Great Basin Fire Science Exchange

New tools for pinyon-juniper management: Balancing needs of sagebrush and woodland obligate birds
2020-05-27 10:00 - 11:00 (America/Los_Angeles)
Webinar recording.
Description: Management of expanding pinyon-juniper woodlands in sagebrush habitats has become a prominent strategy for sagebrush conservation, with spatially targeted tree removal efforts designed to benefit sage-grouse increasing over the past decade. This webinar will highlight recent literature on wildlife response to pinyon-juniper management across the West, and new science and tools for considering sagebrush- and woodland-obligate songbirds, like pinyon jay, in conifer management. Knowledge gained from wildlife studies will be put into context of emerging remote sensing analyses that provide a comprehensive picture of continued woodland change.
Presenters: Jason Tack, US Fish and Wildlife Service, Habitat and Population Evaluation Team, Missoula, MT; Jeremy Maestas, USDA Natural Resources Conservation Service, West National Technology Support Center, Portland, OR.
CE Credits: This webinar was approved by the Society for Ecological Restoration for 1 Continuing Education Credit (CEC).
To receive credit you’ll need to reference pre-approval code 16067645 and upload your webinar certificate (automatically emailed from Joint Fire Science Program JFSP following your attendance) at ser.submittable.com

Fieldwork in the time of COVID-19
2020-05-27 10:00 - 11:00
Webinar recording.
Description: Join a panel of practitioners from several realms (governmental, contracting, and non-profit) to learn how they are adapting field work plans to reduce risks to practitioners and community members in the time of COVID 19. As we are all learning and adapting to this strange new world together, we’ll wrap up with time for participants to share their own ideas and ask questions of panelists and each other.
Presenters are the following SER-NW chapter board members:
Jeff Barna an ecologist with a wide-ranging research background focusing on plants and wildlife, as well as wetland and riparian ecology. Jeff currently works for Environmental Science Associates, an employee-owned natural resource management and restoration design company. He has worked throughout the U.S., but is now happily based in the Northwest, and lives in Portland. Jeff is very passionate about engaging young people, particularly those interested in becoming ecologists because of the importance of supporting the next generation of restoration scientists.
Ben Peterson an aquatic weed biologist with the King County Noxious Weed Program in Seattle, WA, where he has worked since 2009. Over the years he has worked on restoration projects with several non-profit, for profit, and government organizations (including an internship with the Aldo Leopold foundation where he got to sleep in The Shack for a week). Ben received a MS from the University of Washington in 2008.
Regina Wandler, Stewardship Manager at Skagit Land Trust, Regina is responsible for monitoring and managing over 8,000 acres of conservation land across Skagit County. She began serving on SERNW’s board in 2015 while completing her Masters in Environmental Horticulture at the University of Washington, and is a Certified Ecological Restoration Practitioner In Training (CERPIT).

Managing for water: Lessons learned from watershed protection partnerships for wildfire risk reduction
2020-05-27 10:00 - 11:00
Webinar recording.
Description: Among the values at risk from wildfire are community drinking water supplies, as forested watersheds on public land are often a primary or significant source of drinking water. In some places across the West, watershed protection partnerships have formed to address this threat by bringing together the stakeholders of these watersheds for collaborative planning and investment in source water protection. This webinar will explore the concept of watershed protection partnerships and how they span organizational boundaries for collective action to address wildfire and other risks. We will offer lessons learned from how these partnerships have been implemented in Colorado and New Mexico, and direct implications and applications for communities in Oregon.
Presenters: Heidi Huber-Stearns, University of Oregon; Emily Jane Davis, Oregon State University

Data, science, and methods behind the Wildfire Risk to Communities website
2020-05-28 11:00 - 12:00
Webinar recording.
Description: Learn about the science and data used to calculate and map wildfire risk nationwide in the new Wildfire Risk to Communities website. Hear from the project’s technical lead about the use of LF and other input datasets, the methods for modeling and mapping wildfire risk, and the data products available through the website. See a demonstration of the website and how to download geospatial and tabular data.
Presenters: Greg Dillon, Frank Fay, Jim Menakis, Kelly Pohl, Joe Scott

Why is sagebrush country on fire?
2020-06-03 12:00 - 13:00
Webinar recording.
Overview: Invasive annual grasses are quickly expanding across the West, dramatically changing sagebrush country. Today we are experiencing more frequent and hotter wildfires that are harmful to communities, western lands, and wildlife. This webinar discusses the wildfire trends, identify the culprits, the impacts, and break down the challenges/opportunities.
Presenter: Michele Crist, leading landscape ecologist with the National Interagency Fire Center.
Resources and information referenced in the webinar available on the SageWest website.

Evaluating change in bird communities from wildfire in the Arizona Sky Islands
2020-06-17 11:00 - 12:00
Link to webinar recording.
Description: The avifauna within the Sky Islands of southeastern Arizona includes species found nowhere else in the United States, in part due to the availability of diverse habitats created by the mixing of Madrean and Cordilleran ecosystems. Neotropical migratory bird species visit these mountains, as well as many species typical of western North American montane forests. Birdwatchers from across the globe visit the region, providing a vibrant state and local ecotourism industry. Within the last two decades, the Sky Islands have been under increased stress associated with ongoing droughts and wildfires. Nearly every mountain range in the region has been impacted by wildfires. The largest wildfire was the 2011 Horseshoe Two Fire, which burned 90,307 hectares of the Chiricahua Mountains.

Unlocking boundaries: Propagating native plants with incarcerated populations
2020-06-23 09:00 - 10:00
Webinar recording.
This webinar will include two presentations:
Sagebrush in prisons project: Native plant propagation for restoration with Stacy Moore, Ecological Education Program Director, Institute for Applied Ecology
California sustainability in prisons project: Seed propagation of Mojave Desert native plants with Tyler Knapp, Ecological Education Coordinator, Institute for Applied Ecology

Forest woody biomass operations and biomass production
2020-06-25 08:00 - 09:00
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Description: Webinar focuses on three critical areas of bioenergy and bioproducts research and development: 1) sustainable and economically efficient forest biomass management and production systems, 2) competitive low-emissions biofuels and bioenergy conversion technologies deployed in the forest sector, and 3) information and tools for decision making and policy analysis related to forest biomass utilization.
Presenter: Nate Anderson, PhD in Forest Resources Management from the State University of New York, an MS in Sustainable Development and Conservation Biology from the University of Maryland, and a BS in Biology from Bates College.

FACE (Future Avoided Cost Explorer): User demo
2020-06-25 09:00 - 10:00
Webinar recording.
This webinar walks through the newly launched Future Avoided Cost Explorer (FACE:Hazards) with a basic demonstration of the tool’s features and answer questions about exploring the study data. This resource, provided by the State of Colorado, aims to help decision-makers determine the economic risks of future hazards – including flood, drought, and wildfire – on select sectors of Colorado’s economy.

Conserving bumble bees in our natural areas
2020-06-30 09:00 - 10:00
Webinar recording.
Webinar presented by Rich Hatfield.

Promoting a cultural shift toward shared stewardship: A peer learning session
2020-07-08 11:00 - 12:00
Access webinar recording.
The first session in a series of seven on Shared Stewardship, Vicki Christensen, Chief of the USDA Forest Service; Jay Farrell, Executive Director of the National Association of State Foresters; Vernon Stearns Jr., President of the Intertribal Timber Council; Karen Hardigg, Executive Director of the Rural Voices for Conservation Coalition; and Mary Mitsos, President and CEO of the National Forest Foundation answered the questions, “If you were to look back five years from now, what would you be most proud of in terms of what has been achieved through Shared Stewardship?” and, “Where are cultural shifts needed to make those desired outcomes a reality?”. Speakers addressed a series of audience questions before the session concluded.

Collaborative administrative and judicial review opportunities
2020-07-09 10:00 - 11:00
Webinar recording.
In NEPA 101, you learned about the components of the National Environmental Policy Act and the role of collaborative engagement in the environmental analysis process. In this follow-up webinar, Susan Jane Brown from the Western Environmental Law Center gives a presentation on and answer your questions about collaborative administrative and judicial review opportunities, and dig deeper into the administrative review process for the Forest Service, judicial review of agency decisions, and how collaborative groups can engage in these processes.

Historical range of variability (HRV): Uses and various approaches
2020-07-17 10:00 - 11:00
Webinar recording.
Description: Range of Variability (ROV) concepts – including Natural (NRV), Historic (HRV), Current (CRV), and Future (FRV) – are frequently used by the US Forest Service to help define land management goals. This webinar provides an introduction to ROV terminology and examples of how the Malheur, Umatilla, and Wallowa-Whitman National Forests in the Blue Mountains have applied ROV concepts during project planning when addressing key requirements of the Eastside Screens. The discussion includes overviews of tools commonly used to conduct ROV analyses.
Presenter: Nathan Poage, Forest Service Ecologist,

Aspen ecology and conservation: The changing landscape of a keystone system
2020-07-21 09:00 - 10:00
Webinar recording.
This webinar presentation lays the groundwork for an in-depth symposium at the upcoming 2020 Natural Areas Conference that will address wildfire, herbivory, climate warming, development pressures, cross-boundary management, and regional monitoring of aspen in the Western United States.

Low-tech wet meadow restoration: Reading the landscape
2020-07-22 09:00 - 10:00
Webinar recording.
Wet or mesic meadows are rare but disproportionately important habitats within western rangelands. 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 using sticks and stones provide effective tools for protecting and restoring meadow systems. While there is no shortage of degraded areas that need help across the West, there is a shortage of time and money to address them. In this webinar, Jeremy and Shawn will introduce participants to how to use Bill Zeedyk’s principles of “Reading the Landscape and Thinking like Water” to recognize and prioritize meadow restoration.

Toolkit for invasive annual grass management in the West
2020-07-23 12:00 - 13:00
Webinar recording.
Description: The Western Governors’ Association and the U.S. Department of Agriculture, under a Shared Stewardship Memorandum of Understanding, have been collaborating on efforts to meaningfully address the large-scale infestation of invasive annual grasses on western forests and rangelands. The result of this effort is a new toolkit for land managers to address the spread of invasive annual grasses in the West, including species such as cheatgrass, medusahead, and ventanata.
The toolkit is comprised of three elements:

A roadmap for invasive grass management in the West, with new best management practices for the identification and protection of relatively intact “core” areas;Case studies highlighting the application of these practices in Idaho and Wyoming; and
A new geospatial data layer to help state and local officials manage invasive annual grasses at home, while also offering opportunities to identify new cross-boundary collaborative projects.

Presenters: Lindy Garner, Sagebrush Ecosystem Invasive Species Coordinator, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service; Jeremy Maestas, Ecologist/National Sagebrush Ecosystem Specialist, USDA Natural Resources Conservation Service; Brian A. Mealor, Director and Associate Professor, University of Wyoming Sheridan Research and Extension Center; Brian A. Rutledge, Director, Sagebrush Ecosystem Initiative, The National Audubon Society

North American Congress for Conservation Biology
2020-07-26 - 2020-07-31
Visit conference website.
The North American Congress for Conservation Biology (NACCB) was July 26 to 31, 2020 in Denver, Colorado. NACCB 2020 organizers and the Society for Conservation Biology North America have made the decision to include a comprehensive virtual component to the conference, with the potential for a hybrid in-person/virtual event in Denver, depending on recommendations from health experts prior to registration re-opening in June. This year’s theme is: Crossing Boundaries: Innovative Approaches to Conservation.

Evaluating native seed mixes for post-fire seeding the Great Basin
2020-07-28 09:00 - 10:00
Webinar recording.
Description: Post-fire seeding has been widely implemented in the Great Basin in response to the threat of resource degradation and weed invasion following fire disturbance. The longstanding practice of seeding non-native forage grasses has worked well for some purposes, but seeding native species is a more sensible choice if natural vegetation recovery is a long-term objective. Seeding natives raises questions of cost, establishment ability and whether native species will be as effective as non-natives in outcompeting invasive annuals. We consider these issues in the context of a study where outcomes of native and non-native seed mixes were compared during an 18-year timeframe following wildfire. Successional trajectories of seeded treatments were compared with unseeded controls and late-successional reference communities to assess restoration potential of treatment options.
Presenters: Francis Kilkenny, Research Biologist, USDA Forest Service and Jeff Ott, Research Biologist, USDA Forest Service.

Managing drought on targeted grazing landscapes
2020-07-29 13:00 - 14:00
Webinar recording.
Description: This webinar features a rancher and land manager panel discussing drought on targeted grazing landscapes.
Panelists: Andrée Soares, President – Star Creek Land Stewards LLC (Los Banos) and member of RMAC; Brad Fowler, Owner – The Goat Works (Grass Valley); Nathan Medlar, Owner – NM Ranch Services (Auburn)
Questions? Please contact Dan Macon at dmacon@ucanr.edu

Low-tech, process-based riverscape restoration: Virtual workshop
2020-08-11 - 2020-08-14
Virtual workshop resources.
This virtual workshop will introduce conservationists to ‘low-tech’ process-based approaches for restoring streams and their associated riparian areas (riverscapes) to benefit fish, wildlife, and working lands. Participants will learn principles guiding low-tech process-based restoration and become familiar with simple, hand-built tools, including Beaver Dam Analogues (BDAs) and Post-Assisted Log Structures (PALS), intended to mimic and promote specific ecosystem processes. Participants will gain basic skills in the planning, design, and implementation phases of project development. Course content is supported by a published Design Manual.

Grazing for fire prevention
2020-08-12 14:00 - 15:00
Webinar recording.
Panel discussion on grazing for fire prevention with Tracy Schohr, UCCE Livestock and Natural Resources Advisor for Plumas, Sierra & Butte Counties.

Sharing Science and Lessons Learned: COVID-19 and Wildfire
2020-08-19 11:00 - 12:00
Webinar recording.
Description: As COVID-19 cases and wildland fire activity increase across the country, wildland fire personnel are looking for ways to quickly identify cases and prevent the spread of the disease on the fireline. The Southwest Fire Consortium will be hosting a webinar sharing information about the current state of the science and lessons learned from the 2020 wildfire season.
Presenters: Kathleen Navarro and John Piacentino from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH); Alex Viktora, from the Wildland Fire Lessons Learned Center will provide a summary of the lessons learned from the 2020 wildland fire season; Jayson Coil from Sedona Fire will provide a view from the field after multiple fire assignments in the Southwest.

International seed standards launch: Introductory webinar and panel discussion
2020-09-02 16:00 - 17:00
Webinar recording
Description: To ensure as many of you, the suppliers, end-users, industry, government and NGO’s have an opportunity to learn and speak first hand with some of the authors of the Native Seed Standards, we welcome you to dial into our launch event. This is your chance to find out what the Standards mean for you and to ask the experts about how they can be used.
Presenters: Kingsley Dixon, Moderator; Peggy Olwell, Bureau of Land Management; Gil Waibel, representing ISTA;
Panel: Simone Pedrini; Nancy Shaw, Olga Kildisheva, Stephanie Frischie, Gil Waibel, Danilo Ignacio Urzedo

Resilience in national forest planning
2020-09-09 11:00 - 12:00
Webinar recording.
Description: Recent policies including the Cohesive Strategy and the 2012 NFMA planning rule emphasize restoration of landscape resilience as a way forward for living with fire on national forestlands. But what does resilience mean, what does it take to plan for resilient landscapes, and what other factors complicate the achievement of resilient landscape outcomes? In this webinar we will present the results of a Joint Fire Science Program-funded research project based on three research elements: 1) a content analysis of Environmental Impact Statements; 2) a survey of USFS staff that have been involved in interdisciplinary planning efforts; and 3) case studies of three national forests that have recently revised their forest plans. Collectively, these studies shed light on how resilience has been operationalized within the U.S. Forest Service, what obstacles to achieving resilience have been identified, and what solutions appear to hold promise for overcoming the complexities of managing for resilience.

From parallel play to co-management: Conserving landscapes at risk of wildfire in the West
2020-09-09 12:00 - 13:00
Webinar recording
Description: Wildfire has fundamentally shaped the western landscapes we seek to conserve. It is a source of renewal and central to the functioning of many ecosystems; as well as a destructive force that threatens communities and conservation values across public and private lands. Wildfire epitomizes myriad connectivities that we cannot escape. Yet as the frequency of large, severe wildfires has greatly increased over the past 20 years, it has called to attention the fragmented, sometimes conflicting approaches to natural resource conservation across different jurisdictions and organizations. Reducing threats and enhancing conservation benefits from wildfire will require synergistic collaboration and coordination to span these disconnects. Our discussants will provide a range of perspectives from applied social science and policy action around wildfire to suggest bold new ideas about how people in the western U.S. may live with fire in the 21st century, and how conservation policy could spur more effective collective action to address wildfire risk across public and private lands.
Presenters: Tony Cheng, Director of the Colorado Forest Restoration Institute and Professor at Colorado State University; Emily Jane Davis Assistant Professor and Extension Specialist at Oregon State University; Tyson Bertone-Riggs, Policy Analyst for the Rural Voices for Conservation Coalition; Cassandra Moseley Interim Vice President for Research and Innovation at University of Oregon.

Collaborative forest landscape restoration program monitoring: A peer learning session
2020-09-10 11:30 - 13:00
Webinar recording
Description: During this session, USDA Forest Service and collaborative members will explore lessons learned in the first 10 years of CFLRP monitoring – what worked well and what challenges we continue to encounter in the multi-party monitoring of ecological, social, and economic effects. Given those lessons, we will then discuss where we go from here.
Presenters: Tom DeMeo, Regional Ecologist, Pacific Northwest Region, USDA Forest Service; Jessica Robertson, Integrated Restoration Coordinator, USDA Forest Service; CFLRP project practitioners

Southwest FireCLIME: Collaborative tools and science developed through JFSP
2020-09-16 08:00 - 17:00
View short video (6:30)
Southwest FireCLIME is a multi-year research partnership between scientists and resource managers to synthesize current knowledge of regional climate-fire-ecosystem dynamics. Our project has addressed this goal through science synthesis, an annotated bibliography, modeling, a vulnerability assessment, and Fire-Climate adaptation tools.

Developing long-term viable stream restoration: Main steps, considerations and lessons learned from Australia, Mexico, and US
2020-09-16 09:00 - 10:00
Webinar recording.
Over the past decade, Mark Briggs and co-editor, W.R. Osterkamp (retired, USGS), along with 55 stream restoration experts have collaborated on a stream restoration guidebook entitled Renewing Our Rivers: Stream Corridor Restoration in Dryland Regions. The guidebook highlights the main steps in developing a restoration response for damaged stream ecosystems that will have the most likelihood to be successful and viable in the long-term. As part of this webinar, Mark will introduce us to the guidebook, authors, case studies and lessons gained from stream restoration experiences in Australia, Mexico, and U.S. The flow of the presentation will follow the guidebook’s chapters, which reflect the arc of developing a thoughtful and long-term viable stream restoration response and include such themes as:

Developing realistic and thoughtful restoration goals and objectives
Assessing the hydrologic and physical conditions of a drainage basin
Adapting your stream restoration project to climate change
Quantifying and securing environmental flow
Implementing your restoration project
Monitoring and evaluation
Going long: considerations to ensure your stream corridor restoration effort continues to grow

Insights on effective collaborations between natural and social scientists
2020-09-16 10:00 - 12:00
Webinar recording.
Description: Solving complex environmental problems requires extensive discussions and studies conducted by researchers from diverse disciplines including the natural and social sciences. Solutions to these environmental challenges usually depend on conceptual models of how these systems are linked and the essential processes within them, also known as coupled-human natural systems or socio-ecological systems. This webinar will provide insights on how collaborations can be most effective between natural and social scientists, providing examples from the speaker’s past and current research projects.
Presenter: Melissa M. Baustian, Ph.D. is a Coastal Ecologist with The Water Institute of the Gulf. She has more than 15 years of experience in researching the ecological responses of aquatic ecosystems to nutrient enrichment, eutrophication and hypoxia.

Insights for resilient forest landscapes in the Rogue Basin of southwestern Oregon
2020-09-17 12:00 - 13:00
Webinar recording.
Description: Severe wildfires threaten forests and communities of the northern Klamath Mountains. Historically these forests thrived with frequent, low-mixed severity fire. However, hotter, drier summers, a century of fire exclusion, and past destructive logging practices are increasing the likelihood of destructive fire. Insights from historical fire regimes and stand conditions have been integrated with contemporary evaluations of wildfire risk and habitat needs to inform the collaboratively derived Rogue Basin Cohesive Forest Restoration Strategy.
Presenter: Kerry Metlen, Forest Ecologist with The Nature Conservancy of Oregon
