Spatial Optimization and Tradeoffs of Alternative Forest Management Scenarios in Macedonia, Greece

Palaiologos Palaiologou,Lampros Papalampros,Spyros Galatsidas,Kostas Kalabokidis,Alan A Ager,Michelle A Day

doi:10.3390/f12060697

Abstract

Managing forests has been demonstrated to be an efficient strategy for fragmenting fuels and for reducing fire spread rates and severity. However, large-scale analyses to examine operational aspects of implementing different forest management scenarios to meet fire governance objectives are nonexistent for many Mediterranean countries. In this study we described an optimization framework to build forest management scenarios that leverages fire simulation, forest management, and tradeoff analyses for forest areas in Macedonia, Greece. We demonstrated the framework to evaluate five forest management priorities aimed at (1) protection of developed areas, (2) optimized commercial timber harvests, (3) protection of ecosystem services, (4) fire resilience, and (5) reducing suppression difficulty. Results revealed that by managing approximately 33,000 ha across all lands in different allocations of 100 projects, the area that accounted for 16% of the wildfire exposure to developed areas was treated while harvesting 2.5% of total wood volume. The treatments also reduced fuels on the area that are responsible for 3% of the potential fire impacts to sites with important ecosystem services, while suppression difficulty and wildfire transmission to protected areas attainment was 4.5% and 16%, respectively. We also tested the performance of multiple forest district management priorities when applying a proposed four-year fuel treatment plan that targeted achieving high levels of attainment by treating less area but strategically selected lands. Sharp management tradeoffs were observed among all management priorities, especially for harvest production compared with suppression difficulty, the protection of developed areas, and wildfire exposure to protected areas.

Highlights

The recent high death toll from wildfires burning into developed areas in Greece highlights the importance of forest management for wildfire risk mitigation for community protection
The line with the highest attainment was always not surprisingly the selected priority, except for suppression difficulty where treated projects resulted in higher attainment for wildfire transmission compared to protected areas
If management is applied on these ≈800 stands (Figure 3A; upper left graph), the attainment is higher for the protection of developed areas (16%) if 15,800 ha from the total of 32,550 ha are treated, followed by the wildfire transmission to protected areas priority

Summary

Introduction

The recent high death toll from wildfires burning into developed areas in Greece (i.e., in 2007 and 2018) highlights the importance of forest management for wildfire risk mitigation for community protection. This is in sharp contrast to the 1950s–1970s when timber production and management with traditional agroforestry were the highest priorities [1,2,3]. Recent extreme fire events have motivated managers and policymakers to further re-examine fire policies in order to develop comprehensive and strategic forest management programs, allowing them to adopt the best compromise between fire control and fuel treatment approaches while considering the fact that full suppression of wildfires is not a feasible and reasonable strategy in the long term [4,5]. Management goals can include, among others, fire resiliency in forested landscapes, the restoration of the cultural fire regime, a safe and efficient fire response, and fire-adapted developed areas (see the cohesive strategy used in the United States [7])

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Methods

Results

Discussion

Conclusion