Southwest Oregon Biscuit Fire: An Analysis of Forest Resources and Fire Severity

The Biscuit Fire in southwestern Oregon was one of the largest and most costly in recent history, burning over 499,000 acres and costing over 150 million dollars in suppression efforts. This study uses prefire resource information in conjunction with postfire burn severity to generate statistically reliable prefire resource estimates for the land within the Biscuit Fire perimeter. Resource parameters such as timber volume, down woody material, area by forest type, and understory cover are compared between burn severity classes.