DEFENSIBLE FUEL PROFILE ZONES (SHADED FUEL BREAKS)

 

Herger-Feinstein Quincy Library Group

Forest Recovery Act

Pilot Project

By Frank Stewart, Counties QLG Forester

Editing and web layout by Michael De Lasaux

Photo #1?

 

  Within the eight county area encompassed by the QLG Pilot Project there have been 24 wildfires since the Act was signed into law. The fires have burned some 270,000 acres. The fires have resulted in several lost lives, loss of hundreds (how many?) of homes, considerable critical wildlife habitat degraded and watershed damage.

Forty-five percent of the acres burned were private property with the remaining 55 percent being national forests that are a part of the QLG Pilot Project area.

Several fuel reduction and fire protection Defensible Fuel Profile Zone (DFPZ) projects have been constructed within the Pilot Project area.

The intent of this page is to illustrate how the DFPZs were utilized by the fire fighting agencies in their suppression efforts. It is also intended to show the reduction in fire intensity and damage severity that results when stand-destroying high intensity fires encounter DFPZs.

  

 

Contents

 

  1. Defensible Fuel Profile Zones - schematic illustration, photographs and a map showing the 1,400 mile network to be constructed under the QLG Pilot Project.
  2. Local Fire Problem - Approximately 5 percent of the Pilot Project area of influence has burned since the HFQLG Act became law. Forty-three percent of the acres that burned were on private property.
  3. Hazardous Fuel Conditions - Examples of fuel conditions that exist on national forest lands inside the QLG Pilot Project area.
  4. Dead landscapes - 143,650 acres of national forest lands encompassed by the QLG Pilot Project area have burned since the Act became law. Forty to fifty percent of the acreage burned as high intensity which destroyed habitat and degraded watershed conditions.
  5. "Tested" Defensible Fuel Profile Zones - DFPZs with the QLG Pilot Project area have been tested by forest fires and been utilized by fire suppression forces.

 

Defensible Fuel Profile Zones (DFPZs) are strategically located linear fuel reduction and fire protection areas that ...
aerial photo of fuel break with treated area on right and untreated on left.
DFPZ on the right side of the road shows safe access opportunities for fire suppression crews.

Schematic diagram here.
Schematic diagram that illustrates the design of a DFPZ. Note that fewer snags and down large woody debris are retained within the Primary Zone for the safety of fire fighters and the public.