Wildland fire is an integral part of ecosystem mgmt. and is essential in maintaining functional ecosystems, but air pollutants emitted from those fires can be harmful to human health and welfare. This review of what is known about the effects of fire on air quality will assist those in the fire and air quality mgmt. communities. Contents: (1) Intro.; Scope; Framework; Prior Work; Changes in Fire Policy; (2) Air Quality Regulations and Fire; (3) Overview of Air Pollution from Fire; (4) Characterization of Emissions from Fires; (5) Transport, Dispersion, and Modeling of Fire Emissions; (6) Atmospheric and Plume Chemistry; (7) Estimating the Air Quality Impacts of Fire; (8) Consequences of Fire on Air Quality; (9) Recommend. for Future Research. Illus.

The health of many Rocky Mountain ecosystems is in decline because of the policy of excluding fire in the management of these ecosystems. Fire exclusion has actually made it more difficult to fight fires, and this poses greater risks to the people who fight fires and for those who live in and around Rocky Mountain forests and rangelands. This paper discusses the extent of fire exclusion in the Rocky Mountains, then details the diverse and cascading effects of suppressing fires in the Rocky Mountain landscape by spatial scale, characteristic, and vegetation type. Also discussed are the varied effects of fire exclusion on some important, keystone ecosystems and human concerns.

The objective of this study was to provide managers with national-level data on current conditions of vegetation and fuels developed from ecologically based methods to address these questions: How do current vegetation and fuels differ from those that existed historically? Where on the landscape do vegetation and fuels differ from historical levels? In particular, where are high fuel accumulations? When considered at a coarse scale, which areas estimated to have high fuel accumulations represent the highest priorities for treatment?

Fire managers need better estimates of fuel loading so they can more accurately predict the potential fire behavior and effects of alternative fuel and ecosystem restoration treatments. This report presents a new fuel sampling method, called the photoload sampling technique, to quickly and accurately estimate loadings for six common surface fuel components (1 hr, 10 hr, 100 hr, and 1000 hr downed dead woody, shrub, and herbaceous fuels). This technique involves visually comparing fuel conditions in the field with photoload sequences to estimate fuel loadings. Photoload sequences are a series of downward-looking and close-up oblique photographs depicting a sequence of graduated fuel loadings of synthetic fuelbeds for each of the six fuel components. This report contains a set of photoload sequences that describe the range of fuel component loadings for common forest conditions in the northern Rocky Mountains of Montana, USA to estimate fuel loading in the field. A companion publication (RMRS-RP-61CD) details the methods used to create the photoload sequences and presents a comprehensive evaluation of the technique.