Forest management impacts on forest fires in Golestan province by GIS application

Developing and implementing forest management plan is a way to conserve forests in critical situations such as forest fire. The aim of this research was to comparatively study fire occurrence in managed and unmanaged forests in terms of fire duration and coverage in Golestan province in 2010. For this purpose, first the information on major forest management items was imported into GIS database for each parcel. Then, the data for fire duration and burned area obtained from various resources was imported into GIS. Finally, data on the forest fire affected areas was overlaid on the forests area by GIS spatial and statistical analysis. Based on the results, there was strong positive correlation (71.70 %) between fire duration and lack of forest roads density, fencing and channel excavation in forests projects. While, about 90% increase in burned areas was attributed to three factors; lack of skilled personnel, decreasing of silvicultural practices and fencing /channel excavation operations. Generally, forest management plans based on the forestry science principals, have great importance in forest conservation in critical circumstances.