Past FireALERT Projects

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 Jasper Ridge Biological Preserve, PHASE I / Stanford University
Located in Northern California, approximately 40 miles south of San Francisco, the Jasper Ridge Biological Preserve is the first site to be monitored with FireALERT Systems in order to collect data during two prescribed burns that are scheduled for July 2002. At the conclusion of these prescribed burns, four FireALERT Systems are planned to be installed within the preserve to provide a zone of protection along the wildlife/urban interface on one side of the preserve. Phase I of the project, identifying suitable installation sites and performing a site telemetry survey, was conducted at the beginning of June 2002. Updates will follow, after the prescribed burns have occured and also after FireALERT Systems have been installed to protect areas of Jasper Ridge.

Sequoia & Kings Canyon National Parks
Sequoia & Kings Canyon National Park, world renown for its giant Sequoia redwood tree stands, is located on the western slopes of the Sierra Nevada Mountains of California, just south of Yosemite National Park. After 100 years of fire suppression in the region, the National Park Service has introduced a prescribed burn program when optimum conditions exist to improve the health of the forest by reducing biomass fuel. The Ambient Team accepted their fire management officer's invitation to attend a recent burn to conduct FireALERT range testing and refine the fire detection algorithms under controlled conditions. The Ambient Team was able to collect valuable field data, which closely simulated a real wildfire condition in a dry conifer forest, during the implementation of the burn on September 15th and 16th of this year.

Russian Ridge Open Space Preserve
The Russian Ridge Open Space Preserve is located on the edge of the Santa Cruz Mountains in Northern California. The California Department of Forestry conducted this prescribed burn to rid the grassland area from foreign thistles and weeds that are choking the native flora of the Preserve. Conducted in open grasslands this burn provided very different conditions than those of the burn at Kings Canyon Nation Park. The Kings Canyon burn was a slow progressing burn amidst live trees. The Russian Ridge burn was a more aggressive, fast moving grassfire, which demanded fast fire recognition and alarm response of the rapidly progressing flames.

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