April 2015: Planning for the Next Big One: Managing the Post-fire Environment in a Time of Change

The Burned Area Learning Network Workshop Together with the Fire Learning Network, the SWFSC hosted a collaborative workshop to improve advance planning for post wildfire impacts April 16-17, 2015 in Santa Fe, New Mexico. Materials and Notes from the workshop can be downloaded below. If you have further questions, contact Anne Bradley with The Nature …

August 27, 2014: A panel perspective on regeneration in Southwest pine forests after high severity wildfire

Panelists: Pete Fulé – Northern Arizona University, Collin Haffey – USGS Jemez Field Station, José Iniguez and Suzanne Owen – USFS Rocky Mountain Research Station, Jim Youtz – USFS Southwestern Region, Joy Mast – Carthage College The Southwest Fire Science Consortium is hosting a panel discussion on regeneration of pine forests after high severity wildfires. …

August 21, 2014: Pinaleño Mountain Range

We conducted a single day field trip to learn about the fire and disturbance history of the Pinaleño Mountain Range in southeastern Arizona. We discussed the disturbance history, primarily from fire and insect, the local management plans to restore mixed conifer and spruce-fir through the Pinaleño Ecosystem Restoration Project, the threatened and endangered species concerns, …

May 29, 2014: A resilience ecology framework for southwestern forests: Ecosystem shifts, landscape disturbance and climate change

Presenter: Donald Falk, University of Arizona In this webinar, Dr. Don Falk will review the basic concepts of ecological resilience as it applies to fire-adapted ecosystems in the Southwest. He will discussion how these concepts apply to the challenge of maintaining resilience in a rapidly changing world. Lastly, he will explore how maintaining resilience can …

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 …

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 …

January 16, 2013: Temperature as a driver of regional forest drought stress and tree mortality

Presenter: Park Williams, Los Alamos National Laboratory Dr. Williams will discuss his recent work to derive a forest drought-stress index (FDSI) for the southwestern United States using a comprehensive tree-ring data set representing AD 1000–2007. This FDSI is linked to measures of forest productivity, mortality, bark-beetle outbreak and wildfire. If climate models are accurate, the …

November 8-9, 2012: Horseshoe Two Fire

The Horseshoe Two Fire began on May 8, 2011 on the east side of the Chiricahua Mountains in southeastern Arizona and burned northeast into the Chiricahua National Monument. The topics covered on this field trip included landscape scale fire management, fire effects, operations, impacts on wildlife, post-fire rehabilitation efforts, and treatment effectiveness. Day one covered …

October 24, 2012: Whitewater-Baldy Complex

We hosted a one day field trip to explore New Mexico’s largest wildfire*, the Whitewater Baldy Complex, that burned 297,845 acres (465 square miles) on the Gila National Forest during the extremely dry and windy spring of 2012. The tour discussed the fire regimes of the fuel types that burned, the interaction of past fires …