Great Basin Fire Science Exchange

Effects of policy change on wildland fire management strategies
2020-10-22 11:00 - 12:00 (America/Los_Angeles)
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

Vegetation management - Grazing and mechanical treatments in sage steppe
2020-11-19 09:00 - 10:30
Webinar recording.
Vegetation management in the shrub steppe is critical to protecting communities and meeting landscape management goals. Chris Schactschneider, OSU Extension, and Seth Hulett, Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife, will share examples of how grazing and mechanical treatments can be used to change fire behavior.

Potential Operational Delineations (PODs), what are they, how do they work?
2020-11-19 10:00 - 11:00
Webinar recording.
A presentation on Potential Operational Delineations (PODs) from multiple perspectives including both scientists and managers. We will discuss how PODs were used in Northern New Mexico past fire seasons where PODS were utilized; with an emphasis on PODs as a fire planning tool, new developments in research and applications, and innovations within the planning framework.

Living with PTSD: A wildland firefighter perspective
2020-11-23 17:00 - 18:00
Webinar recording.
Presenter: Marc Titus, Staff Specialist, Nevada Division of Forestry’s Fire Adapted Communities and MS Student in Psychology, Arizona State University.
Description: PTSD is quietly impacting wildland firefighters with its often devastating personal and professional repercussions. While no official numbers exist, suicide has become another statistic now necessary to track within the wildland community as anecdotal data show an alarming trend. While agency’s come to grips with this burgeoning problem, firefighters can educate themselves to better understand the dynamics of stress, trauma and PTSD. This event will provide a unique view of the insidious nature of trauma, its effects on the human being with an eye towards recovery and nine key insights derived from the experiences of a wildland firefighter afflicted by this nervous system injury.

Role of risk management prioritization decision support tools
2020-12-08 11:00 - 12:00
Webinar recording.
Presenter: Melanie Colavito, Ecological Restoration Institute
Description: The Ecological Restoration Institute recently completed a project analyzing the use and adoption of wildfire risk assessment and fuels treatment prioritization methods and products—broadly referred to here as decision support tools (DSTs)—by federal land managers. There is a need to demystify the topic of spatial fire planning specifically with respect to assessing wildfire risk and determining areas for fuels treatment prioritization to facilitate effective development and use of DSTs for pre-fire planning. We used semi-structured interviews with key informants to identify common DSTs for assessing wildfire risk and treatment planning and prioritization, approaches for the development and transfer of DSTs, examples of DST uses, common barriers and facilitators in the development and use of DSTs, and recommendations for facilitating the development and use of DSTs. Although there were many barriers identified to the effective development, integration, and use of DSTs in pre-fire planning, interview respondents had numerous recommendations for improving this process. We hope these recommendations can help shape the perspectives of science, management, and decision-making audiences for how to improve the use of DSTs for wildfire risk assessment and treatment prioritization in order to effectively meet the goals of national policies and frameworks.

Predicting severe fire potential across the US with the FIRESEV project
2020-12-09 11:00 - 12:00
Webinar recording.
Description: Burn severity is the ecological change resulting from wildland fires. Areas burned with high severity are of concern to land managers and others because postfire vegetation, soil, and other important ecosystem components can be highly altered. Using satellite-derived maps of burn severity for almost 12,000 fires, researchers at the US Forest Service, Rocky Mountain Research Station developed statistical models to describe the spatial distribution of high-severity fire and produce a predictive map of severe fire potential for the contiguous United States. In this webinar, hear about methods used in this study and how the results and data products can be useful to scientists and land managers.
Presenter: Greg Dillon, Spatial Fire Analyst, U.S. Forest Service

Rx burn associations: Different models for different places
2020-12-10 09:00 - 10:30
Webinar recording.
There is broad understanding and agreement lately that there is a need to substantially increase the use of prescribed fire to create landscape resiliency, protect communities and ensure a safe and effective wildfire response. In response, more and more Prescribed Burn Associations are forming. Please join us as we visit with nine practitioners involved with Prescribed Burn Associations to learn about their models for implementation, their challenges and successes, and how you might start a similar organization where you live.

Invasive Annual Grass Workshop
2020-12-14 - 2020-12-15
Workshop information.
Invasive annual grasses threaten millions of acres of sagebrush rangelands across the west. This two day workshop hosted by the Harney County Wildfire Collaborative and Oregon SageCon Partnership will explore the barriers and opportunities for addressing invasive annual grasses in Oregon and beyond the state. In this workshop some of the most pressing issues related to invasive annual grass management will be discussed, including the connection between invasive annual grasses and wildfire and what can be done to better address this threat.
VIRTUAL Workshop Dates & Agenda
Monday, December 14, 12:30-4:30pm: Defend the Core—Keeping the Good, Good

Hard truths of invasive annual grasses
Stopping the Spread
Supersizing Suppression Success
Reducing Wildfire Risk
Ratcheting Up Resiliency

Tuesday, December 15, 8:30am-12:30pm: Grow the Core—Restoring At-Risk and Converted Lands

Managing Invasive Annual Grasses
Innovative Restoration
Prioritizing Limited Resources & Sustaining Long-term Investment
Where Do We Go From Here

Engaging communities in fire adaptation in the sagebrush steppe
2020-12-17 09:00 - 10:30
Webinar recording.
A diverse group of panelists have been brought together to highlight a variety of engagement strategies in diverse communities. Caty Johnson from Nuestra Casa, Jerry McAdams from the Boise Fire Department, Jon Riley from Chelan County Fire District 1, and Kirsten Cook from Okanogan Conservation District will share their approaches, successes, and strategies for stirring up action.

Western Assoc of Fish and Wildlife Agencies: Mid-Winter Meeting
2021-01-05 - 2021-01-08
View recorded symposium.
The 2021 WAFWA mid-winter meeting will be held virtually.

Cross-boundary science-based tools to implement shared stewardship
2021-01-14 08:00 - 17:00
Webinar recording.
Description:

Articulate successful applications of Good Neighbor Authority for tribes, counties, and states;
Provide examples of when tools like Good Neighbor Authority are unlikely to be successful;
Discuss how to use tools from the Tribal Forest Protection Act;
Discuss how to use tools from the Indian Self-Determination and Education Assistance Act; and
Discuss how to use Stewardship Contracting.

Presenters:

Rob Farrell, Virginia State Forester;
Jim Durglo, Intertribal Timber Council Wildland Fire Technical Specialist;
Lynn Sholty, USDA Forest Service Grants and Agreements Specialist; and
Nils Christoffersen, Wallowa Resources Executive Director.

Monitoring rare plants with drones
2021-01-20 09:00 - 10:00
Webinar recording.
Description: The desert city of St. George, Utah is one of the fastest growing metropolitan areas in the country. Three federally listed endangered plant species that grow directly in the path of this juggernaut development are at extreme risk of further decline and possible extinction. With the help of drones, deep learning technology and innovative restoration methods, we are engaged in research and active management to give these unique and beautiful species a better chance at long-term survival.
Presenter: Susan E. Meyer

Invasive species, native seeds, and grasses
2021-01-21 09:00 - 10:30
Webinar recording.
Disturbance events, such as overgrazing and the catastrophic fires, in our shrub steppe landscape can kick-start a negative feedback loop with invasion of noxious weeds. These invasive species can have a direct effect on services and ecological benefits provided by the shrug steppe landscape. Learn what we can do to minimize the spread of invasive plant species and how native seeds and grasses can be used to restore this brittle system.

Wildland stories: Dendochronology with Dr. Justin DeRose
2021-01-22 08:00 - 09:00
Webinar recording.
Dendrochronology: The trees that surround us have a story to tell, yet so many of us have no idea what that story is. What is dendrochronology? How old is the oldest recorded tree? Can trees get scars? Where are some of the oldest forests located? These are just some of the questions we aim to answer with our guest Dr. Justin DeRose, Assistant Professor of Silviculture and Applied Forest Ecology at Utah State University.

When wildfire hits: One community's journey to recovery
2021-01-25 15:00 - 16:00
Webinar recording.
Last summer’s wildfire events impacted many Oregonians. These events reminded us of how important it is to plan and be prepared for wildfire. Planning and preparing for wildfire can feel like a massive endeavor. What can we do? Who can help? How do we continue to build wildfire adapted and prepared communities? Every community is unique; however, you are not alone. We can learn from our neighbors whether they are next door, across the state or even in a different state.
For this webinar, we invited our neighbors from southwest Colorado to tell us their story. Join us and learn how one community was affected by wildfires in 2002 and their journey to come together, rebuild, and take the action needed to save their lives and property from wildfire and the impact their actions had on wildfires in their neighborhoods since.
What you will learn:
– How other communities in the west have adapted to living in a wildfire environment
– Tools and resources available to help you prepare for wildfire
– How to engage your neighbors and build capacity to strengthen your wildfire adapted community

Co-managing wildfire risk across boundaries (CoMFRT)
2021-01-27 09:00 - 10:00
Webinar recording.
Wildfire risk is shared across landscapes, ownerships, and administrative boundaries. Consequently, successful efforts to mitigate this risk depend on coordination of individual and collective actions across sets of public and private institutions and individuals associated with managing components of fire-prone landscapes. We need to understand how these diverse sets of actors, including individual residents, communities, non-profit organizations, and local, state, tribal, and federal agencies can and do interact and make decisions that affect fire and risk based on their rules, processes and social norms. Initiated in 2017, the Co-Management of Wildfire Risk Transmission Partnership (CoMFRT) brings together wildfire researchers, practitioners and decisionmakers to co-produce knowledge and actionable recommendations to support people and institutions successfully working together across scales and circumstances to best mitigate fire risk and build adaptation to wildfire. This presentation will provide an overview of the CoMFRT Partnership, key results and recommendations to date, and next steps all designed to underscore approaches for a variety of actors responsible for managing wildfire risk to better live with fire.

Seeds of Success: Fort Belknap Indian community BLM-SER restoration program
2021-01-27 09:00 - 10:00
View webinar recording.
The Fort Belknap Indian Community (FBIC) Native Seed & Grassland Restoration Program was designed to meet DOI, BLM, and Plant Conservation and Restoration Program Strategic Goals, via partnerships with FBIC and the Society for Ecological Restoration (SER). Launched in 2019, and led by an Indigenous PI, this Traditional Ecological Knowledge (TEK)-based program focuses on developing genetically appropriate native plant material for habitat restoration; inventorying and prioritizing plant populations; and implementing and assessing restoration efforts through monitoring. Working on BLM lands, in consultation with Aaniiih and Nakoda elders and employing and empowering tribal youth, we are using Assessment, Inventorying, and Monitoring (AIM) protocols to identify plant populations, and then making collections from them for the Seeds of Success (SOS) program. Our long-term goal is to empower FBIC in creating a community-led greenhouse program to grow out native seeds, focusing on culturally significant species, thereby benefitting the community financially in increasing BLM Stock and Foundation seed amounts to use on larger programs and for restoration of FBIC and other Native American lands. FBIC has invited us to expand seed collection onto FBIC land, to help the community advance restoration efforts of degraded rangelands to support Greater sage-grouse and bison conservation.

The effects of prescribed fire on wildfire regimes and impacts
2021-01-28 11:00 - 12:00
Webinar recording.
Prescribed fire can result in significant benefits to ecosystems and society. Examples include improved wildlife habitat, enhanced biodiversity, reduced threat of destructive wildfire, and enhanced ecosystem resilience. Prescribed fire can also come with costs, such as reduced air quality and impacts to fire sensitive species. To plan for appropriate use of prescribed fire, managers need information on the tradeoffs between prescribed fire and wildfire regimes. In this study, we argue that information on tradeoffs should be presented at spatial and temporal scales commensurate with the scales at which these processes occur and that simulation modeling exercises should include some realistic measure of wildfire probability. To that end, we synthesized available scientific literature on relationships between prescribed fire and wildfire regimes, and their associated ecological and societal effects, focusing specifically on simulation modeling studies that consider wildfire probability and empirical and modeling studies that consider prescribed fire and wildfire regimes at spatial and temporal scales beyond individual events.

Ecological drought: An introduction
2021-02-03 08:30 - 09:30
Webinar recording.
Introducing ecological drought as a scientific concept distinct from other definitions of drought, this webinar explores recent research on the topic, including transformational drought impacts and ecological tipping points.
Presenters: Dr. Shelley Crausbay, Senior Scientist, Conservation Science Partners; Dr. Amanda Cravens, Research Social Scientist, USGS

PhenoMap: Providing weekly vegetation development monitoring for effective management
2021-02-03 09:00 - 11:00
Webinar recording.
Satellite data can provide weekly updates of phenology (NDVI, a measure of “greenness”) at a resolution of 15 acres. The PhenoMap web map was created to place these greenness images in an interactive format for managers to view local and regional changes in phenology. PhenoMap also helps to place current values of greenness in a historical context so managers can understand how this week’s value compares to previous year greenness values for the same week. In order to see how well the satellite data was capturing “green-up” and “brown-down”, satellite data was compared to cameras capturing changes in phenology in the various vegetation types of the western United States. Additional effort has also been made to compare the satellite data to grass development using rangelands in western South Dakota as a model grassland system. We will introduce the PhenoMap tool and share results from these validation efforts.

Using information from global climate models to inform policymaking
2021-02-05 11:00 - 12:00
Webinar recording.
Description: Climate change is a risk management challenge for society because of the uncertain consequences for natural and human systems across decades to centuries. Climate-related science activities within the USGS emphasize research on adaptation to climate change. This research helps inform adaptive management processes and planning activities within other DOI bureaus and by DOI stakeholders.
Global climate models are sophisticated numerical representations of the Earth’s climate system. Research groups from around the world regularly participate in a coordinated effort to produce a suite of climate models. This global effort provides a test bed to assess model performance and analyze projections of future change under various prescribed climate scenarios. These climate scenarios describe a plausible future outcome associated with a specific set of societal actions. Examining a range of projected climate outcomes based on multiple scenarios is a recommended best practice because it allows decision makers to better consider both short- and long-term risks and opportunities.
Presenter: Adam Terando, Research Ecologist, Southeast Climate Adaptation Science Center
