PARENT SESSION
Poster Session #48: Urban Ecology.
Thursday, August 8. Presentation from 8:00 AM to 9:30 AM. Exhibit Hall B & C, TCC

Fuels reduction research for Kaibab Paiute villages.

WILKERSON, AARON^*,1, ¹ Northern Arizona University, Flagstaff, AZ

ABSTRACT- Fuels reduction research to protect homes on the Kaibab Paiute Reservation from the threat of wildfire has been initiated. The goals of this community-based project include research to better understand past disturbance regimes and native vegetation. The area of study extends approximately one-half mile outside existing fenced boundaries of Steamboat and Red Hills villages that have dominant sagebrush steppe vegetation with some mixed pinyon juniper. All vegetation types, densities, terrain variations, prevailing winds and fuel loads were examined in the study area in order to design visual models based on data collected in the field and from aerial and satellite images. Fire threat to the villages was evaluated from these models, presented to the village communities, and decisions for effective protection treatments to be implemented during the fall and spring of 2002-2003 will be presented. These treatments include a disked furrow along the outside perimeter of each village seeded with native grasses and forbs. This furrow forms a natural firebreak that is easily plowed under in the event of wildfire. The design and implementation of block/mosaic mechanical treatments and prescribed burn treatments to break the pattern of contiguous fuels will be implemented to extend one-half to one mile outward from the village perimeters. This presentation includes data about protocols designed to facilitate community-based decision-making for fuels reduction and plans to hire and train Kaibab Paiute tribal members to replicate treatments for other villages on the reservation.

KEY WORDS: fuels, model, GIS, restoration