Fuel distributions in Jasper National Park before the Wildfire Complex: MPB and 20 yrs of FireSmart

Before the high-intensity Jasper Wildfire Complex of July 2024, Jasper National Park had an abundance of altered fuels – from an extensive mountain pine beetle outbreak, and from community FireSmart initiatives undertaken for 20 years. This webinar discusses recent research characterizing these fuels at a high level of detail using field and airborne lidar data. Tristan Skretting walks us through some key points of her MSc work, which happened to take place within the Jasper Wildfire Complex Perimeter a few months prior to the event.

Watch to learn more about:
Explore the impacts of mountain pine beetle severity on fuels in the area.
Evaluate the long-term effectiveness of FireSmart fuel treatments over 20 years.
Discuss how fuels varied in FireSmart-managed and beetle-disrupted areas over time.
Provide a detailed picture of the fuels consumed in the Jasper Complex fires.

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0:00 Welcome and Introduction with Karen Blouin (Canada Wildfire)
0:58 Introduction with Tristan Skretting
3:14 Jasper Wildfire Complex
4:21 Importance of establishing a fuels baseline
5:58 Study region - Montane Cordillera
6:40 Wildland fuel
7:46 Fuel types
8:45 Mountain pine beetle and wildfire
10:15 Fuel typing
12:19 Fuel reduction treatments
13:27 Objective 1: Impact of Mountain Pine Beetle on Jasper National Park fuels
16:56 Study methods - data collection and lidar
18:10 Spatial extent of Mountain pine beetle
21:00 Results - Impact of Mountain Pine Beetle on Jasper National Park fuels
26:31 Objective 2: Fuel treatment efficacy over time in Jasper National Park
26:56 Study methods - data collection and Arbosense
29:57 Results - Fuel treatment efficacy over time in Jasper National Park
32:37 Management takeaways
33:37 Application to the Jasper Wildfire Complex
37:58 Future directions
40:15 Q&A
40:23 Any plans for post-burn consumption analysis?
42:00 Did you notice more blow-down of beetle-killed trees than live trees?
42:40 Why do you think that surface fuels remain lower over time in treated stands?
44:28 Based on this research, are you able to make any recommendations for practices on wildfire prevention near communities?
47:02 Any other thoughts on mitigation as relates to low canopy heights?
48:37 How did the Jasper Wildfire Complex impact the trajectory of your research?
52:18 Has there been interest in looking at this data from a carbon modelling perspective?



Recorded live on December 13, 2024, as a free Canada Wildfire webinar, "Fuel distributions in Jasper National Park before the Jasper Wildfire Complex: mountain pine beetle and 20 years of FireSmart."

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