Forest fuel treatments are applied across a broad range of ecosites in Alberta and Canada using a wide variety of manual and mechanical processes with an overarching goal of managing hazardous fuel build-up to mitigate wildfire. Planning and application of a specific forest fuel treatment technique is often shaped by several factors including objectives of the fuel treatment, availability of resources (manpower and equipment) and commitment to using local resources (socioeconomics). In addition, site conditions in certain ecosites will favor application of some treatment techniques over others.

With the broad nature of numerous fuel treatment techniques applied over a wide range of environmental conditions it is difficult to document all treatments and develop comparative productivity and cost evaluations. This summary of fuel treatment studies accesses current research to present relevant findings and identify knowledge gaps in the arena of stand level fuel treatment productivity research.

This project is a part of the FireSmart Vegetation Management Decision Support Research initiative