Great Basin Fire Science Exchange

Stream and Riparian Geomorphic Sensitivity and Ecological Resilience to Guide Management - Watershed processes, part 1
2023-04-25 09:00 - 10:00 (America/Los_Angeles)
Webinar recording.
This webinar provides a framework for assessing and characterizing the geomorphic sensitivity and ecological resilience of upland watersheds based on their predominant processes and the controls on these processes. The presenters illustrate how understanding the sensitivity, resilience, and process interactions can be used to assess the nature, magnitude, and potential responses of watersheds and stream reaches to disturbances and to determine their potential for restoration.

SER Great Basin Chapter - 2023 Annual Meeting (virtual)
2023-04-26 08:30 - 15:15
Presentation recordings.
Description: This meeting is a time to check in with our friends and colleagues to see what’s new and where progress has been made in ecological restoration and information exchange among practitioners, researchers, and the public in the Great Basin. Please plan to join us for a single day virtual meeting. The meeting will be kicked off by a keynote from Alison Agneray, BLM. The meeting will include a GB SER business discussion and 10 talks by students, faculty, and agency researchers.
Presentations included the following topics.
Building a restoration network
Restoration in the face of climate extremes
Seed coatings to break dormancy, improve seed flow
Threats of human population growth
Invasion resistance
Establishment in sagebrush
Climate-adjusted provenancing
Non-target herbicide effects
Western forbs

Stream and Riparian Geomorphic Sensitivity and Ecological Resilience to Guide Management - Meadow hydrology and traits, part 2
2023-04-27 09:00 - 10:00
Webinar recording.
This webinar provides a framework for understanding and characterizing the ecological value and hydrologic support for meadows and for identifying key threats. The presenters illustrate how understanding the present-day status and sensitivity of the meadows can be used to prioritize areas for management and guide management strategies based on the potential for restoration.

Harnessing genomics to examine local adaptation in sage-grouse
2023-05-05 11:00 - 12:00
Webinar starts at 11 Pacific/12 Mtn.
Join link.

Public experiences and perceptions with wildfire and flooding, A case study of the 2019 Museum fire
2023-05-11 11:00 - 12:00
Webinar recording.
Description: The greater Flagstaff area in northern Arizona has experienced multiple wildfires in recent years that have resulted in post-wildfire flooding. These events galvanized collaborative efforts to reduce hazardous fuels on steep slopes and implement flood mitigation improvements around the city and in the municipal watershed. In this presentation, the 2019 Museum Fire provides a case study for better understanding how the cascading disturbances of wildfire and post-wildfire flooding, which can be further compounded by adjacent disturbances like monsoon-related flooding, impact the public and how residents are informed of, perceive, and respond to these risks. This webinar examines findings from two household surveys: one conducted in 2019 immediately following the Museum Fire, and a follow-up survey conducted in 2022 following flooding associated with the burn scar and monsoonal events. The research presented provides insights into public experiences with and perceptions of wildfires, post-wildfire flooding, and forest management more broadly over time, and offers suggestions for improving the exchange of information between and among agencies and the public to facilitate mutual understanding and enhance adaptive capacity for future wildfires and flood events.
Presenters: Melanie Colavito, PhD, Director of Policy and Communications, ERI at NAU; Niki vonHedemann, PhD, Senior Research Coordinator and Human Dimensions Specialist, ERI at NAU; and Catrin Edgeley, PhD, Assistant Professor, School of Forestry at NAU

SCIENCEx Webinar Series: Planning for forests and rangelands of the future
2023-05-15 11:00 - 2023-05-19 12:00
Webinar recordings.
Monday, May 15, SCIENCE x Planning for Forests of the Future: Resources Planning Act – Forest Resources and Disturbance
• RPA Overview, presented by Claire O’Dea (recorded session)
• Forest Resources, Current and Future, presented by John Coulston
• Recent and future trends in disturbances to forests and rangelands across the conterminous U.S., presented by Jennifer Costanza
Tuesday, May 16, SCIENCE x Planning for Forests of the Future: Resources Planning Act – Forest Products and Water Resources
• RPA Overview, presented by Claire O’Dea (recorded session)
• Forest Products Markets, presented by Jeff Prestemon
• Current and future projections of water use and supply in the United States, presented by Travis Warziniack
Wednesday, May 17 SCIENCE x Planning for Forests of the Future: Resources Planning Act – Rangeland Resources and Biodiversity
• RPA Overview, presented by Claire O’Dea (recorded session)
• The 2020 Rangeland Assessment, presented by Matt Reeves
• Patterns and threats to biological diversity across the United States: Focusing on land use and climate change, presented by Becky Flitcroft
Thursday, May 18 SCIENCE x Planning for Forests of the Future: Resources Planning Act – Land Resources and Outdoor Recreation
• RPA Overview, presented by Claire O’Dea (recorded session)
• The past and future of land resources: foundations for the 2020 RPA Assessment, presented by Kurt Riitters
• Outdoor recreation participation in in the U.S. in 2040 and 2070, presented by Eric White
Friday, May 19 SCIENCE x Planning for Forests of the Future: National Report on Sustainable Forests
• USDA Forest Service National Reporting on Forest Sustainability: Observations and Program Overview, presented by Guy Robertson
• Key Findings from the 2020 National Report on Sustainable Forests, presented by Lara Murray
• The Montréal Process: a voluntary international agreement to measure, monitor and make progress on forest conservation and sustainable management, presented by Kathleen McGinley

8th International Wildland Fire Conference
2023-05-16 - 2023-05-19
Conference website.
Better wildland fire governance is needed to protect biodiversity, foster carbon sequestration and healthy forests and assure they are providing goods and services that do not vanish in wildfire smoke.
As Chairman and on behalf of the Organizing Committee of the 8th International Wildland Fire Conference we invite you to come to Portugal with your knowledge, insights, and thoughts. We welcome you to contribute with your institutional or professional case study, your scientific work or your operational success or failure in tackling complexity and uncertainty when governing or managing wildfire risk.
At Porto, you will have a lifetime influencing professional experience, through the opportunity to meet with thousands of people coming from all over the world. We all share similar problems and are deeply committed to work on the solutions.
We will be honored to host you at Porto, to discuss and participate in defining Governance principles towards the development an international framework. We believe that your piece of the puzzle will matter to help your nation and all nations to be better prepared to deal with the challenges ahead of us and to build fire-resilient landscape and societies.
TIAGO MARTINS DE OLIVEIRA
Chairman of the AGIF Board of Directors

Wildland Fire Trends Tool: A web-based data visualization tool for displaying wildlife trend and patterns in the western US
2023-05-17 13:00 - 14:00
Webinar join link.
Presenter: Douglas J. Shinneman, Research Ecologist, USGS Forest and Rangeland Ecosystem Science Center
Description: Accurately assessing recent and historical wildfire activity is critical for numerous agencies who manage fire-prone landscapes. The Wildland Fire Trends Tool (WFTT) is a data visualization and analysis tool that calculates and displays wildfire trends and patterns for the western U.S. based on user-selected regions of interest, time periods, and ecosystem types. For instance, users can determine whether the area burned by wildfire is increasing or decreasing over time for a specific ecoregion or for land ownership types of interest. The tool is available via a web application and generates a variety of maps, graphs, and tabular data that provide useful information for fire science and management objectives, as well as for the interested public.

Utah low-tech wet meadow restoration: Virtual workshop
2023-05-24
Workshop recordings.
Wet or mesic meadows are rare but disproportionately important ecosystems in Utah. Gully erosion and channel incision are widespread problems reducing natural resiliency and water storage capacity, which is impacting wildlife and working lands. Simple, low-tech restoration methods developed for dry lands of the desert southwest by Bill Zeedyk provide effective tools for protecting and restoring meadow systems. These techniques are cost-effective and hand-built allowing more people to participate in restoration.
In this one-day virtual workshop, Utah land managers and partners will be introduced to: reading the landscape to recognize meadow conservation opportunities, various low-tech “Zeedyk” structures (e.g., One Rock Dams, Zuni Bowls), project planning, implementation, and monitoring. Regional instructors will share tips and lessons learned from implementing low-tech meadow restoration projects across the West, while Utah conservation partners will discuss local opportunities and considerations.

A west-wide rangeland fuel assessment - Timing is Everything: Season 4, Episode 2 of Reading the Tea Leaves
2023-05-30 11:00 - 12:00
View recording.
In fire, fuels weather and topography mean everything. Fuels weather and topography and the timing of these components of the fire triangle must align properly for large fires to occur. Despite uncharacteristically large and continuous fuelbeds in numerous areas, however, it’s been a slow start to the fire season in the coterminous US.
In this webcast, Research Ecologist Dr. Matt Reeves analyzes rangeland fuel conditions across the West with an emphasis on how fire weather and rangeland fuels have not yet converged in 2023. All 2022 recordings are located on the Reading the Tea Leaves page.
Projections are based on Reeves’ Fuelcasting system – a component of the Rangeland Production Monitoring Service that provides projections of expected fuel conditions this grazing season.

Incorporating Indigenous knowledges into federal research and management- Webinar series
2023-06-01 08:00 - 09:00
View webinar recording.
The National CASC hosted a webinar series on how to integrate Indigenous Knowledges (IK) into Federal research and resource management programs. It ran bi-weekly from April 6 to June 1, 2023 and centers Indigenous voices to explore ethical, legal, and scientific considerations for working within different knowledge systems and provides guidance reflecting best practices.

Fire in the Southwest, past and present - Fire season 2022 overview and 2023 outlook
2023-06-02 08:00 - 09:00
View webinar recording.
Zander Evans will present an overview of the 10 largest fires in the Southwest during 2022. He will share summaries of forest types and burn severities for each of the 10 fires. Rich Naden, Fire Weather Meteorologist with National Park Service, will discuss the fire season outlook for the Southwest in 2023.

Wildfire ready watersheds
2023-06-07 08:30 - 10:00
Webinar recording.
The Wildfire Ready Watersheds Program provides guidance to help predict where and what post-fire impacts will be felt in local communities. The program provides a detailed work plan that community groups can use to refine and add detail to the study in ways that reflect local priorities and values. Importantly, the Wildfire Ready Watersheds Program also provides guidance on actions that may be taken to reduce the impact of these post-fire hazards on infrastructure and natural resources – both before, and after, a wildfire occurs. The Wildfire Ready Watershed Program hopes to support pre-and post-wildfire planning and response efforts in your community.

New NOAA/NESDIS satellite products for wildland fire applications
2023-06-21 09:00 - 10:00
Webinar recording.
In an effort to address key capability gaps, the NOAA National Environmental Satellite, Data, and Information Service (NESDIS) has established a Wildland Fire Program focused on impactful service delivery. NESDIS Wildland Fire Program projects, aimed at addressing critical active fire capability gaps, are underway, with product and service demonstrations expected to begin by July 2023. The improved products are generated using the Next Generation Fire System (NGFS), which consists of a sensor agnostic (applicable to geostationary or low earth orbit satellites) active fire algorithm and higher order capabilities, including alerting, incident situational awareness tools that are highly tolerant of cloud cover, and an event-based data model that combines time-resolved satellite fire detections with complementary geospatial data layers. Terrain corrected GOES-R ABI imagery and fire detections have also been developed. In addition, a lightning prediction model, customized for incident management, is under development. With Alaska wildland fire applications in mind, this presentation will introduce the NESDIS Wildland Fire Program, highlight product development and demonstration activities, and facilitate continued dialogue with stakeholders.
uaf-accap.org/event/wildfire-satellite-applications/

An overview of the fuel situation in California: Reading the Tea Leaves S4, E3
2023-06-21 10:00 - 10:30
Access the video.
In this webcast, Research Ecologist Dr. Matt Reeves analyzes rangeland fuel conditions across California by evaluating the main factors of fuel amount and type, proximity to larger diameter fuel, drought conditions, and level of curing leading to senescent grasses in our simple but transparent hotspot algorithm. Projections are based on Reeves’ Fuelcasting system – a component of the Rangeland Production Monitoring Service that provides projections of expected fuel conditions this grazing season.

Data and communications: Utilizing innovative tools to communicate climate impacts
2023-06-29 11:00 - 12:00
Webinar recording.
Description: Climate change is not just a global issue, but a local and regional reality. Action is needed at all levels, and the integration of landscape conservation strategies and the natural solutions the landscape conservation community can implement at scale must be considered and supported as part of the climate solution to mitigate and adapt to our changing climactic conditions.

Natural Hazards Research and Applications Workshop
2023-07-09 - 2023-07-12
Workshop website.
About the Workshop: Since 1975, the Natural Hazards Center has hosted the Annual Natural Hazards Research and Applications Workshop in Colorado. Today the Workshop brings together federal, state, and local mitigation and emergency management officials and planning professionals; representatives of nonprofit, private sector, and humanitarian organizations; hazards and disaster researchers; and others dedicated to alleviating the impacts of disasters. You can read more about the Workshop and its history on the Center’s website.

Workshop Information: Information about this year’s theme and opportunities to contribute can be found under the Workshop Info tab above. You can also browse our past Workshops to see previous programs, speakers, and other materials.
Please make sure and subscribe to Workshop updates so you can receive notifications regarding due dates and important announcements.

California Fire Return Interval Departure database: What it is and how to use it
2023-07-19 09:00 - 10:00
Webinar recording.
FRID statistics have been used for decades to help managers and scientists understand the ecological consequences of changing fire frequencies. The Forest Service Region 5 Ecology Program worked with UC-Davis to build a spatial FRID data layer that compiles information about fire return intervals for major vegetation types on the 18 National Forests in California and adjacent land jurisdictions. This data layer includes comparisons between pre-Euroamerican settlement (“pre-EAS”) and contemporary fire return intervals (FRIs). The FRID layer may be used for land and resource planning and assessment, as well as other natural resource applications such as fuels treatment planning, postfire restoration project design, management response to fire, assessing the effects of fire and fire regime change on ecosystems, and general ecological understanding of the historic and current occurrence of fire on the California National Forests and neighboring jurisdictions. This presentation focuses on the guts of the FRID data and the departure metrics, describes how to properly use the dataset, discusses some important caveats, outlines current updating and improvement work we are doing with the dataset, and describes a current national effort to develop a similar dataset and metrics for the US.

Increasing post-wildfire planted seedling survival: From experimental plantings to reforestation planning
2023-07-25 11:00 - 12:00
Webinar recording.
This presentation examines how post-fire planting success is influenced by climatic, microclimatic, topographic, and biotic factors. Multiple seedling planting experiments across northern New Mexico were evaluated using seedling monitoring, remote sensing, drone, and microclimate data. The results show tree seedling survival in high severity burn patches is largely determined by microclimatic refugia formed by both topographic variation and existing vegetation. Using machine learning and a new index of seedling survival probability, the most suitable artificial reforestation sites can be mapped for efficient restoration planning. This presentation posits that success rates of reforestation efforts in post-wildfire landscapes could be substantially increased by considering site survivability and suitability.

Fire, flood, and mud: Assessing postfire debris-flow hazards across the western US
2023-07-28 08:30 - 10:00
Webinar registration.
Parts of the western U.S., like southern California and Colorado, have a history of damaging debris flows after wildfire. Other regions are facing new postfire risks due to expanded wildfire activity. After a wildfire, emergency managers need rapid answers to the questions: Where in the burn area are debris flows likely? How much rain will it take to cause a problem? And how big will that problem be?
Using examples of recent postfire events, Jason Kean will describe how the U.S. Geological Survey and its partners work to answer those questions. He will also discuss current research to improve debris-flow hazard assessments with new tools to answer the questions: Where will debris flows will travel? How long it will take the burn area to recover? And what are the risks to future fires?

Native seeds: Supplying restoration- A nine-part video series
2023-08-02 08:00 - 09:00
View videos.
Native Seeds: Supplying Restoration is a nine-part video series that explores the native seed supply chain in the western United States. Filmed over four seasons, this series weaves together footage of seed collectors, farmers, researchers, and land managers working to scale up the supply of native seeds to meet the growing restoration demand. We see the staggering scale of damage to vast landscapes and meet tenacious people who are finding creative, scrappy solutions to restore ecosystems.

Evolution of fire management and the role of knowledge
2023-08-07 08:00 - 09:00
View video.
The story of how fire managers slowed a fire and benefited the ecosystem. This was accomplished thanks to previous fires that were managed for resource benefit. This is the story of the 2021 Rafael Fire that started just 20 miles outside of Flagstaff, AZ. On day 2 the fire ran 12 miles towards town, causing evacuations and worry. Things changed on day 3, watch the video to learn more. This video contains beautiful drone footage of unhealthy forests and the benefits of fire. Thanks to a shift in fire management, a bad situation was transformed into a beneficial one.

Wildfire Crisis Strategy seminar series
2023-08-08 08:00 - 09:00
Access the webinar series.
The Yellowstone fires of 1988 are considered an early fire event signaling the rise of the wildfire crisis we are experiencing today. After building for decades, the crisis erupted in the 2000s as wildfires destroyed lives, homes, and communities on a rising scale. The national response, though initially swift, has not kept pace with the growing impact of catastrophic wildfires. In January 2022, Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack announced a 10-year strategy for confronting the wildfire crisis in the United States (Confronting the Wildfire Crisis: A Strategy for Protecting Communities and Improving Resilience in America’s Forests).
At the core of the strategy is ramping up fuel and forest health treatments across land ownerships to match the scale of wildfire risk. The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) Forest Service and the wildland fire community have laid the foundation for collaboration across landscapes to reduce wildfire risk. Recent influxes in funding, including new funding authorities in the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law and the Inflation Reduction Act, are helping fuel and forest health projects hit the ground on priority landscapes and high risk “firesheds.”
For decades the Rocky Mountain Research Station has focused on fire science studying topics relevant to wildfire hazard, risk, behavior, and ecology, and providing knowledge support to land managers and a myriad of partners. The expertise and tools developed over decades by RMRS is now central to providing a scientific basis to addressing the Wildfire Crisis Strategy. This series of hour-long seminars took place January 12 – March 23, 2023, to share the individual contributions of RMRS scientists to the Wildfire Crisis Strategy.

Time to restore: Connecting people, plants, and pollinators
2023-08-08 08:00 - 09:00
View webinar recording.
The South Central Climate Adaptation Science Center (SC CASC) highlighted one of their funded projects, Time to Restore: Connecting People, Plants, and Pollinators, through the webinar series – The Southern Plains Climate Science Webinar Series.
Watch to learn how this project involves the pollinator restoration community through the entire process to assist them with climate-informed guidance on the timing of nectar plant flowering and seeding. Better knowledge of climate impact on flowering and seed timing for critical nectar plants can inform more resilient restoration plantings.
Jane Breckinridge, the Director of the Tribal Alliance for Pollinators, and Erin Posthumus, the Outreach Coordinator for the USA National Phenology Network and the Principle Investigator of this SC CASC-funded project, will share their perspectives on this project which recently received a second funding award to continue their work.

It's just weird: Reading the Tea Leaves S4, E3
2023-08-09 08:00 - 09:00
View video.
It’s been a weird year so far. The west experienced an exceptionally cool and moist spring, especially in the southern extent of the region. Combined with above average snowpack, fuels stayed moist, and the fire season has had a very slow start. In fact, June saw the lowest area burned since 2000, but despite the slow start over 400 locations in the conterminous US have experienced record temperatures. Moreover, we have seen several weeks of anomalous heat waves, especially in the southwestern US. Yet still the fire season is slower than normal, but fuels are drying out fast.
In this 22-minute webcast, Research Ecologist Dr. Matt Reeves analyzes rangeland fuel conditions across the western US by evaluating the main factors of fuel amount and type, proximity to larger diameter fuel, drought conditions, and level of curing leading to senescent grasses in our simple but transparent hotspot algorithm. All 2022 recordings are located on the Reading the Tea Leaves page.

Why do houses burn in wildfires and what can we do about it?
2023-08-09 09:00 - 10:00
Webinar recording.
Recent destructive wildfires in northern California provide an opportunity to investigate how different factors influence home survival. We conducted an analysis of the 2018 Camp Fire, obtaining measurements from a randomly selected subset of homes in Paradise, to determine if nearby burning structures and/or nearby vegetation contributed to home survival, and whether new building codes in place since 2008 helped. The findings, corroborated by photographs taken of damaged but not destroyed homes, point to changes that could substantially improve outcomes.

Monitoring and removal of invasive grasses for restoration of dry desert systems
2023-08-10 11:00 - 12:00
Webinar recording.
In this webinar, a panel of scientists and practitioners will discuss a number of management techniques and research questions being utilized or tested in an effort to reduce the presence of introduced grasses and restore the historic fire regime. These include:

Researching whether fire historically maintained the clumpy pattern of native vegetation in a self-perpetuating cycle.
Reducing the risk of wildfire severity and extent, retaining native plant communities, and maintaining ecological processes in dry desert systems through a variety of invasive species removal techniques.
Producing fire breaks, or strips of treatment intended to repress the forward progress of wildfires, through restoration of native vegetation patchiness and pruning of native woody species.
Utilizing new technologies to detect invasive grasses and monitor their spread, assess treatment and cost-effectiveness, and present results from a networked experiment that tests vegetation management practices across the southwestern US.

Simulating fire regimes in SpaDES: Parameter estimation for landscape fire models
2023-08-11 08:30 - 09:30
Webinar recording.

Invasive Species Habitat Tool (INHABIT): What, where, and why of invasive plant species
2023-08-11 11:00 - 12:00
Check for webinar recording here.

Nevada SRM Summer Meeting
2023-08-14 - 2023-08-15
Meeting webpage.
Brad Schultz and colleagues will guide us on a tour to several locations where they have located and re-taken photos that were originally taken decades earlier. Topics for discussion will include, but not be limited to, aspen dynamics (is it disappearing or expanding?), expansion/increase of mountain browse species, and responses of higher elevation/higher ppt. sagebrush plant communities to fire! Please bring your own lunch and be prepared to eat on the go (in vehicles). Also be sure to bring plenty of water, snacks, sunscreen, bug stuff, and whatever else you need to spend the day out on rangelands. We will plan to make two outhouse stops at a campground during the tour.
