Wildfires in the southwestern US are getting larger, more frequent, and more severe due to changing climatic conditions like rising temperatures and prolonged drought (Singleton et al. 2018, Mueller et al. 2020). Catastrophic wildfire events directly impact communities, ecosystems, and cultural resources—and can pose continuing hazards long after the fire is extinguished. Flooding and erosion from heavy rainstorms are postfire emergencies caused by the severe loss of vegetation cover and the alteration of soil conditions. Because these postfire impacts can pose safety concerns and threaten property and infrastructure, there is a need to understand postfire treatments and their effectiveness toward ecosystem resilience and community protection.
SWFSC Working Paper by Henry Grover in partnership with the Ecological Research Institute, January 2021
Read below a Fact Sheet summary of the above paper, and “Burned Area Emergency Response (BAER) logistics in the Southwestern US,” a Fact Sheet describing the basics of the BAER process and how it works.
Mitigating Postfire Runoff and Erosion Fact Sheet
Burned Area Emergency Response (BAER) Logistics Fact Sheet
