Great Basin Fire Science Exchange

Grazing for fire prevention
2020-08-12 14:00 - 15:00 (America/Los_Angeles)
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

Assessing FIRESHEDS for prioritization, planning, and investment
2020-09-29 14:00 - 15:00
Webinar recording.
Description: The first webinar in a series of virtual learning opportunities that address the cultural shifts and adaptations that are being embraced at all levels to evolve and advance progress toward the vision and goals of the Cohesive Wildland Fire Strategy.
Presenter: Alan Ager, Research Forester, USFS Rocky Mountain Research Station

Colorado Wildland Fire Virtual Conference
2020-09-30 - 2020-10-01
Visit conference website.
This year’s conference, Discover Your Role: Reducing Wildland Fire Risk will provide an in-depth exploration of how community members across the spectrum can effectively contribute to better fire outcomes and provide community wildfire resilience leaders with new knowledge and tools for engaging partners and the public.

Creating firebreaks with targeted cattle grazing in the Owyhee Front
2020-09-30 08:00 - 17:00
Watch video, 11:45
Six ranchers are working with the Bureau of Land Management during the spring months to reduce fuel loads (mostly cheatgrass) on the front side of the Owyhee Mountains in Idaho with tightly controlled cattle grazing. The goal is for the cattle to “mow” cheatgrass and grasslands to a 2-3 inch stubble height for 30 miles (200 feet wide on either side of a road) from March 1 – June 30. This is the fourth year of the experimental project.
The larger goal is to stop large “mega” fires that are burning up high-quality grasslands and sage-steppe habitat in the Great Basin — habitat that’s crucial to support wildlife, songbirds, and livestock grazing.
So far, the BLM and the ranchers are happy with the results. A research project by the BLM and USDA Agricultural Research Service is evaluating the use of cattle to create fire breaks in the Owyhees, Elko, Nev., and Lakeview, Ore. The research takes a broader look at what techniques work best.

Emotional intelligence for wildland fire professionals: Why it matters and why you should care
2020-10-06 16:00 - 17:00
Webinar recording.
Description: It is crucial for wildland fire professionals today to be technically competent in their jobs. What is less obvious and less understood is the cognitive competency needed for our professional job performance. Better understand your own thought processes and how we make decisions on emotional feelings, social inputs, and how developing a high level of Emotional Intelligence can affect risk decision job performance as well as our daily performance.
Presenter: Kelly Martin is a lifelong advocate for the wise use of fire on the landscape, former firefighter on engines, hotshot, helitack, and prescribed burn boss.

Wildfire risk to communities: New features and data
2020-10-14 11:00 - 12:00
Webinar recording.
Wildfire Risk to Communities is a national tool with interactive maps, charts, and resources to help every community in the U.S. understand, explore, and reduce wildfire risk. In the fall of 2020, the website was updated with new data and features, including new map views and GIS data available for download. During this webinar, see a demonstration of the Wildfire Risk to Communities and learn about data updates. Wildfire Risk to Communities was created by the USDA Forest Service under the direction of Congress and builds on nationwide LANDFIRE data.

Shared Wildfire Risk Mitigation tool
2020-10-14 12:00 - 13:00
Webinar recording.
Lowell Ballard, Director of Geospatial Solutions with Timmons Group will be presenting the latest developments in the Shared Wildfire Risk Mitigation (SWRM) Dashboard Tool that uses GIS data to provide mapped communities at risk, a consistent approach across 13 states (so far), completed in collaboration with local governments, and consistent scoring based on fire adaptation. Please join us to hear and provide feedback on how this tool can be used to identify and assist in the collaborative, cross-boundary decision-making process.

Association for Fire Ecology Virtual Event
2020-10-20 - 2020-10-21
These webinars served as a prelude to the Association for Fire Ecology in-person Fire Across Boundaries conference which is scheduled for Fall 2021. Learn more about the upcoming conference.
Integration of fire ecology and the bioeconomy into wildfire management
Effects of policy change on wildland fire management strategies

Impacts of COVID-19 on the 2020 fire season
2020-10-20 08:00 - 09:00
Webinar recording.
Presenters:
Cathelijne Stoof, Wageningen University, Netherlands
Val Chalton, Landworks, South Africa
Tomás Withington, Administración de Parques Nacionales de Argentina, Argentina
Cristiano Foderi, University of Firenze, Italy
Erin Belval, Colorado State University, USA

Assessing the work of wildfires and identifying post-fire management needs
2020-10-21 09:00 - 10:00
Webinar recording.
Description: Landscapes of the Inland West are deeply affected by 100+ years of fire exclusion, the loss of indigenous burning, and expansion and densification of many forests. Today, anthropogenic climate change and wildfires are modifying the structure and composition of forests across the West at rates that far exceed adaptation and restorative treatments. Fires that occur during the forest planning process can delay project implementation for years, further hindering the pace of restoration activities. Landscape evaluations and prescriptions are needed so that managers can assess the work of wildfires on affected landscapes; the topic of this webinar.
Presenters and research team: Andrew Larson, C. Alina Cansler, Derek Churchill, Paul Hessburg Sr., Sean Jeronimo, Van Kane, Jim Lutz, and Nicholas Povak.

Invader impact on soil ecosystems – what every restoration practitioner should know
2020-10-22 09:00 - 10:00
Webinar recording.
Description: Plant invasions cause dramatic shifts in plant communities and ecosystem processes. While these changes are obvious aboveground, less is known about changes belowground. Focusing on the most significant invaders in our area in the Intermountain West of the United States, this seminar will highlight how spotted knapweed (Centaurea stoebe), leafy spurge (Euphorbia esula), cheatgrass (Bromus tectorum) and sulfur cinquefoil (Potentilla recta) alter soil microbial communities and nutrient cycles, and what the consequences of these shifts might be for restoration.
Speaker: Dr. Ylva Lekberg is a soil ecologist at MPG Ranch and an adjunct professor at University of Montana. Her research focuses on structural and functional shifts in soil ecosystems associated with plant invasions, and how these changes may affect restoration success. Prior to her work in invasion biology, Ylva explored the role of arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi in subsistence farmers’ fields in Sub-Saharan Africa, coastal grasslands in Denmark and geothermal areas in Yellowstone.

Effects of policy change on wildland fire management strategies
2020-10-22 11:00 - 12:00
Webinar recording.
In 2009, new guidance for wildland fire management in the United States expanded the range of strategic options for managers working to reduce the threat of high-severity wildland fire, improve forest health and respond to a changing climate. Markedly, the new guidance provided greater flexibility to manage wildland fires to meet multiple resource objectives. We use Incident Status Summary reports to understand how wildland fire management strategies have differed across the western US in recent years and how management has changed since the 2009 Guidance for Implementation of Federal Wildland Fire Management Policy. When controlling for confounding variation, we found the 2009 Policy Guidance along with other concurrent advances in fire management motivated an estimated 27 to 73% increase in the number of fires managed with expanded strategic options, with only limited evidence of an increase in size or annual area burned. Fire weather captured a manager’s intent and allocation of fire management resources relative to burning conditions, where a manager’s desire and ability to suppress is either complemented by fire weather, at odds with fire weather, or put aside due to other priorities. We highlight opportunities to expand the use of strategic options in fire-adapted forests to improve fuel heterogeneity.

Inclusivity in cooperative extension programming, with an emphasis on natural resources and climate change
2020-10-26 10:00 - 11:00
Webinar recording.
Description: Through a case study from Washington, DC, participants will learn how to get feedback from historically underrepresented groups and tailor cooperative extension programs to people of different races, ages, and academic backgrounds.
Some people, such as minorities and those from under-educated and lower income backgrounds, are typically excluded from conversations surrounding the degradation and improvement of ecosystem structure, function, and services. In an effort to provide an opportunity for under-served populations to be heard, inform content creation in academic courses and in cooperative extension programs, and create experiential learning opportunities for students at our land-grant university, we developed a survey instrument to gather public perceptions and knowledge on natural resources and climate change. This survey was administered in-person by undergraduate students at the University of the District of Columbia and online in Washington, DC. We will share the lessons we learned about effectively reaching people and how demographics of stakeholders need to be considered. Understanding what people know and perceive is key to designing effective educational programs, engaging in collective conversations, and building effective partnerships that find solutions for environmental problems that benefit the community.
Presenters: USDA Northeast Climate Hub. Contact Jennifer Ryan, Science & Technology Training Library content manager, for more information.

Improved maps of disturbance and recovery across the US
2020-10-28 09:00 - 10:00
Webinar recording.
In this webinar, RMRS research ecologist Sean Healey will discuss improved techniques for mapping forest disturbance and recovery across the United States with remotely sensed data.

The Cohesive Strategy in 2020: Dynamic adaptation in a novel world
2020-10-28 10:00 - 13:00
Workshop recordings.
Description: The event will provide leaders intent around the Cohesive Strategy moving forward and context for 2020 implementation to date.

Presenters: Vicki Christiansen, Chief, US Forest Service; Jeff Rupert, Director, Office of Wildland Fire, DOI; George Geissler, State Forester, Washington State DNR. Additional presenters will be announced in the coming weeks based on your suggested topics and questions.

Fire behavior and ecology of the shrub steppe
2020-10-29 09:00 - 10:30
Webinar recording.
Alison Dean, Central Oregon Fire Management Service and U.S. Bureau of Land Management, and Marth Brabec, City of Boise, will provide an overview of historic and modern fire behavior in different communities of the sagebrush biome, shrub steppe ecology, and post-fire restoration considerations.

Wildfire mitigation, preparedness, response, and recovery
2020-10-29 11:00 - 12:00
Webinar recording.
Description: Throughout the past 5 years, Gila County has been faced with record breaking wildfire activity. Learn how Gila County Emergency Management works with their Public Safety partners to overcome the challenges that come with Wildfire season. Acquire skills about planning tools such as the Gila County Community Wildfire Protection Plans (CWPP) and how you can help to protect your home and community from the ever evolving threat of wildfire, and the post-fire flooding events that follow.
Presenter: Carl Melford, Gila County Emergency Manager. After graduating from Globe High School in 2008, Carl began his public safety career as a Detention Officer with the Gila County Sheriff’s Office. Within his first 6 months of employment, Carl was promoted to Classification Specialist, and had written his first evacuation plan, all at the age of 18. In 2011, Carl graduated from the Southern Arizona Law Enforcement Training Center and was hired as a Police Officer with the Globe Police Department. During that time, His focus was on building resilient communities, and emergency planning. In 2015, Carl was hired by Gila County Emergency Management, where he began serving many roles in the Emergency Operations Centers across the state, as well as implementing Gila Counties own Emergency Notification Program. In 2017, Carl was promoted to Emergency Manager. Since then, Carl has taken pride in improving the mitigation, preparedness, response, and recovery capabilities of Gila County.

Threatened and endangered species in shrub steppe
2020-11-05 09:00 - 10:30
Webinar recording.
Pygmy rabbits, greater sage grouse, songbirds, and Umtanum desert buckwheat…oh my! Learn how fire and land management can impact key threatened and endangered species and the top three things to take into consideration before taking action where these species call sage brush their home.

Wildland fuels a primer for concerned citizens and grazers
2020-11-05 10:00 - 12:00
Workshop recording.
The California Range Management Advisory Committee, an advisory body to the California Natural Resources Agency under the Board of Forestry and Fire Protection, is co-hosting a virtual workshop with the California Fire Science Consortium to discuss the use of prescribed livestock grazing as a sustainable fuel reduction and environmental management tool.
Three separate workshops will be hosted on different topics as listed below. Each workshop will be followed by an optional virtual networking hour where participants can engage with each other and ask questions. All sessions are tentatively scheduled to start at 10am and last for 2 hours with an optional networking option.

Know your smoke
2020-11-18 09:00 - 10:00
Webinar recording.
In this webinar, RMRS research physical scientist Shawn Urbanski and fire ecologist Duncan Lutes will discuss the current state of the science on wildland fire smoke emissions, including pollutants present in smoke, methods for quantifying emission flux, existing datasets, tools, and models, and deficiencies in current scientific understanding.

Wildfire-driven forest conversion in western North American landscapes
2020-11-18 10:00 - 11:00
Webinar recording.
Description: Changing disturbance regimes and climate can overcome forest ecosystem resilience. Following high-severity fire, forest recovery may be compromised by lack of tree seed sources, warmer and drier postfire climate, or short-interval reburning. A potential outcome of the loss of resilience is the conversion of the prefire forest to a different forest type or nonforest vegetation. Conversion implies major, extensive, and enduring changes in dominant species, life forms, or functions, with impacts on ecosystem services. The webinar will synthesize a growing body of evidence of fire-driven conversion and our understanding of its causes across western North America. Increasing forest vulnerability to changing fire activity and climate compels shifts in management approaches, and we propose key themes for applied research coproduced by scientists and managers to support decision-making in an era when the prefire forest may not return.
Presenters: Jonathan Coop, Western Colorado University; Sean Parks, US Forest Service; Camille Stevens-Rumann, Colorado State University
