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Width of Firebreak

Started by 2StateTrigger, October 25, 2015, 09:32:52 PM

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2StateTrigger

So I'm considering the purchase of 40 acres of untouched, heavily wooded land.  The lot is 1200' x 1300' and has tons of Aspen and Pine on it.

I'm thinking that the 1st order of business that I should do is to cut a 100' wide firebreak on each of the 4 sides of the lot in the efforts of providing some fire protection for the lot.  I dont want to cut too much of a wide break and certainly DO NOT want to NOT cut a wide enough break.

So my question to the hive is how wide of a firebreak is adequate? 
Molon Labe

edkemper

The answer depends also on what the underbrush is like. Is it (so to speak) bare earth other and accumulated dead leaves other than the trees?
Old Man

Ron Scott

It depends upon the components of the forest fuel types. It would need to be wider in the more flammable heavy pine type fuel and not near as wide in a hardwood or aspen mixed fuel type.

A "rule of thumb" that we often used here in a primarily pine fuel type was "twice the height of the adjoining timber" and the height of the adjoining timber in the hardwood fuel types.
~Ron

4x4American

I would check with the wildland fire crew   970-731-4799
http://www.acemergency.org/
Boy, back in my day..

terry f

   My guess is a lot depends on your neighbors land. The north and west sides of me were clear-cut, so a skid road would probably be enough. The south end was selective cut and starting to get thick, and is really thick on my side with lodge pole, so that would be a tough one, but my side really needs to be thinned. The east end is a draw with old and thick spruce, but coming out of the draw is about three hundred feet of grass and rock, so again a small road would be enough. Point is, a lot depends on your neighbors, and not much you can do if its a crown fire. Thin and thin some more. The west is scary with drought and fires anymore, good luck on your purchase.

clearcut

If I did the math right, that about 11.4 acres of firebreak out of 40.

What you may want to consider is a shaded fuel break or what the USFS calls a Defensible Fuel Profile Zone. Look up both terms for ideas and techniques. Also look for results - places where DFPZs were useful to slowing down wildland fire.

Essentially you are trying to reduce the surface fuels and fine fuels as much as reasonable. These carry fire into the stand and potentially into the crowns. If you can reduce these, then the fire has a chance to drop to the ground where it can be fought more safely.

Cut and remove the shrubs. Thin the trees until the crowns just touch. Prune up to limit fire spreading into the crown. Remove as much of the fine fuels as possible. You want the tree crowns to shade the ground to limit shrub growth. An advantage to the method is increased diameter growth on the remaining trees. Because the land remains productive, wider is better.

Prioritize by deciding which direction fire is likely to come from. Fire moves uphill so the lower parts of the property. Fire is often started along public roads. Fires are often started near water based recreation sites.

Look at the neighbors and assess their fire safety. If you can convince them that shaded fuel breaks are valuable, then you can double the width with half the cost.

Good luck.
Carbon sequestered upon request.

ohwc

Clearcut is right on the money.

Things to take into account is access for crews, fuel type, fuel density, prevailing wind directions, slope and elevations, your neighbors management of their property.

Really you are just trying to lower the intensity of the fire before it hits the interior of your property. For really dry seasons or high intensity fire you would need to make it defensible for a crew to hold those fire lines. Best option for this would be to talk to the local DNR, Forest Service fire offices or fire department. In a high intensity burn depending on location of your property if they can not get into to burn from your fire breaks or do a drop there is still the possibility that they will not be able to hold the fire.

From my experience... 100 ft. would be excessive. I would put a mow line in of 8-15 feet then a disc line of 8-15 feet then another mow line of 8-15feet. After that clean up the ladder fuels at least 10 feet into the tree line. If you have a natural pasture off of this line somewhere mow it and keep it that way (safety zone for fire crews). This will make them much more able to commit to defending your property as they will have a place to burn off and get into if things go south. This would be about the extreme of what I would do.

This way you do not have to worry too much about anything of low intensity in ground fuels unless it gets extremely dry.

2StateTrigger

Thx for all the replies.  Really appreciate them.

Just realized how much work this is going to entail.  The estimated length around the property is 1250' x 1350' so that comes out to right at about a mile around the entire lot.  I plan to fence the lot so as to keep cattle in (3 miles of barbed wire, anyone want to come out to Durango and help string barbed wire up)....

Gotta bulldoze the driveway into the property which is estimated to be approx 600-1000'.  That's going to be fun too.  As long as I have the dozer (will likely rent for a week) I'll try to doze the perimeter.  Hopefully I'll have enough time to do it all in one rental week.

Need to somehow get some volunteers to help me with this.  Anyone have ideas as to how to get a group of volunteers?

Ugh, I may have bitten off too much here.....But it's a dream and I need to CHASE it til I drop dead.......
Molon Labe

4x4American

Best way to get volunteers is to offer to pay them lol...


Just tell them the beers on you all the rednecks in the area will be by..lol
Boy, back in my day..

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