Great Basin Fire Science Exchange

Species conservation funding
2018-07-12 08:00 - 17:00 (America/Los_Angeles)
View webinar recording.
This webinar examined current methods of funding species conservation efforts, as well as challenges and opportunities to leveraging additional funding for conservation of at-risk and endangered species. Moderator: Timothy Male, Executive Director at the Environmental Policy Innovation Center. Panelists: Christy Plumer, Chief Conservation Officer, Theodore Roosevelt Conservation Partnership; Virgil Moore, Director, Idaho Department of Fish and Game and Gary Frazer, Assistant Director for Endangered Species, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. This webinar is part the Species Conservation and ESA Initiative.

8th Annual Sage-Grouse Initiative Workshop - Lessons and photos
2018-07-13 08:00 - 17:00
Access resources.
More than 135 conservation partners recently met in Boise, Idaho during the Sage Grouse Initiative’s 8th annual workshop. This year’s workshop focused on wildfire, weeds and rangeland restoration.
Over the course of two days we heard from ranchers, firefighters, researchers, local non-profits and public land managers about the amazing results that come from working together locally to achieve a shared vision: healthy sagebrush rangelands for people and wildlife.

Home and landscape wildfire defense lessons learned from the 2017 California wildfire season
2018-07-16 08:00 - 17:00
View webinar recording.
How could have so many homes and businesses burned so quickly in the Wine Country Fires? While the landscape can be the fuse, the homes really can be the most burnable part of the landscape. For this webinar we’ll talk about key lesson that can be learned from these northern California fires and how we can help our homes and landscapes to become more resilient to wildfires. This webinar will bring forward information about fire preparedness, building design, construction and maintenance in with an emphasis identifying and managing the fuels near our homes (e.g. combustible wood mulches used in landscaping, lawn furniture, leaf accumulations, dry landscape plants, etc.), especially in the 5 feet immediately adjacent to our homes.

Rangeland Analysis Platform: A tool to help manage, monitor western rangelands
2018-09-25 09:00 - 10:00
Access webinar recording.
The Rangeland Analysis Platform (RAP) is a free, online tool that helps landowners and natural resource managers track vegetation through time and plan actions to improve America’s grazing lands. The RAP can be used to provide strategies to improve productivity of grazing lands, manage weeds, mitigate impacts of wildfire and drought, and benefit wildlife habitats. Powered by Google Earth Engine, RAP merges machine learning and cloud-based computing with remote sensing and field data to provide the first-ever annual cover maps of rangeland vegetation. This new platform allows people to view trends in rangeland resources at an unprecedented blend of space (from the Great Plains to the Pacific Ocean), time (1984 to present), and scale (at the ranch, watershed, or county level). Designed to be combined with local knowledge, the RAP helps users better understand vegetation change through time to aid in conservation planning and outcome evaluation. This webinar will describe the innovative breakthrough in mapping vegetation cover and demonstrate RAP applications.

Full community costs of wildfire
2018-09-27 11:00 - 12:00
View webinar recording.
This webinar was originally presented August 29, 2018 11am AZ/12pm MDT by Kimiko Barrett of Headwaters Economics.
As wildfires increase in size and severity, the costs to protect homes and lives similarly rise. Yet protecting communities represents a relatively small portion of the total costs of a wildfire—other short- and long-term impacts yield a variety of costs that often go unrecognized. In an analysis of five case studies—the Hayman (2002), Old, Grand Prix, and Padua Complex (2003), Schultz (2010), Rim (2013), and Loma fires (2016)—suppression costs averaged nine percent of total wildfire costs; additional short-term expenses and long-term damages accounted for 91 percent of total wildfire costs. Nearly half of all wildfire costs are paid at the local level by government agencies, non-governmental organizations, businesses, and homeowners. The remaining wildfire costs are paid at the state and federal level, or are paid by a combination of local, state, and federal organizations. Overall, short-term expenses such as suppression, relief aid, evacuation services, and home and property loss comprise around 35 percent of total wildfire costs. Long-term damages, which can take years to fully manifest, account for approximately 65 percent of total wildfire costs. Although wildfire costs greatly vary depending on factors within the built and unbuilt environment, increasing trends in climate change and development patterns favoring high-wildfire-risk areas suggest a parallel rise in total wildfire costs. Planning new communities and developments with consideration of wildfire risk is one way to accommodate growth while living alongside wildfires.

Fire and archaeology: Working together to protect cultural resources during wildfire and prescribed fire
2018-10-09 08:00 - 17:00
View video.
Land managers are challenged to protect cultural resources within the context of reintroducing fire on the landscape. Positive relationships and partnerships are essential to effective management.

Modeling and mapping the potential for high-severity fire in the West
2018-10-10 11:00 - 12:00
View recording.
The ecological effects of wildland fire – also termed the fire severity – are often highly heterogeneous in space and time. This heterogeneity is a result of spatial variability in factors such as fuel, topography, and climate (e.g. a map of mean annual temperature). However, temporally variable factors such as daily weather and climatic extremes (e.g. an unusually warm year) also may play a key role. We conducted a study in which statistical models were produced describing fire severity as a function of live fuel, topography, climate, and fire weather. On average, live fuel was the most influential factor driving fire severity, followed by fire weather, climate, and topography. The statistical models we produced were then used to generate maps depicting the probability of high-severity fire, if a fire were to occur, for several ecoregions in the western US. These maps can potentially be used by land management agencies to prioritize hazardous fuel reduction treatments. This webinar pertains to all mountainous regions of the western US but will slightly emphasize the southwestern US.

Gambel oak management symposium
2018-11-13
Part 1 recordings.
Part 2 recordings.
Gambel oak (Quercus gambelii) is a widespread species found throughout the US Southwest and southern Rocky Mountains. While the species has been widely studied in Arizona and New Mexico, comparatively little is known about Gambel oak at the northern extent of its range (Colorado, Utah, southern Wyoming). Research in this geographic region is particularly important given substantial differences in growth form across the species’ range (tree vs. shrub), and because potential habitat for Gambel oak is likely to spread northward under future climate scenarios. In this webinar, we will discuss the current state of knowledge on the ecology and management of Gambel oak in the southern Rocky Mountains, with a focus on silviculture, wildfire, and post-fire.

Evaluation of burn mosaics on subsequent wildfire behavior, severity and fire management strategies
2018-11-15 13:00 - 14:00
Access recording.
The Reburn Project was motivated by a need to better understand wildfires as a type of fuel reduction treatment and to assess the impacts of fire suppression on forested landscapes. The original JFSP task statement (Influence of past wildfires on wildfire behavior, effects, and management) was created to inform the National Cohesive Wildland Fire Management Strategy and to address how past wildfires influence subsequent wildfire spread and severity as well as to evaluate how past wildfires may support different fire management strategies. Our study focused on three study areas, located in the inland Pacific Northwest, central Idaho and interior British Columbia. Each study area was centered on a recent, large wildfire event in montane, forested landscapes.We first evaluated fire-on-fire interactions between past wildfires and subsequent large fire events (see Stevens-Rumann et al. 2016). Next, we created a landscape fire simulation tool that allowed us to explore the impact of fire management on the patterns of forest vegetation and fuels across landscapes. To do this, we created an iterative tool that uses historical ignition and weather data to evaluate potential burn mosaics compared to actual pre-wildfire landscapes under different wildfire management strategies.

Prescribed fire policy barriers: Findings from a JFSP project
2018-11-27 11:30 - 12:30
Access webinar recording.
USU Forestry Extension and the Southern Rockies Science Network present this special webinar: Prescribed fire is an essential management tool for restoring and maintaining fire-dependent ecosystems; however, land managers are unable to apply prescribed fire at the necessary levels. Past surveys have identified a range of policies and regulations that managers say limit their ability to conduct prescribed fire. We are conducting a project investigating barriers to prescribed fire across the West for the BLM and the US Forest Service. Our goals are to identify the origin and range of interpretation of perceived policy barriers (i.e. whether these reside in law, agency guidance, culture, or individual discretion) and characterize the opportunities and mechanisms that are available to overcome barriers at various scales. The first phase of our project involved a legal analysis and interviews across the 11 Western states with BLM and Forest Service fire and fuels managers and state-level air quality regulators. We report on the diversity of regulatory approaches, policy barriers, and strategies for overcoming challenges across the West, based on our legal review and interviews. While air quality regulation limits managers’ ability to conduct prescribed fire, it is only one of many issues that managers say affect their programs; other significant challenges include capacity limitations, a lack of incentives to increase accomplishments, and individual risk aversion.

Burning piles- Effects of pile age, moisture, mass, and composition on fire effects, consumption, and decomposition
2018-11-28 11:00 - 12:00
Access webinar recording.
Millions of acres of fuels reduction treatments are being implemented each year in the fire adapted forests of the US. Typical these fuel reduction treatments target small diameter trees for removal producing large amounts of unmerchantable woody material and elevating surface fuel loadings. Often this material has no market value and is piled by hand or with heavy machinery and burned on site. We studied replicated experimental pile burns from two locations (Wenatchee, WA and Santa Clara, NM) over three years. We examined the effects of time since construction (i.e., pile age) and burn season (fall and spring) on fuel bed properties, combustion dynamics, fuel consumption, and charcoal formation for hand-constructed piles in thinned ponderosa pine-dominated sites. The webinar will also touch on pile decomposition rates and unplanned fire in areas with piled fuels.

Lessons learned from Learn-n-Burn events
2018-11-29 10:00 - 11:00
View recording.
“Learn and Burn” workshops are an excellent way for private landowners and others to gain hands-on burning experience and knowledge from expert mentors. This webinar will provide some lessons learned from coordinating these events, and tips to putting one on in the future. Participants will be provided with a template checklist, examples of past agendas, ideas for potential partners and funding opportunities, suggestions on how to measure program impact, and successes from past events. Are you thinking of planning one of these events?

Use of small unmanned aircraft on wildfire incidents
2018-12-12 11:00 - 12:00
Webinar recording.
Unmanned Aircraft, commonly called “Drones,” are being used more and more for public safety, research, etc. Falling prices, rising capabilities, and a favorable regulatory framework are all fueling this growth. This webinar looks at actual, real-world, Wildfire missions where these aircraft are being used successfully, and diver into their advantages and limitations.

Utah All Hands-All Lands Summit
2019-02-05 12:00 - 2019-02-07 15:00
Access session recordings. Use password: [REDACTED]
All Lands Summit was held at the Salt Lake City Downtown Radisson Hotel on Feb 5-7, 2019.

SageSuccess Project Findings
2019-02-20 11:30 - 2019-02-21 12:30
Recording of Part I (2/20)
Recording of Part II (2/21)
The SageSuccess Project, a joint USGS, BLM, and USFWS effort, examines the factors contributing to big sagebrush establishment across the range of sage-grouse. In two webinars, USGS researchers will present major findings of studies on restoration, resistance and resilience, soils, population dynamics, and more.
SageSuccess Project findings were presented over two days by 6 presenters.
2/20 –
History, Study Design, and Partnerships of the SageSuccess Project: David Pilliod
The SageSuccess project required considerable planning and partnership building and coordination. Early partner engagement and flexibility were key to our success. This presentation sets the stage for why and how the project formed, what lessons we learned along the way, and where the science may take us next.
Big Picture Considerations for Sagebrush Restoration: Matt Germino
Sagebrush ecosystems, while often perceived as homogenous “seas” of shrubs, exhibit striking variation within and among sites. Heterogeneity exists over time and across space due to weather, climatic, topographic, and edaphic factors. In addition to this variability is remarkable genetic diversity within sagebrush and its associated species. This variability presents challenges and opportunities for sagebrush restoration.
Is Resistance & Resilience a Useful Predictive Tool? Robert Arkle
Ecological resistance and resilience to disturbance and subsequent invasion is becoming a cornerstone of conservation management in the Great Basin. However, whether this theory works in practice is largely untested at broad spatial and temporal scales. R & R theory was evaluated from field data from over 200 post-wildfire rehabilitation sites sampled from 1–35 years post-treatment throughout the Great Basin.
2/21 –
Gradients in Sagebrush Recovery after Fire are Associated with Soil and Biocrust Characteristics: Dave Barnard
The influence of soil properties on the recovery of sagebrush canopy structure after fire is not well documented. In this study, we investigated associations between soil depth, texture, and surface characteristics and the recovery of sagebrush canopy structure. We show that a diversity of associations exists and that soil characteristics such as depth and structure can surpass precipitation in terms explaining post-fire sagebrush responses.
Population Trajectories of Sagebrush after Restoration: Connecting Pattern and Process: Bob Shriver
It’s assumed that in the absence of drought, invasive species, or other disturbance, populations should recover soon after restoration, but there is little data to support this. When we examined the population dynamics of restoration, we found sagebrush populations declined for decades following seeding, even in the absence of environmental change. It took an average of 20 years to see increases in sagebrush cover. Much of this prolonged recovery can be linked to the sagebrush life history.
To Plant or to Seed? A Good Question: Dave Pyke
Sagebrush restoration typically takes two forms: seeding or transplanting. Transplants can bypass some of the roadblocks to establishment that seedings face. However, growth can sometimes be a challenge with transplanted species growing poorer than seeded species. We examine canopy and height growth of seeded and transplanted sagebrush across the Great Basin. Transplants have an early growth advantage in the first three to five years, but seeded plants eventually match the growth of transplants.

Let's fix the fire problem: Here's a solution
2019-02-26 10:00 - 11:00
Webinar recording
Fire is the first of three Great Constants in our lives. Change is the second. A web of change, consisting of population growth; density of homes built in outlying areas; new home construction; weather drying and heating; biomass build-up from fire suppression, management, etc. is converging on our communities, landscapes, economies, and collective resources. That convergence is creating negative impact and loss at unprecedented rates. This webinar discusses solutions to the fire problem.

Expect the unexpected: Fire management challenges and opportunities in a changing climate
2019-03-05 13:00 - 14:00
View webinar recording.
With increasing fire season duration and complexities in the fire management environment come opportunities to scale up the application of prescribed fire. In this webinar, we will explore the challenges climate change poses for fire managers, as well as the opportunities present in more numerous and longer prescribed burn windows with the increasing availability of fuels to burn.

Building loss to wildfires in the WUI in the US
2019-03-06 11:00 - 12:00
View webinar recording.
Wildfires are a natural element of many ecosystems and have a great impact on society by destroying property and sometimes by taking lives. In the United States alone, thousands of individual fires occur every year and the number of both burned hectares and destroyed buildings are higher than ever since recorded fire history. Six of the 10 fires with the largest losses of lives and homes of the 20th century occurred in the wildland urban interface (WUI), and all of them occurred within the last 20 years. Given that billions of dollars are being allocated to fuel management and fire suppression and that the main fire suppression goal is to protect people and property, it is necessary to understand the factors related to vegetation, terrain and spatial arrangement that contribute to building loss from wildfires, and examine nationwide spatial patterns of vulnerability and rebuilding.

Prescribed fire is an emergency
2019-03-07 11:00 - 12:00
View webinar recording
This interactive webinar will explore how systems level trends impact the way we manage fire in unexpected ways. Hear why cutting trees in overstocked forests does far less than you might think to increase a community’s resilience to catastrophic fire; how the public framing of the “wildfire crisis” creates narratives that negatively impacts fire management; and how the unintended consequences of policy and demographics muzzle the most important ecological disturbance in almost 80% of America’s landscapes. The webinar will address both opinions and opportunities for re-creation of a restoration economy and fire’s New Deal.

Smoke exposure health effects and mitigations for wildland fire personnel
2019-03-21 11:00 - 12:00
View webinar recording.
Wildland firefighters are exposed to wood smoke, which contains hazardous air pollutants, during wildland fire management assignments across the U.S. each year. In this webinar, Kathleen Navarro, PhD, presented on a recent Joint Fire Science Program study estimating the lifetime risk of lung cancer and cardiovascular disease from exposure to particulate matter (PM) from smoke. This analysis combined measured PM exposures on wildfires, estimated wildland firefighter breathing rates, and an exposure disease relationship for PM to estimate mortality of lung cancer and cardiovascular disease mortality from lifetime exposure to PM. In addition, Zone Fuels AFMO, Megan Martinez, reviewed previous smoke research, as well as field-based experiences with successes and challenges of implementing smoke exposure mitigations.

Engaging fires before they start: Spatial fire planning for the 21st century
2019-03-21 11:30 - 12:30
View webinar recording.
New fire management paradigms are emerging that recognize fire is inevitable, and in many cases desirable. During this webinar you will be introduced to a new process for spatial fire planning using tools such as Potential Control Line atlases (PCLs), Quantitative wildfire Risk Assessments (QRAs), and Suppression Difficulty Index (SDI). Chris Dunn, Oregon State Univ, will demonstrate how these tools can align wildfire management decisions and actions, from the development of strategic wildfire response zones to in situ wildfire response decisions that balance operational success, firefighter safety and values at risk.

Use of the Target Plant Concept to promote successful post-fire restoration
2019-04-09 11:00 - 12:00
View webinar recording.
Restoration of severely burned forest lands is limited in the southwestern US primarily due to a lack of research and resources. For those areas that have been reforested, there has been little success with an average of only 20% survival of planted seedlings. Major limitations to the establishment of tree seedlings are exposure to harsh abiotic factors, poor soil conditions such as reduced water holding capacities and fertility, animal damage, and competing vegetation, all of which limit basic physiological and growth processes in plants. However, there are different approaches, both in forest tree nursery production and during active reforestation planting operations, that could remediate one or more of these limitations. Success for any forest planting effort begins with the “Target Plant Concept” (TPC), which is defined as those morphological and physiological attributes of a nursery grown plant that will result in successful establishment and productivity on specific outplanting sites, such as the harsh, dry environments of the Southwest. This concept is the basis for all research conducted at the John T. Harrington Forestry Research Center with New Mexico State University.

Conservation Efforts Database: Batch uploading and approving
2019-04-11 13:00 - 14:15
View webinar recording.
In this webinar, the Conservation Efforts Database Team guides you through the process to populate the Batch Upload Template with information from existing databases/datasets. We’ll also discuss ‘Approving Officials’, their role, and how to select one for your agency or organization.

Conservation Efforts Database: Single-Record Entry and the Interactive Map
2019-04-16 13:00 - 14:15
View webinar recording.
Join the webinar that walks through processes to register for a Conservation Efforts Database User Profile and how we enter information using the ‘single-record’ entry option. Lastly, we’ll touch on the role of ‘approving officials’, how to select them within your agency or organization, and the associated responsibilities.

Growing up: Findings from a JFSP student project on post-fire conifer regeneration trajectories in eastern OR
2019-05-01 13:00 - 14:00
View webinar recording.
This presentation will focus on findings from JFSP-supported graduate research on post-fire conifer establishment following recent wildfires in eastern Oregon’s Blue Mountains. Given shifting climate and wildfire regimes, managers and researchers seek information on forest resilience and recovery trajectories. Understanding establishment and growth rates post-fire is pertinent both to fuels management planning, in cases of overabundant regeneration, as well as to decisions surrounding replanting for sites with limited post-fire regeneration. The presentation will summarize current knowledge on the relative influence of site-level versus climatic factors affecting regeneration in western North America, and present data from the Blue Mountains ecoregion.

New reforestation practices for post-wildfire landscapes: Building early resilience
2019-05-02 11:00 - 12:00
View webinar recording.
The increasing frequency and severity of fire and drought events have negatively impacted the capacity and success of reforestation efforts in many dry, western forests. Challenges to reforestation include the size, cost, and safety concerns of replanting large areas with standing dead trees, and high seedling and sapling mortality rates due to water stress, competing vegetation, and repeat fires that burn young stands. Resources for management are increasingly limited, reducing the capacity for young plantations to develop early resilience to fire, drought, and bark beetle stress. This talk summarizes recent research on the conditions under which current standard reforestation practices are no longer tenable, and provides suggestions on how these practices might be modified to improve their success.

What’s new in LANDFIRE: Remap
2019-05-07 08:00 - 17:00
View webinar recording.
This webinar seeks to inform participants about what to expect from LANDFIRE Remap products, and what has and has not changed from previous product offerings. We will discuss what we have learned since February 2019 when the products were made available to users in the Northwest, and how LANDFIRE resources can address specific fire and land management issues.

Climatic controls on post-fire regeneration and growth in ponderosa pine and Douglas-fir
2019-05-07 11:00 - 12:00
View webinar recording.
In this webinar, Dr. Kimberley Davis examined the effects of climate on post-fire conifer regeneration and subsequent seedling and tree growth. She and her colleagues focused on lower elevation ponderosa pine and Douglas-fir forests to identify the climate conditions that are necessary for these species to regenerate and grow following fire. Their study found that changing climate conditions are making it increasingly difficult for tree seedlings to regenerate after fire, suggesting that fires may cause conversions to non-forest vegetation in the hottest and driest areas. Dr. Davis also discussed how disturbances that reduce canopy cover, such as wildfire, may alter microclimate conditions.

Wildland firefighter fatalities in the context of prescribed fire
2019-05-08 09:00 - 10:00
View webinar recording.
Is the risk of death the same when implementing “planned events”? What do the numbers we have as well as some specific events have say about that? Travis Dotson will provide prescribed fire practitioners a few specific elements to consider related to this topic and lessons available from both planned and unplanned fire events.

Bringing non-profits, communities, and federal agencies together for restoration and monitoring
2019-05-10 10:00 - 11:00
View webinar recording.
Join this webinar and robust discussion about innovative collaborations and case studies developed through a partnership between Trout Unlimited and the Forest Service. We will share examples of successful projects, tools such as partnership agreements, and how this model of volunteer monitoring can be expanded across other resource areas and throughout the nation to connect communities to their public lands and waters.
Projects and tools include:

Stream Restoration Collaboration
Angler Science
Trout Unlimited’s Citizen Science Framework
TU and USFS Master Agreement
Forest Service Citizen Science Toolkit and Fund

With remarks from Trout Unlimited and Forest Service leadership:
Keith Curley, Vice President for Eastern Conservation, Trout Unlimited
Chris French, Deputy Chief for National Forest System, USDA Forest Service
