Fuels Planning: Root Disease Analyzer

Armillaria Response Tool

What is the Armillaria Response Tool (ART)?

The Root Disease Analyzer - Armillaria Reponse Tool (ART) estimates Armillaria root disease risk in Rocky Mountain Montane Conifer Forest biotic communities.  It uses habitat types to identify sites with high and low risk that pathogenic Armillaria will be present, and indicates how fire planning (fuels management) may affect subsequent Armillaria disease within high risk stands.

There are two versions of ART:

ART (landscape level)

Habitat type and subseries (groups of habitat types) are the backbone of the assessment of Armillaria risk. This more detailed (more accurate) version of ART uses landscape level GIS analysis to assess variability in climate and terrain within forest stands and uses the relationship between habitat types and temperature-moisture regimes to more accurately predict potential risk of Armillaria root rot as a result of fuels treatment in a stand. It encourages re-examination of historical habitat type classification of forested parcels to determine if some forested parcels show stand heterogeneity and were given a stand-wide plant association label that may encompass two or more ecologically different areas.

Inputs of ART

Input	Units	Source
Stand ID Habitat type Slope Aspect Temperature Precipitation	Degrees or Percent Degrees Degrees Celsius Inches	Forest Timber Stand Map Habitat Type Manual DEM, Topo, or GIS DEM, Topo, or GIS Local weather stations Local weather stations

Outputs for ART

Output	Units/Range	Destination
Armillaria Regimes	No or Low risk High risk	Fuels Management

ART Lite (stand level)

ART Lite assesses potential risk to Armillaria-caused tree mortality at the stand level as a result of fuels treatment in a stand. Assessment is based on habitat type and an assumption of stand homogeneity.

Users of ART Lite must assure that stand habitat type was accurately assigned.

By choosing ART Lite, it is implicit that users assume all responsibility for the accuracy of the habitat type classification, the ecological homogeneity of the stand, and any management decisions that are made as a result of using the tool.  By clicking the ART Lite button, you acknowledge that you understand and accept this responsibility.

Inputs for ART Lite

Input	Units	Source
Stand location Habitat type Fuels treatment		Forest Timber Stand Map Habitat Type Manual

Output for ART Lite

Output	Units/Range	Destination
Armillaria Regimes Effects of treatment on Armillaria activity	No or Low risk vs.High risk Increased risk, decreased risk or no change	Fuels Management

Objectives of the ART tool:

• Minimize the likelihood of exacerbating a root rot problem by application of a fuels treatment prescription;
• Demonstrate the ecological context within which Armillaria root rot disease operates;
• Illustrate potential shortcomings and/or discrepancies in the use of classical habitat types in modeling root rot occurrence in forested environments;
• Introduce a new, more ecological process-sensitive way to describe vegetation on the landscape;
• Incorporate new science into the decision-making process at the level of proposed activity.