Description Of A Field Report On A Fire

Submitted By LongWong6969
Words: 552
Pages: 3

Pedro Recendez
For 101
March 4 2013 Field Report We started out by looking at a cross section of a tree that had scarring because of the fire. The scarring was evident because the tree started growing awkwardly in the areas that were full of scar tissue. By counting the rings we where able to see when the fires occurred. We then moved on to a stand of trees right next to the forestry building. We saw a lot of horizontal fuels, Pine needles, and we noticed that the trees had been pruned which meant that the amount of ladder fuels had been reduced. By reducing the ladder fuels the risk of the fire getting to the crown layer was reduced; However, the fire risk was still high because of the quantity of horizontal fuels, which where pine needles that would easily ignite. We then moved to another stand to the north. This stand was full of deciduous trees which cause less of a hazard than pine. They cause less of a hazard because they lose their leaves in winter which leads to less fuels in the winter, and the leaves they drop have a higher surface area which increases the amount of energy needed to to ignite. After briefly looking at that stand we walked over to the south side of McConnell where we looked at a stand of ponderous pine. The amount of surface fuels at this stand was much higher , most of it consisting of litter and some woody debris. With a trowel we examined the surface fuels and dug into the duff layer. Here we found more woody debris and many pine needles that where already far into the decomposition cycle. After digging a little further we reached the ground fuels. The surface fuels were not much of a problem because we where able to predict the fire behavior. This was done by examining the spread of the fuels and if fire did catch we would be able easily remove some of the fuels and quickly stop the fire. However, a major