Measuring bushfire fuels is important to many different people for so many different reasons;
Calculating the likely success of first attack; prioritising fuel reduction treatments; figuring out optimum fire frequency; calculating fuel accumulation rates; assessing risks and hazards; measuring carbon release; estimating smoke production (to name a few).
This project poses questions to those interested in fire fuels: Why collect fuels data? What do we seek to learn from fuels data? Should we collect fuels data across Australia in a uniform way? How would we store the information? What are the gaps in the knowledge about fuels? and more...
Thursday, August 18, 2011
Exploring the Rocky Mountain Research Station
Jim Reardon from the US Forest Service, Missoula Rocky Mountain Research Station's Fire, Fuel and Smoke Program took me on a tour of the Fire Lab. Here are a few things I discovered...
the objectives of the Fire Modelling Institute at the Fire Lab
designing an apparatus for an experiment
and here it is
this was the control panel for the combustion lab
now this is the control panel for the combustion lab
inside the combustion lab
Simulating an upslope forest fire in the combustion lab
this is what they use to simulate pine needles
the straw is wrapped around metal stakes to simulate the trees
this is where Dick Rothermel came up with his fire behaviour model
I was lucky enough to see the combustion lab in action with Matt Jolly, Ecologist who is currently working on linking photosynthesis and combustion characteristics in live fuels.
