Fire moss as a tool for post-wildfire ecosystem restoration

This factsheet is a result of graduate research and has not been peer reviewed beyond graduate committee members. by Chris Ives Increasingly large, frequent, and severe fires across the western United States are creating difficult restoration challenges for land managers. Despite the wide use of current fire restoration techniques, many studies have shown little to …

A post-fire ponderosa pine seedling

January 18, 2017: Patterns of conifer regeneration following high severity wildfire in ponderosa pine-dominated forests

Date: January 18, 2017, 12pm MST Presenter: Marin Chambers, Colorado Forest Restoration Institute, CSU The past two decades have witnessed fires of increased severity in southern Rocky Mountain ponderosa pine – dominated forests. Marin will discuss results from an ongoing project that is characterizing post-fire conifer regeneration in severely burned patches, and how regeneration characteristics are governed …

Bark Beetles and Restoration Treatments

Although bark beetles are a natural part of the ponderosa pine forest ecosystem, it has been the insect most often associated with widespread tree mortality. Therefore, land managers charged with forest restoration use prescribed fire and thinning treatments to promote healthy and resilient stands. Read more!

Megan Poling research

August 24, 2016: Increasing trends in high severity fire in the southwestern USA from 1984-2013

Presenter: Megan Poling, PhD Student, Northern Arizona University In the last three decades nearly 5 million hectares have burned in all vegetation types in the Southwest and the largest fires in documented history have occurred in the past two decades. However, trends in severity, or how fires are burning have not been well documented in forest …

High Severity Fire: Response and Uncertainty

Do high severity burns lead to conversion to new forest types or a shift from forests to shrublands or grasslands? How do wildlife respond to changing habitats? And, finally, what do these changes tell us about how these ecosystems will respond to climate change? We visited the sites of the 2000 Pumpkin Fire and 2003 Aspen Fire, and talked to researchers who have been studying how forests and wildlife respond to high severity burns. View the YouTube video here.


March 17, 2016: Persistence and fire regimes of oak shrubfields suggest increasing dominance with climate change

Presenter: Chris Guiterman, University of Arizona PhD Candidate A number of recent studies in the Southwest region have documented abrupt transitions of conifer-dominated forests to shrubfields following high-severity fire. Little is known about the long-term ecosystem dynamics of these stands, including their successional trajectories and interactions with fire. I will present dendroecological analyses of five of …

February 17, 2016: Ecology of Smoke

Presenter: Mary Lata, USFS Fire Ecologist The Ecology of Smoke is something that has been considered by very few in the United States, despite extensive and intensive interest and research into frequent fire systems. This presentation will review some of the existing science; present some recent data on smoke and seedling emergence in species native to …

World of Wildland Fire – Intro to Wildland Fire Videos

This series of videos serves as an introduction to wildland fire and has been produced through the Wildfire Education & Training Collaborative (WETC). More in-depth videos will be added as they become available. WETC Mission Statement: To develop multiple sources of media, including but not limited to books, videos and classroom exercises, for the purpose …

2016 Fire Ecology & Management Conference

Beyond hazardous fuels: Managing fire for social, economic, and ecological benefits Recordings and field trip info now available! This Southwest Regional Fire Ecology and Management Conference occurred in Tucson, Arizona November 28 – December 2, 2016 in partnership with the Association for Fire Ecology. To view recordings of plenary presentations and some others, click here …

2012 Southwest Fire Ecology Conference (AFE)

Together with Humboldt State University and the Association for Fire Ecology, the Southwest Fire Science Consortium hosted the Southwest Fire Ecology Conference, “Fire Landscapes, Wildlife & People” in Santa Fe, New Mexico February 27-March 1, 2012. 2011 was a record-breaking fire year for the Southwest that underscored the importance of collaboration for defining research needs …