. R-3 Supplement to FSM 5140, effective
August 4, 2000
3
Scripps Ranch, California
Scripps Ranch, California 2003
4
WILDLAND URBAN INTERFACE (WUI)
The urban wildland interface community exists
where humans and their development meet or
intermix with wildland fuel. Federal Register
Vol 66 no 3, January, 2001
5
Coronado N.F. Arizona
6
(No Transcript)
7
(No Transcript)
8
(No Transcript)
9
(No Transcript)
10
(No Transcript)
11
Dude Fire, Arizona June 26, 1990
12
Rattlesnake Fire Chiricahua Mtns., Arizona July
1994
13
Rainbow Fire, June 11, 1999 Photo George Leech
14
Rainbow Fire Ft. Apache, Arizona June 11,
1999 Photo George Leech
15
Los Alamos, NM May 10, 2000 Wednesday Night
16
Los Alamos, NM May 10, 2000 Wednesday Night
17
Los Alamos May 11 Thursday
18
Los Alamos, May 11Thursday
19

• Los Alamos Watershed
• May 14, 2000

20
Bosque Fire Los Lunas, NM June 2000
21
The Rodeo-Chediski Fire, 2002

• Burned 468,638 acres
• 467 Homes burned or damaged
• In Arizonas recorded history, it was the
• Largest
• Most extreme fire

22
California Wildfires, 2003

• Worst in 10yrs
• 20 fatalities
• 50 Square miles
• Approximately 3000 homes lost

23
WILDLAND URBAN INTERFACE
OBJECTIVES

• To identify and propose treatments within each
  WUI area that will keep wildfire out of the
• tree crowns and on the ground where
  suppression efforts can be more successful.
  
  
• To keep wildfire from moving into WUI areas
  from Federal Lands.
• To keep wildfire from moving onto Federal Lands
  from the WUI.
• To obtain support for rapid treatments from the
  public, local communities, and states.
• To grasp, understand, and implement treatments
  that will prevent future WUI impacts
• similar to those that have occurred during
  the spring and summer of 2000.
• To minimize the impacts to TEP species while
  providing protection to life and property.
• To expedite the consultation process between
  land management agencies and the USFWS.
• To obtain accurate estimates of acres and real
  costs associated with treatment in the WUI areas.
• To provide a master plan for treating the WUI
  that can be easily updated once a year

24
We may have a process predicament???!!!

• Websters definition a complicated, perplexing
  situation from which it is difficult to
  disentangle oneself.

25
Treat and maintain fuels, so that fire behavior
on a hot, dry, windy June day remains on the
ground!
WUI FUEL TREATMENT OBJECTIVE
26

• Treatments and Prescriptions that include
  ALL fuels.

27
Curley Fire Coconino NF 1976
28
(No Transcript)
29
(No Transcript)
30
(No Transcript)
31
(No Transcript)
32
(No Transcript)
33
85 yrs. later
(June 17, 1980)
34
Mixed Confier 210 B.A.
35
Ponderosa Pine 200 B.A.
36
Ponderosa Pine 150 B.A.
37
Ponderosa Pine 150 B.A.
38
Ponderosa Pine 100 B.A.
39
Ponderosa Pine 100 B.A.
40
Ponderosa Pine 60 B.A.
41
Ponderosa Pine 50 B.A.
42
(No Transcript)
43
Stand Visualization System
Wildfire in 2035
44
Stand Visualization System
Underburn Now, Wildfire in 2035
45
Stand Visualization System
Thin Now, Wildfire in 2035
46
Ponderosa Pine 40 B.A.
Treatment goals cannot be met with diameter
restrictions!
47
Ponderosa Pine 40 B.A.
48
(No Transcript)
49
WUI Fuel Treatments are public perceptions of
fire safe communities
50
NEXT STEPS

• . Coordinate GIS mapping with States and other
  agencies
• on adjacent WUI projects.
• Assist States and other agencies in development
  of
• programmatic consultation on adjacent lands.
• Develop joint treatment projects through SP
  forestry
• that restore forest health and maintain the
  ecosystems.
• Gain local media support for WUI treatments.
• Joint treatment projects regardless of land
  ownership.

51
Collaboration is not about getting to know your
neighbors !!!
52
WUI- Its not about definitions! Its about
doing the right things!
53
(No Transcript)