Presenter: Tessa Nicolet, USFS Region 3 Fire Ecologist
The southwestern United States encompasses many ecosystems with intimate and inseparable relationships with fire. It is well accepted that fire plays an integral role in the ecology and maintenance of many forest and grassland types in the southwest. Fire on these landscapes not only shapes how those systems function but long-term fire effects provide for current and future interactions with fire. Focusing specifically on past fire occurrences and how current fires interact with these areas, I provide an overview of management opportunities, fire severity and overall interactions. Burn severities within vegetation types are compared for areas that have experienced documented recent fires versus those area that have not. Fire effects from past fires that are evident in current live and dead fuels conditions increase the decision space for suppression and management strategies and tactics. Results illustrate the importance of fire on these ecosystems not only from an ecological perspective but in the form of opportunities and choices for future fire management.
