Fuel Break Treatments in the Sagebrush Biome of the Western United States, 1953 - 2018

To better inform fuel break planning and assessment, we developed a comprehensive spatial database of known existing fuel breaks from 1953 to 2018 throughout the western United States. Each fuel break is represented as a polygon in the database and is attributed with the date of installation, the treatment type employed, and the data source. The availability of these data promotes the development of a monitoring framework to track the maintenance and longevity of different treatment types, as well as record the use, conditions, and outcomes of suppression activities at specific fuel break locations. The data also facilitate the quantification of important temporally varying qualities that may influence suppression, such as vegetation composition and precipitation conditions that mediate fuels. This information may help wildfire crews and fuels program managers prioritize which fuel breaks to maintain and use. Additionally, these data can contribute to studies of ecological impacts of fuel breaks on sagebrush ecosystems, such as their potential contribution to annual grass invasion, effects on sensitive species and their habitat, and potential use as corridors for predators. Results from these analyses can help inform the placement of future fuel breaks to increase their use and effectiveness for imperative fire operations while minimizing negative ecological impacts in sensitive and threatened ecosystems.