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Prioritizing Landscape Treatments for Dual Benefits <br />lntegration of forest health and wildfire response benefit using paDs <br />Potential Operational Delineations (PODs) provide a pow- <br />erful spatial framework to communicate and identify lo- <br />cations that will deliver dual benefits for forest health and <br />wildfire response at the landscape scale. PODs are large <br />landscape areas delimited by Potential Control Lines <br />(PCLs) for fire operations (suppression, prescribed fire, <br />and managed wildfire) delineated by fire operations per- <br />sonnel. PCLs can be roads, ridgelines, or any artificial or <br />natural fuelbreak that provides a strategic opportunity for <br />fire operations. Summarizing landscape treatment priori- <br />ties (Fig. 9) within PODs and wildfire response benefit pri- <br />orities (Fig. 10) within PCLs enables planners and <br />managers to identify, at a high level, locations where for- <br />est health or fuels treatments can be connected to a high- <br />priority PCL that will supporl firefighter operations (e.g. <br />ingress/egress route or oppoftunity for engagement). <br />There is important work to do in all Upper Swauk pODs to <br />achieve the forest health treatment targets in Table 1. <br />Multiple opportunities for treatments that provide dual <br />benefit occur in the first priority PODs west of Highway <br />97. First priority PCLs correspond to Highway 97 and in- <br />clude forest roads to the east through Liberty and to the <br />west up to Teanaway Ridge. Further work is needed to as- <br />sess PCLs locally for their condition and detailed treat- <br />ment needs, which will depend on management goals and <br />values at risk. ldeally, landscape treatments will be imple- <br />mented adjacent to priority PCLs where feasible to max- <br />imize both forest health and wildfire response goals. <br />Achieving forest health and wildfire response dual bene- <br />fits will require primarily large, landscape-level treatments <br />across PODs (-100's-1,000's of acres) and, to a lesser ex- <br />tent, targeted treatments along PCLs. These two ap- <br />proaches combined will contribute to restoring and <br />maintaining large portions of the landscape in a resilient <br />condition while providing safe and effective areas for fire- <br />fighter engagement during suppression, prescribed fire, <br />or managed wildfire operations. <br />Achieving forest health and wildfire response goals <br />will require primarily large, landscape-level treat- <br />ments across PODs (-100's-1,000's of acres) and, <br />to a lesser extent, targeted treatments along PCLs. <br />Priority Priority rankingLandscape priority <br />for dual benefits <br />POD <br />PCL <br />Landscape treatment <br />Wildfire response <br />Value <br />; nion <br />- Low <br />: potential control <br />line (PCL) <br />Value <br />s High <br />I to* <br />1 <br />2 <br />3 <br />PCL <br />Priority ranking <br />POD <br />1I <br />2 <br />3X <br />Figure 11. Landscape prioritization of dual benefits using PODs as a spatial framework to summarize treatment priorities. <br />poth maps display landscape treatment priority within PoDs and wildfire response benefit within pCLs. The map on the left <br />shows the datasets at the raster level, while the map on the right shows the same information summarized and ranked within <br />PODs and PCLS. Pct width is inflated to display spatial patt€rns. PODs shown here are port of on ongoing prccess towards an <br />all'Iands delineotion; POD boundaries are subject to change following on-the-ground vefting ond continued diologue among <br />wildfire agencies and stakeholders. <br />Upper Swauk Landscape Evaluation Summory (2020) | page 7