Fire/Fish Risk Management Application
To enable risk-reducing fuels treatment projects, managers need to take a problem-oriented approach to reducing fuels without causing irreparable harm to fish populations. This integrated multiple-objective situation has been called the fire/fish risk management problem (O’Laughlin 2005a, O'Laughlin 2005d).
Risk assessment can be used to support many sustainable forest management decisions, including comparing wildfire risks to various environmental values with and without fuels treatment. Herein, only the problem formulation phase of the EPA framework is covered in detail. Problem formulation involves understanding the situation well enough to develop a conceptual model, which consists of a risk management hypothesis and a conceptual model diagram. Both of these model components clearly document the risk assessor’s thought process regarding cause and effect relationships. This approach facilitates risk characterization and communication with interested parties. Fish are selected as the risk assessment endpoint, and the stressor adversely affecting them is sediment from logging or wildfire burning or both under different conditions that vary according to fuel loadings. A quantitative example is provided, and uncertainties are explicitly addressed.
- Problem Formulation : The first phase of ecological risk assessment is problem formulation, and a conceptual model is an essential part of the process.
- Conceptual Model : Risk cannot be managed unless it has been properly assessed, and some form of model provides the best assessment process.
- Quantitative Application : Sediment production can be quantitatively modeled using Forest Service Watershed Erosion Prediction Project (WEPP) tools.
- Uncertainty : Any approach to integrating fire, fuels, and aquatic ecosystem management has inherent risks and uncertainties.
Encyclopedia ID: p3155
