Having near-real time access to herbaceous standing fuel conditions can be a vital tool for decision making and planning for wildfire prevention, control, and mitigation. By combining field validated data with plant growth models and remote sensing technology, daily maps of fuel conditions may be generated for wildfire management. Field data were collected from a three-county area in north-central Texas through a combination of basal cover, frequency and biomass measurements. Data were then entered into the Phytomass Growth Simulator (PHYGROW), which is a daily time-step growth model often used in drought and wildfire early warning systems. Model outputs were interpolated across the study area based upon NRCS Ecological Site Descriptions to give an estimate of fuel load deviation from a 50-year average. Model estimates were cross-checked with additional field sampling. Map outputs and data are stored online and are accessible to managers through an interactive web interface that is overlain on Google maps. Land managers can use this data to plan the acquisition and movement of resources such as personnel and equipment to areas that are more at-risk, or to help coordinate fuel reduction treatments.
Oral presentation and poster titles, abstracts, and authors from the Society for Range Management (SRM) Annual Meetings and Tradeshows, from 2013 forward.