1. Duncan Lutes Systems for Environmental Management Bob Keane – USFS – Research Ecologist, P.I. Carl Key – USGS – Geographer John Caratti – SEM – Systems Ecologist Nathan Benson – NPS – Fire Ecologist Steve Sutherland – USFS - Research Ecologist Larry Gangi – SEM – Programmer Courtney Couch – USFS - Illustrator

2. Why Monitor? Required by Federal Law Reservation Policy

3. We need to know: Who initiated the treatments… What treatments were applied… Why those treatments were used… Where the treatments were applied… When the treatments were applied… Need to review treatment effectiveness to be certain that goals and objectives have been achieved and, if not, critically review treatments to identify mistakes. (adaptive management)

4. What is FIREMON? In brief, it is a fire effects monitoring package that includes the following components: 1) Integrated sampling strategy. 2) Sampling procedures. 3) Microsoft Access database. 4) Data analysis and report writing tools.

5. FIREMON Components 1) Integrated Sampling Strategy What sampling approach to use: 1)Relevé 2)Statistical Uses project goals and objectives, and resources to assist in determining:

6. What sampling intensity should be used for each method: 1) Detailed 2) Moderate 3) Simple What sampling methods to use: 1)Surface Fuels 2)Trees 3)Vegetation 4)Fire severity FIREMON Components Integrated Sampling Strategy

7. FIREMON Components 2) Sampling methods Plot Description Registration and project codes Biophysical settings Cover estimates Tree Shrub Herbaceous Composite Fine and coarse woody debris Photo fields…

8. FIREMON Components Sampling methods Fuel Load Surface fuel biomass via: Brown’s planar intercept for fine and coarse woody debris Profile for estimating duff/litter depth and the proportion of litter Live and dead herb and shrub cover, and height

9. FIREMON Components Sampling methods Tree Data Live and Dead Overstory Understory Regeneration Species, status, DBH, height, percent live crown, crown position, age, scorch height, char height…

10. FIREMON Components Sampling methods Species Composition Ocular estimate of vegetation cover on 0.1 acre macroplot, by species and layer

11. FIREMON Components Sampling methods Cover and Frequency Quadrat based estimation of cover and rooted frequency by species. Primarily used for grasses, forbs and small shrubs.

12. FIREMON Components Sampling methods Density Counts of entities within belt transects or quadrats.

13. FIREMON Components Sampling methods Point Cover Point based estimates of low vegetation or ground cover, primarily less than 4 feet tall.

14. FIREMON Components Sampling methods Line Intercept Cover estimates of, generally, taller vegetation.

15. FIREMON Components Sampling methods Rare Species Individual plant survey and mapping.

16. FIREMON Components Sampling methods Composite Burn Index Burn severity determined by subjective rating of ecological components in three strata: substrate, understory, overstory. Used for post-fire sampling.

17. FIREMON Components Analysis method Normalized Burn Ratio Landsat TM based assessment of burn severity. Uses differences in reflectance between before and after images of fire. CBI methods are used to calibrate imagery. Landscape scale, 30-meter resolution.

18. Moose Fire, MT - 2001 Whitefish LakeNorth Fork, Flathead Werner Peak Fire North

19. FIREMON Components Fire Behavior General information related to burn conditions, such as fuel moistures, RH, temp, wind speed, plume behavior… Metadata Table to store anything else - project description, goals and objectives, sampling modifications…

20. FIREMON Components Data Storage FIREMON database Plot Description Tree Data Fuel Load Species Composition Point Cover Density Cover/Frequency Line Intercept Composite Burn Index Fire Behavior Metadata

21. FIREMON Components 3) Database Designed to look like field data sheets. Fields have drop-down lists. FIREMON database is being used for the LANDFIRE project.

23. FIREMON Components 4) Analysis Tools Ability to write reports and analyze field data. Uses sampling event to track changes over time. Group/summarize plots as desired.

24. Analysis Tools program includes exportable graphs and reports at the plot level or by user defined strata. Dunnett’s multiple comparison procedure to identify significant differences in attribute means over time. Output of FVS-FFE ready tree and fuels files. FIREMON Analysis Tools

27. FVS-FFE files

28. www.firelab.org/firemon and frames.nbii.gov