Repeat Photography and Post-Fire Ecosystem Change in SE Arizona

Date: October 26, 2021 1pm AZ/2pm MDTPresenters: Jim Malusa, University of Arizona, with an introduction by Don Falk, University of Arizona While making a vegetation map of the Chiricahua Mts in 2010, I took georeferenced photos and notes on the canopy cover of dominant species, in ecosystems ranging from grassland to spruce-fir.  The next year, …

April 2013: White/Donaldson Fires

A one day field trip to both the White and Donaldson Fires near Ruidoso, New Mexico that reviewed how both fires burned in the same year (2011) with very different effects. We visited unburned and burned areas that received mastication and other fuels treatments, discussed treatments and how they may have affected fire behavior, fire …

Managing Wildfire: Blazing the Trail in the Southwest

Recent changes in federal fire management policy have given fire managers increased flexibility to manage wildfires for multiple objectives. Fire managers can allow one flank of a fire to continue burning through remote backcountry, while actively suppressing another flank that threatens homes, infrastructure, or other values. Fire managers across the Southwest discuss the benefits of …

Tool for Understanding Human-Nature Relationships for Wildland Fire Management

Presenter: Chris Armatas, Research Social Scientist, Forest Service & Aldo Leopold Wilderness Research InstituteDate: September 23, 2021 11am AZ/12pm MDT Wildland fire is a phenomenon that impacts people and communities from the local to the national scale. These impacts are generally entwined with the human and ecological meanings and services that people derive from public …

Group of people wearing hard hats standing in a green forest.

Collective Action for Wildfire Risk Reduction

Date: April 19, 2022 11am AZ/12pm MDTPresenter: Dr. Susan Charnley, Pacific Northwest Research Station Over the past decade, government policies and programs to incentivize “all-lands approaches” to reducing wildfire risk have emerged that call for collective action among diverse public, private, and Tribal landowners who share fire-prone landscapes. This presentation draws on research from Oregon …

Past Meets the Present: Using Old Burns in Fire Management

Over the past two decades the size of wildfires has dramatically increased across the Southwest. These large burned areas have become so common that newer wildfires are burning into and around them. Fire managers increasingly use these previous burns as treatments that either stop or slow fire spread. The interaction of past and current wildfires …

Wildfire, Fish, & Water Resources in the Western US

Presenter: Dr. Patrick Belmont, Utah State UniversityDate: February 15, 2022 12pm Mountain Wildfire has increased 20-fold in the last 30 years in the Western U.S., partly due to climate change and partly due to forest and fire management practices. At the same time, many water resources are drying up. And fish populations throughout the western …