Postfire Management in Frequent-Fire Conifer Forests

Presenter: Dr. Jens T. Stevens, National Program Lead for the Wildland Fire and Fuels Research, USDA Forest ServiceDate: January 19, 2022 12pm Mountain Standard Time The increasing incidence of large wildfires with extensive stand-replacing effects across the southwestern United States is altering the contemporary forest management template within historically frequent-fire conifer forests. While management of …

A post-fire ponderosa pine seedling

February 2014: Fostering resilience in Southwestern ecosystems: A problem solving workshop

Fostering resilience in Southwestern ecosystems: A problem solving workshop Ecosystems and fire regimes are moving into new domains as a consequence of climate change, disturbance, and other causes. Fire professionals and land managers in the region are confronted with new fire regimes, fire effects, and ecosystem recovery trajectories following disturbance. To help fire and ecosystem …

Southwest Vegetation Type Conversion: A workshop summary

by Rachel M. Gregg, EcoAdapt, and Laura A. Marshall, University of Arizona Increasingly common large and severe fires in the Southwest are now often followed by vegetation type conversions (VTC) where once-dominant vegetation fails to return to its pre-fire state. Case studies have documented abrupt transitions from forests to shrublands or from shrublands to grasslands. …

Full-Cost Accounting of the 2010 Schultz Fire

Presenter: Dr. Melanie Colavito, Ecological Restoration Institute, Northern Arizona University; Dr. Catrin Edgeley, Northern Arizona University; and Dr. Evan Hjerpe, Conservation Economics InstituteDate: December 7, 2021 12pm Mountain Time The 2010 Schultz Fire was ignited by an abandoned campfire on June 20 and burned 15,075 acres northeast of Flagstaff, Arizona. Following the fire, intense monsoon …

August 31, 2017: The East Jemez Landscape Futures Project

Date: August 31, 2017 11am AZ/12pm MDT Presenter: Collin Haffey, USGS Jemez Mountains Field Station The East Jemez Landscape Futures (EJLF) project is a collaborative process that aims to develop a holistic and forward-looking approach to managing areas of the eastern Jemez Mountains severely altered by drought, high severity fire, and post-fire flooding. To engage a diversity …

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

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, …

June 14, 2017: Recovery & adaptation after wildfire across the United States, 2009-2011

Date: June 14, 2017 11am AZ/12pm MDT Presenter: Miranda H. Mockrin, USFS Northern Research Station Becoming a fire-adapted community that can live with wildfire is envisioned as a continuous, iterative process of adaptation. In eight case study sites across the United States we examined how destructive wildfire affected altered progress towards becoming fire-adapted, focusing on the …

Map of the Western US showing places that contribute most to air quality emissions

Prescribed Burns as a Tool to Mitigate Future Wildfire Smoke Exposure

In a nutshell: Can prescribed fire reduce future smoke impacts? Research on how targeted prescribed burn treatments in heavily forested Western states may have an outsized impact on improving air quality for the entire western U.S. by reducing the likelihood of future wildfire smoke. Description: Catastrophic wildfires in the western United States pose significant risks …

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

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 …