Annual Reports

2000–2001 Fire Research Science Report: Natural Resources Canada, Canadian Forest Service

Introduction

The Canadian Forest Service (CFS) is one of five sectors within Natural Resources Canada (NRCan) and the largest forest research organization in Canada. A main part of the CFS mandate is to conduct science and technology (S&T) development activities to facilitate sustainable forest management and to assist Canada in meeting its international commitments to global stewardship. The CFS S&T program currently focuses on interdisciplinary projects delivered within a framework of five issue-oriented networks:

• Climate Change and Fire
• Enhanced Timber Production and Protection
• Forest Ecosystem Processes
• Forest Health and Biodiversity
• Synthesis of Knowledge and Information

The CFS has conducted forest fire research since the 1920s, and numerous fundamental and applied research achievements have assisted Canada in becoming one of the world's leading nations in forest fire management. CFS fire research capacity reached its peak in the 1970s, and, although reductions and numerous changes have occurred since then, the program's resources have stabilized in the past few years. The strength of the fire research program has been its ability to use field-oriented, empirically based approaches to knowledge generation in combination with the development of decision support tools and techniques. Central to this process has been a strong collaborative working relationship with the operational forest fire management agencies in Canada. Recently, the number and type of clients requiring CFS fire research expertise have expanded significantly to include the forest industry, other research organizations, and federal and provincial policymakers.

The growing interest in understanding the role and impact of natural disturbances in Canada's forest ecosystems has resulted in an overall increase in the number of organizations and individuals outside of the CFS involved in forest fire research. This, along with changes in the federal government's S&T priorities and programs, has resulted in a shift of the CFS fire research program toward national and international issues. In this regard the CFS is taking a strong leadership role in addressing key fire management issues through interdisciplinary, multiagency initiatives in five subdisciplines of fire research (i.e., fire and global change, fire ecology, fire environment, fire management systems, and integrating fire and forest management). Where mutually beneficial opportunities exist, the CFS will also continue to collaborate on local or regional issues within the context of its national and international goals and objectives.

Currently the CFS has 28 indeterminate employees/positions at 4 establishments who are actively involved in forest fire research. This report presents a brief overview of their major activities for the fiscal year 2000–2001 followed by information on national research partners and collaborators and a list of current research personnel.

Major Accomplishments and Activities (April 2000 to March 2001)

The major accomplishments and activities of CFS fire research staff for the 2000–2001 fiscal year have been organized on the basis of relevance to the five CFS networks (although many projects have applicability or linkages to more than one network). A sixth category has been used to list work in the area of fire behavior and danger rating research.

Climate Change and Fire

• Research into predicting future Canadian forest fire regimes under a changing climate continued over the past year through funding from the Climate Change Action Fund (CCAF), the Program on Energy Research and Development, and Action Plan 2000. Numerous published studies suggest a significant increase in fire activity this century.
  
  
• A database of all large Canadian fires since 1959 has been developed, along with an hourly and daily weather database for this period, and baseline relationships between historical large-fire activity and climate have been identified.
  
  
• Future lightning-related fire activity in Canada is being evaluated, through modification of convective activity and lightning occurrence within the Canadian Regional Climate Model (RCM) and through a detailed investigation of lightning physics and lightning-caused fire occurrence.
  
  
• CFS fire scientists are involved at the climate change science–policy interface, working closely with policy experts in the development of Canada's negotiation strategy with respect to the Kyoto Protocol and subsequent agreements. This has involved a concerted effort to determine the carbon sink–source strength of Canadian forests and an evaluation of carbon sequestration opportunities within the managed forest in Canada. A number of fire scientists remain active in international research organizations dealing with fire-related issues at a global scale.
  
  
• A study on direct carbon emissions from Canadian fires for the period 1959 to 1999 was completed and published. Because of the role of fire in altering the forest and changing carbon dynamics, measurements of carbon fluxes from recently burned forests are being made directly with micrometeorological techniques. This work is related to a large national initiative called FLUXNET in which the impact of disturbance is being investigated by government and university scientists across the country.
  
  
• A national-scale study on net primary productivity (NPP) was completed, which describes relationships between NPP and time since fire for Canadian ecozones. These data give modelers an age-dependent formula to assess the impact of fire on NPP for early forest successional stages.
  
  
• Within a multiyear cooperative research program, the Russian FIRE BEAR (Fire Effects in the Boreal Eurasia Region) Project, two 4-ha experimental forest fires were completed in central Siberia in 2000. This project was initiated to understand the landscape extent and severity of forest fires and of factors affecting fire behavior; the effects of fire on carbon storage, air chemistry, vegetation dynamics, and structure; and forest health and productivity in the Russian boreal forest.
  
  
• Smoke emission data were gathered on six International Crown Fire Modeling Experiment (ICFME) burns for use in climate and environmental modeling. Accumulation and coarse-mode smoke aerosol data were analyzed for use in climate models to provide realistic inputs for carbonaceous atmospheric aerosol. Mercury concentrations in the plume were also measured and analyzed for use in environmental modeling because of this pollutant's effect on human health.
  
  
• A study was initiated to evaluate current and future forest fire occurrence and severity in British Columbia. This study will assess the ability of the RCM to simulate current fire weather conditions in the province, create scenarios of current and future fire weather and fire danger conditions, and develop models of future lightning-caused and human-caused fire occurrence.
  
  
• A study to develop techniques to assess the present and future fire behavior potential of forest landscapes continued during this year. The primary effort focused on estimating spatial and temporal variation in potential head fire intensity in Saskatchewan under a changing climate using the Canadian RCM.

Enhanced Timber Production and Protection

• Further research and development was conducted in the area of wildfire threat rating. This included development of a prototype application for the Robson Valley Ministry of Forests District in British Columbia. Collaborative work and technology transfer efforts also occurred with a forest company of Alberta and the provincial governments of Alberta and Saskatchewan. A tool for rating wildfire threat rating has also been incorporated into the Spatial Fire Management System (sFMS).
  
  
• A pilot project aimed at incorporating landscape-level fuel treatments into forest management planning and timber supply modeling to reduce area burned was completed. This cooperative project led to the production of a journal paper describing the concepts and principles of fire-smart forest management. A 4-day professional development course and several presentations were also made at regional, national, and international conferences and workshops to disseminate the information to fire and forest managers. Further research on the impacts and return on investment of fire-smart forest management strategies is being conducted through collaboration with governments and universities. Use of these techniques as an adaptation strategy for climate change is also being investigated.
  
  
• The CFS continued to be involved in synthesis and dissemination of information on assessing and mitigating the threat of wildfire to homes and communities in Canada's wildland–urban interface. This work is being conducted in conjunction with the Partners in Protection and includes the distribution of FireSmart: Protecting Your Community from Wildfire as a manual, CD-ROM, and on the Web (http://www.partnersinprotection.ab.ca). This FireSmart project received several awards including an NRCan merit award for team achievement.

Forest Ecosystem Processes

• Several studies looking at the long-term fire history of the boreal forest in eastern Ontario and western and central Quebec have been completed. Using archives and dendroecological data, fire frequency in four large sectors along a transect from eastern Ontario to central Quebec were reconstructed. Results showed a dramatic decrease in fire frequency that began in the mid-19th century and has been accentuated during the 20th century. A report on the reconstruction of the fire history of the Lake Abitibi Model Forest has also been produced.
  
  
• The development phase of the Boreal Fire Effects Model (BORFIRE) to simulate fire regime and vegetation dynamics was completed, and initial simulation results were presented at an international conference. Further testing of the model is occurring as part of a study on the ecological and biomass impacts of future climate change on boreal forests and the effect of fire management strategies in adaptation to climate change.
  
  
• In conjunction with Jasper National Park, a study is being conducted on the effects of fire in the montane ecosystem. It incorporates the measurement of ecosystem effects of prescribed fire, including interactions with elk browsing. Other postfire effects and vegetation response data continue to be collected on a number of sites in the boreal forest as well.
  
  
• A study looking at the relationship between fire severity, vegetation type (hardwood, mixedwood, or coniferous forest), and establishment of black spruce (Picea mariana), jack pine (Pinus banksiana), and trembling aspen (Populus tremuloides) in Quebec has been completed.
  
  
• The fifth year of soil, vegetation, and pine regeneration surveys following a 1995 wildfire in Quetico Provincial Park was completed as part of the Quetico fire ecology study.
  
  
• Landscape fire models are being examined to explore the interaction between fire and vegetation at the landscape scale. Also, modules from these models will be employed to examine the potential impact of climate change on landscape fires. For more information, see the following Web site:
  National Center for Ecological Analysis and Synthesis

Forest Health and Biodiversity

• Two multidisciplinary studies were initiated related to fire and insect interactions in British Columbia. The first will determine the impacts of mountain pine beetle attacks on stand and ecosystem dynamics by using long-term stand dynamics plots. The second project involves construction of fire and insect databases, Web site development, and initial analysis of factors influencing mountain pine beetle (Dendroctonus ponderosae) outbreak patterns and fire incidence and behavior. A third project to determine vegetation succession and changes in fire potential after spruce beetle (Dendroctonus rufipennis) attack was also initiated in the Yukon.
  
  
• The CFS continued its involvement in the Ecosystem Management by Emulating Natural Disturbance study in northwestern Alberta. This major international study is comparing the effects of various logging and fire treatments on ecosystem processes, biodiversity, and forest productivity in the boreal mixedwood forest. Significant information on logging treatments has been obtained; however, because of weather and other factors, the number of burns has been limited.

Synthesis of Knowledge and Information

• The Canadian Wildland Fire Information System (CWFIS) and the Fire Monitoring, Mapping and Modeling (M3) programs continue to be operated at the Northern Forestry Centre (NoFC). The CWFIS displays, over the Internet, daily national maps of potential fire danger as modeled by the Canadian Forest Fire Weather Index (FWI) System and the Canadian Forest Fire Behavior Prediction (FBP) System. Output maps also have been transferred to The Weather Network/MétéoMédia for Internet and television display. Systems similar to the CWFIS have been set up in Florida and for Mexico, Southeast Asia, northern Europe, and Asia. For further information see the Fire Management Systems Web site at http://cwfis.cfs.nrcan.gc.ca/.

• The Fire M3 project displays hotspot data as observed by satellite. National daily hotspot maps and data are then provided over the Internet. This project was developed in cooperation with the Canada Centre for Remote Sensing (CCRS), a sector of NRCan.

• Development and support for the sFMS is ongoing. A 3-day workshop conducted for current and potential users of this system in February 2001 was attended by individuals from many of the fire management agencies in Canada.

• Further enhancements are being made to models developed to predict the daily number of fire occurrences across the landscape. These include prediction models for lightning-caused and human-caused fire occurrence. Operational implementation of some models is occurring in some provinces.

• The CFS is cooperating with the province of Alberta (with support from most fire management agencies in Canada) in the development of the Canadian Wildland Fire Growth Model, Prometheus. This is a PC-based program that will initially be used for real-time fire growth projections in operational settings (e.g., large wildfires). A beta-version of this program is expected to be ready for testing by March 2002.

• CFS fire research staff are involved in the Earth Observation for Sustainable Development of Forests (EOSD) project. The goal of EOSD is to create, with advanced space technologies, the world's best monitoring system to aid in meeting Canada's national and international commitments. The key products, all related to remote sensing data, will be forest cover, forest change, biomass, and automated processing.

• Refinements are being made to the Prescribed Fire Analysis System (PFAS), which predicts potential fire growth over long periods (weeks to months). This is achieved by spatially combining the probability of fire spread with the probability of a fire-stopping event.

• The Fire Management Systems program at NoFC has undertaken a project to implement fire danger rating systems in several Southeast Asian countries. To do this, a dedicated team has been added to the program through the support of the Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA). The purpose of the Southeast Asia Fire Danger Rating project is to enhance the capacity of resource management organizations in Southeast Asia to manage land and forest fires and associated haze. The project supports CIDA's goal to strengthen environmental management capacity in the countries of Southeast Asia and to enhance regional cooperation in transboundary issues.

Fire Behavior/Danger Rating

• The final two phases (IV and V) of the ICFME took place in June 2000 and June 2001. Seven additional experimental crown fires were documented including the treated/untreated plot, which dramatically demonstrated that pruning and light thinning must be accompanied by reduction of the forest floor layer to reduce the potential for crown fire formation. For more information see the following Web site: http://nofc.cfs.nrcan.gc.ca/research/environment/environment_e.htm.
  
  
• Research continued on improving the Canadian Forest FBP System for the mixedwood fuel component. In cooperation with the Ontario Ministry of Natural Resources, two experimental fires were ignited on 1-ha plots during the spring burning period. Four plots now remain unburned and available for future burning.
  
  
• The CFS continued to cooperate with land management agencies in Canada and the USA in developing and conducting technology transfer and training programs (e.g., courses, lectures, field demonstrations) for field personnel and managers on various aspects of fire weather, fire danger, and fire behavior. Also, an interactive training CD-ROM entitled Wildland Fire -- Safety on the Fireline and a companion article ("The Application of Interactive Multimedia CD-ROM Technology to Wildland Fire Safety Training") were produced. Development of another CD-ROM training course on the Canadian Forest FWI System is under way.
  
  
• The CFS also played a key role in organizing and conducting the 2000 Interior West Fire Council Annual Meeting and Workshop entitled "People, Ecosystems and Wildland Fires—Working in Harmony," held in Edmonton in October 2000. This event was attended by over 200 fire managers from Canada and the USA.

National Partners and Collaborators

The key to success in the current research environment in Canada and elsewhere is networking, formation of alliances, cooperative research ventures, and effective technology transfer of research products. CFS fire research staff have been highly visible in all these areas by forging partnerships with industrial clients (Weyerhaeuser, Canadian Forest Products, Millar Western), provincial and territorial governments, foreign countries such as Indonesia and Mexico, Forest Renewal BC, and universities (e.g., through the Sustainable Forest Management Network of the National Centres of Excellence and other federal government funding bodies such as ENFOR and the CCAF). In addition, research collaboration with government scientists from the CCRS, Atmospheric Environment Service, National Research Council of Canada, Agriculture Canada, and Parks Canada has resulted in synergies with regard to research productivity and stretching of resources. The close working relationship between CFS fire research staff and the Canadian Interagency Forest Fire Centre working groups on Fire Science and Technology and Fire Training persists and continues to be nurtured. Alliances with members of the Canadian Model Forest system (McGregor, Foothills, Manitoba and Lake Abitibi model forests) have also proven highly beneficial in terms of funding support, formulation of research questions and priorities, testing of products, and technology transfer activities.

CFS Fire Research Personnel

As of April 2001 the CFS had 28 indeterminate staff members plus 9 term employees working on various aspects of forest fire research. They are listed according to their establishment and main field(s) of study/work.

Further Information

Further information about NRCan, the CFS, and its fire research program is available through the following Web sites:

NRCan - http://www.nrcan.gc.ca/
CFS - http://www.nrcan.gc.ca/cfs-scf/
CFS Fire Research - http://nofc.cfs.nrcan.gc.ca/fire/