Predicting fire behavior through monitoring and fuel modeling.

YUCATÁN

NOV 2018

MÉXICO.

FIRE MANAGEMENT · WORKSHOP · MONITORING AND MODELING OF FUELS FOR FIRE MANAGEMENT IN TROPICAL FORESTS AND SAVANNAS.

WWW.LAPENINSULA.MX

FIRE MANAGEMENT

NOV 2018

The ecologist Rick Anderson and students during field practice in the ejido Nuevo León, Tizimín.

TIZIMÍN, YUCATÁN, MÉXICO.

MONITORING AND MODELING OF FUELS FOR FIRE MANAGEMENT IN TROPICAL FORESTS AND SAVANNAS.

text and photos by Claudia Novelo workshop by F. Tricone and R. Anderson

Predicting fire behavior is fundamental for the planning of prescribed burns, prevention and suppression of wildfires. Although the fire environment is complex and variable, reducing that complexity by understanding and manipulating fuels helps develop better management strategies and influence the fire's potential behavior.

In the buffer zone of the Reserva de la Biosfera de Ria Lagartos, Área de Conservación Privada “El Zapotal” and Área de Protección de Flora y Fauna Yum Balam, wildland fuels have accumulated due to fire exclusion. In the fire adapted ecosystems of “El Zapotal”, fire is needed to maintain biodiversity. For example, palms such as palmetto (Acoelorraphe wrightii) need fire to promote the production of flowers and fruits, important for different species of birds and mammals.

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Savanna portion of the Nuevo León ejido and the private conservation area "El Zapotal" managed by Pronatura Yucatan Peninsula A.C. · Photo by Gerardo Williams Jara

There are several methodologies to modify fuels such as prescribed fires, controlled wildfires or the mechanical elimination of fuels.

"One of the things that we learned in the

In this context, the workshop "Monitoring and modeling of fuels for fire management in tropical forests and savannas" was taught by Rick Anderson, ecologist specialized in fire management in wetlands with more than 40 years of experience and Fanny Tricone, specialist in fire behavior and its effects in wetlands of Mexico and Belize.

accumulation and we have recently seen in

United States is that many years of fire suppression led us to many years of fuel California that fires became uncontrollable.

We learned a basic concept; you either become the boss of fire, or the fire will become your boss and your enemy" Anderson said to the students.

The workshop was held from November 27th to 29th at “El Zapotal” where more than 20 members of various institutions involved in fire management participated.

In the classroom, the specialists presented the fuel models that were developed in the United States of America by Rothermel, Albini, Scott, Burgan and other researchers to determine the potential behavior of fire in specific conditions.

Basic concepts of fire behavior.

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Fanny Tricone, Tania Salgado and Samuel Rodríguez.

Participants had the opportunity to understand the use of these models in tropical environments such as the Yucatan Peninsula, as well as field techniques to monitor the change in fuel loads with the installation of plots and transects of 30 and 50 meters where they analyzed data to understand the management of fuels.

Subsequently, the information collected was analyzed in the classroom with the program BehavePlus 6 to obtain data such as the rate of spread of surface fire and flame length, as well as to create maps of fuel models to identify areas with a greater probability of ignition and generate a scientific database line.

The field practice was carried out in two portions of the savannah of the Nuevo León ejido and a portion of “selva mediana” at "El Zapotal".

For Tania Salgado Portano, head of the fire management community program of Pronatura Yucatan Peninsula A. C. (PPY), one of the problems lies in the mistaken view that all fires are bad and are not part of the ecosystem "Lately we have been realizing that although you are in the tropics, in the savannas there are grasslands and palms that are adapted to fire and need fire to renew and promote biodiversity” she said.

Shapes and parts of a wildifre.

Fernando Poot, field technician of PPY, said that for 15 years the fire has not been used which has led to the accumulation of grasses that represent a latent danger. "If a forest fire occurs, its control will be very difficult because of the amount of accumulated fuels".

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Samuel Rodríguez Hernández, fire fighter from the state of Chiapas, commented about the importance of transitioning from fighting wildfires to effective fire management. "The knowledge that I carry today from this workshop is very important for me and for my brigade; understanding fire behavior is essential to perform safer actions and change the perspective of some paradigms about fire".

The specialists are available to teach this course anywhere in the world. For more information contact Fanny Tricone fannytricone@gmail.com

This workshop was funded by the Alianza WWF-Fundación Carlos Slim and Pronatura Península de Yucatan A. C. as part of the project "Strengthening local capacities to conserve and restore the jaguar habitat in the Mesoamerican reef, Phase III".

Location of "El Zapotal", Tizimín, Yucatán, México.

The students came from the Comisión Nacional Forestal (CONAFOR), Comisión Nacional de Áreas Naturales Protegidas (CONANP), Instituto de Investigaciones en Ecosistemas y Sustentabilidad (IIES-UNAM), Colegio de la Frontera Sur (ECOSUR-Campeche) and Pronatura Península de Yucatán A. C.

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Check out the video!

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Entrance to "El Zapotal".

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