Rio Bravo Conservation and Evaluating the Burn Belize Fire Workshop Rio Bravo Conservation and Management Area Scott Simon Thank others - Tom Foti, Meryl Hattenbach, all of the burn and monitoring crews.

Burn Evaluation Objectives Describe several ways to evaluate the effectiveness of the burn Post operation report Photo-monitoring Post burn fire effects assessment Plant community and faunal monitoring

Why evaluate a burn? Did the burn proceed as planned - operationally? Did the burn accomplish desired objectives? Is fire management, over time, accomplishing plant community structure and composition goals for the unit? Are the prescribed burns, over time, achieving landscape and program goals?

What do you evaluate? Weather Fuel conditions Timing Firelines Equipment Crew Fire behavior Public relations Fuel reduction Ecological effects

Weather Fuel Conditions Was on-site weather within prescription? As forecasted? Changes in weather during the burn? Suitable for desired fire behavior? Were the fuel condition within plan guidelines? Were the plan guidelines adequate?

Equipment Firebreaks Was the equipment in the plan available? Did the equipment work? Was the equipment appropriate? Were the firebreaks installed as planned? Were the firebreaks wide enough to hold the fire? Were hazards along the line minimized?

Crew and Briefing Timing Did the burn start on time? Was the perimeter fire ignited within the predicted time? Did the unit burn out as scheduled and expected? Were the crew number, training, and assignments appropriate? Did the crew understand what they were doing?

Smoke? What smoke? Public Relations Desired fire behavior Was the rate of spread, fire intensity, and flame lengths as predicted? Smoke? What smoke? Was smoke behavior as predicted? Public Relations Were the public interactions safe, informative and satisfactory to all?

Did The Burn Meet Burn Objectives? Burn Severity - Organic Substrate Light - Litter partially blackened, duff unchanged Moderate - Litter partially consumed, upper duff burned Heavy - Litter and duff consumed, leaving white ash, duff deeply burned Coverage Char height Char degree Scorch height Scorch percent Substrate severity Understory severity

Burn Severity - Understory Light - Foliage scorched and attached to twigs Moderate - Foliage and small stems consumed Heavy - All plant parts consumed leaving some or no major stems/trunks Mortality from the burn Previous fire got this patchiness so not great for fescue control but Where there any surprises???

Recommend Plan Adjustments How make burn safer and smoother in the future? How change prescription to achieve objectives? General recommendations for future burns at this site.

Flora and fauna monitoring to determine 2nd order effects Plant community structure and composition Plant community mosaic (size, shape, patterns) Fauna (sensitive species, indicator species) Rel. freq., cover, and dom. summarized in I.V. Correlate with severity, seasonality, frequency of burns - fire regime

Fire Program Goals Acres burned per year Safety Cost Status of species of concern Fuel reduction Public perceptions A good post burn evaluation