November 25, 2013: The Role of Fire in Shortgrass Rangelands

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Presenter: David Augustine, USDA-ARS Landscape Ecologist In this webinar, we will discuss research on the role and use of prescribed fire in the western Great Plains, focusing on studies conducted in the shortgrass steppe of Colorado over the past decade. We will discuss the fuel loads and weather conditions under which prescribed burning has been …

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November 12, 2013: Fire Legacy’s role in current and future fire management in the Southwestern U.S.

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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 …

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September 25, 2013: How will climate change and treatments affect future forests? Testing alternatives with the Climate-FVS model

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Presenter: Pete Fulè, Professor, Northern Arizona University Under current conditions, large, severe wildfires are a fact of life in southwestern ponderosa pine forests. What will burned systems look like over the coming decades under warming climate? Do management treatments make a lasting difference or will climate override their effects? We applied the relatively new feature …

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Fuel Treatment Longevity

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There are several ways to evaluate fuel treatment effectiveness: observations, case studies, mathematical models, and empirical studies. Within these four categories, there are several methods that can be used to evaluate the effectiveness of fuel treatments both immediately after treatment and over time. This paper summarizes the goals, effects, and advantages of various treatment actions; …

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SW Mixed Conifer Forests: Evaluating Reference Conditions to Guide Fuel Treatments

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This working paper covers three topics to guide treatments in mixed-conifer forests of the Southwest: 1) describes the current knowledge of mixed-conifer historical reference conditions for fire regimes, stand structure, and species composition in the Southwest (Arizona, New Mexico and adjacent areas); 2) provides field diagnostics to assess reference conditions; and 3) offers land managers …

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August 21, 2013: Effects of fuel treatments on wildfire severity

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Presenters: Charlotte Reemts, an Ecologist for the Nature Conservancy and Helen Poulos, Wesleyan University Charlotte and Helen teamed up to present this webinar that connected science and management of fire in the Davis Mountains of west Texas. Three wildfires burned through the pinyon-juniper-oak forests of the Davis Mountains in 2011 and 2012. Fuel treatments (prescribed fire, …

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The Fire Laboratory: Forest Restoration on the Gila

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Vast stands of ponderosa pine stretch across the Gila National Forest, a testament to the role of fire in this corner of the Southwest. For decades, fire managers on the Gila have been reintroducing fire back on to the landscape. This video introduces some of the people behind the story of fire on the Gila National Forest.

Click here for accompanying  “The Fire Laboratory” write up containing more detail.

June 19, 2013: Effects of Wildland Fire on Lowland Leopard Frogs and their Habitat at Saguaro National Park

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Presenter: Don Swann, Saguaro National Park Don Swann is a biologist at Saguaro National Park, Tucson, Arizona, where he has worked for more than 20 years. He has an MS in Wildlife and Fisheries from University of Arizona. Don’s projects include collaborative research and long-term monitoring of saguaros, desert tortoises, mammals using wildlife cameras, and …

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May 15, 2013: The Structure of Fire Size Distributions: A Broad View of Interacting Gradients in Wilderness Management, Spatial Climate, and Topography in Three Western Regions

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Presenter: Sandra Haire, Haire Laboratory for Landscape Ecology Determining the effects of land management on fire regime characteristics is complicated by the interaction of several factors that vary in space and time. First, fire size and frequency are linked to climate conditions, including drought, as well as wind and temperature that define weather conditions during …

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