Case Studies

WHAT WAS DONE

The Campbell Tract in Anchorage, Alaska was originally a military installation during World War II, and is now a public multi-use recreation area managed by the Bureau of Land Management. Because it is located at a critical wildland-urban interface (WUI) for wildfire, community groups and agencies in Anchorage created a fuel break in this city parkland in 2001 to prevent fire from moving from one part of town to another. The additional community benefits were not planned, but happened spontaneously and expanded the existing trails network, visibility in the forest, and educational opportunities. The fuel break is 33 acres and approximately 2 miles long.

HIGHLIGHTS

• The trail network is popular for walking, running, mountain biking, horseback riding, and wildlife viewing in the summer and snowshoeing, fat tire biking, skijoring, and cross country skiing in the winter. 

• The Campbell Creek Science Center offers educational programs along the trail system and in the fuel break.

• Over 500,000 visitors used the trail network in 2022.

• The area was used in the ceremonial start of Iditarod sled dog race and one of Alaska’s largest cross-country ski races.

WHO BENEFITS?

Multi-use activity in a wildland-urban interface: In 2020, the area had close to 400,000 visitors using the broader trail network! High public profile: used in the ceremonial start of Iditarod sled dog race and one of Alaska’s largest cross-country ski races.

CO-BENEFITS

Recreation: Anchorage residents and tourists use the fuel break areas as an expansion of a non-motorized multi-use trail network.

Research and education: The fuel break has been used for research on how

to manage fire, for vegetation monitoring plots, and for school field trips run by the science center.

HOW DID THEY DO IT?

• In the birch forest habitats, they created a shaded fuel break by removing conifer trees.  

• In the black spruce forest, they performed initial thinning and pruning of trees, followed by removal of fallen trees and subsequent clearing. Now it is an open canopy fuel break.

• Wetland habitats act as a natural fuel break connecting treated areas.

WHO WAS INVOLVED?

Planning: Municipal fire dept and BLM

Implementation: Municipal fire dept, BLM Alaska Fire Service, State Forestry

FUEL BREAK DETAILS

This linear fuel break (~200 ft or 60 m wide) is designed to limit spread of fire through parkland adjacent to city neighborhoods. The fuel treatments were done by hand crews.

BLM holds volunteer days with loppers to remove regenerating spruce as well as performs regular maintenance to remove fallen trees. 

WHAT WAS DONE

After back-to-back record breaking fire seasons in 2003-2005 that caused

several neighborhoods to be evacuated in the outlying areas of Fairbanks, the State of Alaska Department of Forestry, Fairbanks Office partnered with the Fairbanks North Star Borough to establish a Community Wildfire Protection Plan. The construction of the Old Murphy Dome Road and Murphy Dome and Spinach Creek Roads Fuel Break was completed in 2009. The fuel break was designed to protect the northern outlying community of Fairbanks, AK. It is 600+ acres of a linear

shear bladed fuel treatment about 100 m wide.

HIGHLIGHTS

• The Murphy Dome fuel break protected homes during the 2019 Shovel Creek Fire. An estimated $51 million of homes and buildings were within 5 miles of the fire perimeter.

• The area has been an attractive berry picking, hunting and recreation area for decades, and the fuel break has provided improved berry habitat and recreational access.

WHO BENEFITS?

Multi-use activity in a wildland-urban interface: In 2020, the area had close to 400,000 visitors using the broader trail network! High public profile: used in the ceremonial start of Iditarod sled dog race and one of Alaska’s largest cross-country ski races.

CO-BENEFITS

• Berry picking area the is extended beyond the alpine habitat of the top of Murphy dome. 

• Increased cross-country skiing and winter trail access, increased visibility for summer ATV trail.

• Summer goat and livestock grazing for neighborhood residents.

WHO STARTED IT?

• 2003-2005 fires forced the preparation of the 2006 Fairbanks North Star Borough Community Wildfire Protection Plan (CWPP).

• 2003 Healthy Forest Restoration Act (HFRA) directed communities to complete risk and mitigation plans for wildfire.

WHAT WAS THE INTENTION?

• Protect outlying areas of Fairbanks from wildfire.

• Murphy Dome has been used as a popular recreation area for hunting, berry picking and northern lights viewing, since the road was established in 1950s for military operations (DEW line).

HOW DID THEY DO IT?

The habitat was primarily black spruce forest. They created a 600 acre shear bladed fuel break with complete stand removal.

WHO WAS INVOLVED?

Planning: The Fairbanks office of the State of Alaska Division of Forestry led the project.

Implementation: Contractors were hired to clear the land.

HIGHLIGHTS

• Experimentation with traditional medicine and food plants that can grow in fuel breaks while converting the fuel break to a deciduous and more fire-resistant forest

• Maintenance of conversion from flammable coniferous forest to more fire-resistant deciduous forest through community wood harvesting. 

CO-BENEFITS

Local collection and propagation of birch and herbaceous plant seeds, planting and transplanting of other local food and medicinal plants.

WHO WAS INVOLVED?

Teslin Tlingit Council (TTC) Lands Department, Government of Yukon (YG), Village of Teslin (VoT) set out to design the fuel break and plan for co-benefits. 

WHAT WAS THE INTENTION?

• Protect Teslin from wildfire.

• Create easily accessible harvesting opportunities for firewood, medicinal plants, food, aesthetics, and promoting a conversion to less flammable deciduous forest.

WHAT WAS DONE?

The community of Teslin, Yukon Territory, was showing increased demand for fuelwood, sawlogs, and biomass for energy. In response, the Teslin Tlingit Council, Yukon Government, and the Teslin Renewable Resources Council developed a new Timber Harvest Plan, which is required to allow the commercial harvest of wood.

The management objectives in the timber harvest plan provide wood for the community, but also to manage the timber harvest to reduce wildland fire risk. Researchers from Yukon University are collaborating to determine what plant species the Teslin community would like to see growing in the wildfire fuel treatment and wood harvesting areas. They are also determining if local seed could be used to grow birch trees to help the forest convert to more deciduous and less flammable forest. They are planting other food and medicinal plants that are important to Teslin residents in the fuel treatment area to see if they will thrive. 

To make the fuel break, they completed 100% canopy removal, given that there are other opportunities to examine areas cut to FireSmart standards. Timber harvest was done in a manner typical of how local woodcutters harvest Therefore, there were some scattered brush and burn ‘scars’ where the woodcutters burned the slash.

FUEL BREAK DETAILS

The area is a conifer-dominated hill that is North of the main town area. The area has a semi-continental boreal climate inland of coastal mountains and near a large lake, with cool summers and relatively mild winters. There is limited permafrost in the region. The timber harvest area is on a predominantly south- and east-facing slope.  The soil is primarily shallow glacial till over fractured bedrock, with a thin cap of silt-loam loess soils and a shallow organic layer (2-8 cm thickness). The forest canopy is dominated by lodgepole pine, mixed with white spruce, aspen, and birch. Green alder and high bush cranberry are common in the understory, with a mixture of lichen and feather moss on the forest floor.