2017 SW Wildfire Season Overview
2017 Fire Season: An Overview – Southwestern U.S. by Michael Lynch and Alexander Evans.
February 14, 2018: Fire severity and regeneration strategy influence shrub patch size and structure
Date: February 14, 2018 Presenter: Jesse Minor, Adjunct Instructor, University of Arizona Shrub species demonstrate flexible responses to wildfire disturbance severity that are reflected in shrub patch dynamics at small and intermediate scales. Prior research has examined the dynamics and persistence of large shrub patches on the landscape; our work focuses on individuals or groups of individual …
Horseshoe 2 Fire: 6 years Post-Fire
We hosted a two-day field trip to visit various locations within the perimeter of the 2011 Horseshoe 2 Fire (including Chiricahua National Monument and Coronado National Forest). Topics discussed include: wildlife impacts, rangeland impacts, watershed and hydrology effects, and historic fire regime and re-burn issues. Read the Horseshoe 2 Factsheet here. Click the StoryMap below …
2017 TWS Conference Symposium- Wildfire and spotted owls: It’s a burning issue (co-host)
Symposium September 25th: “Wildfire and spotted owls: It’s a burning issue” Study results suggest that wildfires in the western U.S. have increased in size and severity over the past several decades. This increase has raised concern over the effects of fire, particularly high-severity fire, on threatened and endangered species, including the spotted owl (Strix occidentalis). These …
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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 …
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December 2, 2016: Altar Valley
Altar Valley Field Trip In November and December 2016, we co-hosted a conference in Tucson, Arizona with the Association for Fire Ecology (Beyond hazardous fuels: Managing fire for social, economic, and ecological benefits). During the conference, we arranged three separate field trips. The link below provides information from each stop on the Altar Valley Field …
April 12, 2017: Efficacy of resource objective wildfires for restoring ponderosa pine ecosystems in N. Arizona
Efficacy of resource objective wildfires for restoring ponderosa pine ecosystems in northern Arizona Date: April 12, 2017 11am AZ/12pm MDT Presenter: David Huffman, Ecological Restoration Institute, Northern Arizona University Historical interruption of frequent surface fire regimes and decades of fire exclusion have resulted in degraded ecological conditions in ponderosa pine (Pinus ponderosa) forests of the American …
What is a forest fuel treatment?
Forest fuel treatments are used by managers for ecological restoration and reducing fire hazard. Due to past management decisions and long-term fire exclusion, forests are more dense and are susceptible to severe wildfires. Fuel treatments aim to reduce the intensity and size of wildfires, increase species diversity, and restore forests to their historical condition. Read …
March 1, 2017: Fuels treatments and ecological values in piñon-juniper woodlands: Vegetation, birds, and modeled fire behavior
Date: March 1, 2017, 12pm MST Presenter: Jonathan Coop and Pat Magee Mastication and hand-thinning treatments are increasingly utilized by land managers as a means of reducing tree cover for fire hazard mitigation and other habitat objectives in piñon-juniper (P-J) woodlands. However, the effects of these treatments on ecological processes including fire, and on a wide …
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 …
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