Team: 60
School: Rio Rancho Cyber Academy
Area of Science: Earth Science
Interim: School: RioRancho Cyber Academy
Area of Science: Earth Science
The problem that our project is looking at a solution for is to compare traditional fire break practices with a newer idea of using meadows or meadow restoration as natural fire break. We also want to find what the tangible benefits and downsides of each are. The question what which want to answer is which of these two would provide the better solution of stopping fires, what are the tangible benefits to each, and is a combination of the two the best option? There are several reasons why this is important. The first is that it looks into ways to control wildfires. It is also to find a potential way to stop a fire from spreading without disturbing the natural ecosystem by digging trenches and using roads. The next thing is the potentially biased but tangible benefits of both types of firebreaks. We are now gathering information about both types of firebreaks. We will be contacting the local forest service as to the benefits, downsides, conditions, costs, effects, and several other things to consider for both meadows and traditional firebreaks. There is an issue we are running into and that is the limits on external information we can get to research for the project. We do have the general idea that meadows might be a better option because forest service departments are switching to meadows over traditional firebreaks. Through our research we have found several places that prefer meadows and others that prefer traditional firebreaks and each has their own reason. This leads to the further issue of is there a major difference is recovery times between the two and if this has a major benefit. We have a general plan to what we are going to do to do this. The biggest thing that still needs to be done is research. We need to find reliable unbiased sources that will aid in our projects end result. We also plan on doing this project by taking the preexisting firebreak model and modifying it to satisfy our needs. The program will have to have several variables added to it which includes moisture content, recovery rate, biodiversity recovery, and several more that are not known yet.
Team Members:
Conner Cunningham
Anastasia Chavez
Sponsoring Teacher: AnnNet Delaney