Fuels Planning: Science Synthesis and

Integration

Environmental Consequences Fact Sheet: 9

Fire and Fuels Extension to the Forest

Vegetation Simulator (FFE-FVS)

United States

Department

of Agriculture

Forest Service

Rocky Mountain

Research Station

Research Note

RMRS-RN-23-9-WWW

March 2005

Fuels planning: Science synthesis and integration, an interagency research/management

partnership to support the Ten-Year Fire Plan,

led by Russell T. Graham, RMRS, and Sarah M.

McCaffrey, NCRS.

Synthesizing

Scientific Information

for Fire and Fuels

Project Managers

Environmental Consequences

Team Leader

Elaine Kennedy Sutherland

USDA Forest Service

Rocky Mountain Research Station

Missoula, MT

Elizabeth Reinhardt

USDA Forest Service

Rocky Mountain Research Station

Fire Sciences Laboratory

Missoula, MT

What is FFE-FVS?

FFE-FVS is a model linking stand development, fuel dynamics, fire behavior

and fire effects. It allows comparison of mid- to long-term effects of management alternatives including harvest, mechanical fuel treatment, prescribed fire,

salvage, and no action. Geographical variants use locally calibrated growth algorithms, decay parameters, fire effects relationships, and fuel modeling logic.

FVS simulates the growth of individual trees in a forest stand, although many

stands can be simulated simultaneously. However, when many stands are simultaneously simulated, there is no interaction among the stands, and each stand develops independent of its neighbors. Designed to take the process to a broader

view, FFE links the stand dynamics with a model of broader surface fuel accumulation and decay. Fire behavior is then predicted using surface and canopy fuels.

FFE-FVS allows users to design and simulate management alternatives at any

point in the simulation. A wide range of treatments can be modeled, including

precommercial and commercial thinning, salvage logging, jackpot, pile and broadcast burning, and mechanical fuel treatments.

FFE-FVS predicts fuel loads, stand structure, measures of fuel hazard including

torching and crowning index, potential flame length, canopy fuel characteristics,

canopy closure, mineral soil exposure, coarse woody debris, and snags over time.

It produces output that can be used with the Stand Visualization System (SVS)

to visualize stands.

Intended Users

• Fuel managers, silviculturists, planners

Intended Uses

• Prescription development—design integrated fire and silvicultural

prescriptions.

• Design prescriptions to reduce the risk of stand replacement wildfire.

• Environmental assessment—compare alternatives for NEPA documentation.

• Planning—site specific and strategic.

• Hazard assessment—assess fire hazard and effectiveness of treatments on

hazard mitigation.

Required Inputs

At a minimum, FFE-FVS requires a list of trees as input to describe a stand.

Initial fuel loads can also be entered. Many stands can be modeled simultaneously.

Pacific Northwest

Research Station

Rocky Mountain

Research Station
The Fuels Planning fact sheets are based on preliminary findings. Information from fact sheets will be synthesized in an upcoming publication.

Environmental Consequences Fact

Sheets

Look for fact sheet topics from the Environmental Consequences

Team including information about the effects of fire behavior and

alternative treatment strategies, Wildlife Response Model, weed responses, riparian systems, soil erosion, restoration objectives, treated

spaces, the Fire Effects Information System (FEIS), and the First

Order Fire Effects Model (FOFEM).

Fuels Planning: Synthesis and Integration

This fact sheet is one in a series being produced as part of a larger

project supported by the USDA Forest Service to synthesize new

knowledge and information relevant to fire and fuels management.

Fact sheets address topics related to stand structure, environmental

impacts, economics, and human responses to these factors. Information in the fact sheets is targeted for the dry forests of the Inland

West, but is often applicable across broad regions of the country.

For more information, please visit our Web site at:

www.fs.fed.us/fire/tech_transfer/synthesis/synthesis_index

What the Model Does

FFE-FVS provides site-specific predictions of snags,

surface fuel loads, stand structure and composition,

potential fire behavior, and indicators of fuel hazard

over time. If a prescribed fire or wildfire is modeled,

FFE-FVS predicts fire behavior, fuel consumption, tree

mortality, and smoke production. FFE-FVS has been

used to conduct broadscale hazard assessments, reconstruct historic forest structures, develop silvicultural and

fuel treatment prescriptions, create FARSITE data layers, and support NEPA analysis.

How to Obtain the Model

FFE-FVS is available to download from the Forest Management Service Center, which also offers training for

FFE-FVS: http://www.fs.fed.us/fmsc/fvs/index.php

For More Information

Reinhardt, E. D.; Crookston, N. L. 2003. The Fire and

Fuels Extension to the Forest Vegetation Simulator. Fort

Collins, CO: U.S. Department of Agriculture, Forest Service Service, Rocky Mountain Research Station. Gen.

Tech. Rep. RMRS-GTR-116.