April 2015: Planning for the Next Big One: Managing the Post-fire Environment in a Time of Change

The Burned Area Learning Network Workshop Together with the Fire Learning Network, the SWFSC hosted a collaborative workshop to improve advance planning for post wildfire impacts April 16-17, 2015 in Santa Fe, New Mexico. Materials and Notes from the workshop can be downloaded below. If you have further questions, contact Anne Bradley with The Nature …

April 15, 2015: Effects of climate variability and accelerated thinning on watershed-scale runoff in Southwestern ponderosa pine forests

Presenter: Marcos Robles, The Nature Conservancy The recent mortality of up to 20% of forests and woodlands in the southwestern United States, along with declining stream flows and projected future water shortages, heightens the need to understand how management practices can enhance forest resilience and functioning under unprecedented scales of drought and wildfire. To address …

The 2014 San Juan Fire: Fuel Treatments and Fire Management

The San Juan fire ignited on June 26, 2014 on the White Mountain Apache Reservation and quickly entered the Apache-Sitgreaves National Forest. The fire was wind-driven for the first few days, and fire behavior was influenced by extremely dry fuel conditions related to long-term drought. However, as the fire moved to the southwest it encountered a series of fuels treatments done as part of the White Mountain Stewardship Contract and a habitat improvement partnership project. View the YouTube video here.


April 2, 2015: Tamarisk invasion and fire in Southwestern desert ecosystems

Presenter: Gail Drus, St. Francis University Increased wildfire has been observed with the displacement of native cottonwood-willow (Salix and Populus spp.) gallery forests by invasive, non-native tamarisk (Tamarix spp.) in desert riparian zones of North America. Greater post-fire recovery of Tamarix relative to native species suggests a Tamarix fire trajectory where repeated fire excludes native …

San Carlos Apache – Building a Culture of Fire

For the past decade, the San Carlos Apache fire and forestry staff has been working to reintroduce fire to the landscape through an expanding prescribed fire and managed wildfire program. Stephen J. Pyne narrates this video describing the 2014 fire season on San Carlos when the new approach to fire was tested with the simultaneous management of multiple prescribed burns as well as a number of wildfire starts. One of those starts, the Skunk Fire eventually grew to over 73,000 acres.


February 25, 2015: Fire and climate history of the western San Juan Mountains, Colorado: Integration of tree-ring and alluvial-sediment methods

Presenter: Erica Bigio, University of Arizona This webinar presents research on the historical fire regimes of the western San Juan Mountains in southwestern Colorado, where the landscape provided a unique opportunity to sample tree-ring and alluvial-sediment records in the same study sites. Knowledge of historical fire regimes (frequency, size, severity) can help support management plans …

January 21, 2015: The Ability of Wildfire to Act as a Fuel Treatment

Presenter: Sean Parks, Aldo Leopold Wilderness Research Institute, Rocky Mountain Research Station, U.S. Forest Service In partnership with the Northern Rockies Fire Science Network, Sean will present the results from a JSFP-funded study that highlights the ability of wildfire to act as a fuel treatment. This study evaluated whether or not wildfires limited the occurrence, …

December 10, 2014: Working Across Fence Lines: Multi-jurisdictional planning and prescribed fire

Presenter: Eytan Krasilovsky, Forest Guild Fire cuts across administrative boundaries and our restoration work needs to as well. Whether it is multijurisdictional planning or multiagency prescribed burning, working across boundaries presents a unique set of challenges. In this webinar, Eytan Krasilovksy will discuss multijurisdictional NEPA planning in the Rio Trampas watershed and this year’s multiagency …

Silver Fire smoke

November 2014: Wildland Fire Smoke in the Air- What does it mean to me?

Thank you to all those who attended, making it a successful workshop! Due to videographer limitations, we were not able to record all of the presentations during concurrent sessions. November 6-8, 2014 in Albuquerque, New Mexico. Program available here Click here to watch the associated webinar: “Smoke Forecasting Tools: A Case Study in Air Quality” …