Measuring Ladder Fire Fuels

How should we measure ladder fire fuels in oak woodlands?

Presenter: Christopher Aguilar

Co-Presenter(s):
Eloisa Burke, Stef Delgado, Mia Furman, Angeline Gorenflo, Shannon Manhoso, Frida Pereira, Rosa Ramirez, Brieanne Forbes, Paris Krause

Presenter Status: Undergraduate student

Department: Biology

Screenshot URL: https://drive.google.com/uc?id=1-8krSJyLxH06H0ZaxsBtnug7w6bq1wVD

Abstract:
Wildfires are becoming larger due to climate change and historical fire suppression, requiring reevaluation of fuels management approaches. Canopy base height (CBH; the height from the ground to the base of each tree’s foliage, averaged across a plot) is a proxy for canopy fuels used in fire behavior models. However, it is challenging to measure CBH directly in oak-woodlands. Here, we compare measurements of CBH with a relative ladder fuel cover metric: 1) calculated from photos taken in front of a 4m tall banner and analyzed with ImageJ and 2) derived from airborne LiDAR from 1m to 4m in our study plots. Moreover, we compared two different types of banners and two different types of photo acquisition methods to determine which approach led to less measurement variability. This work was carried out in plots with varying wildfire histories at Pepperwood Preserve and on the SSU campus.