Great Basin Fire Science Exchange

Recent megafires provide a tipping point for desertification of conifer ecosystems
2022-03-30 09:00 - 11:00 (America/Los_Angeles)
Webinar recording.
Presented by: Dan Neary
Wildfires can produce significant hydrological and ecological impacts on forest, woodland, and grassland ecosystems depending on fire size, severity, duration, timing, fuel loads, and weather conditions. In the past several decades, wildfire conditions have changed from previous ones in the 20th Century. Wildfires are now burning larger areas in hotter, windier, and drier weather. In addition, the timeframe for these fires has expanded by four months in some regions to 12 months in fire-prone states like California. These large fires, known as megafires (greater than 40,000 acres) are burning more wildland areas every year. Some reach the giga-fire classification (405,000+ acres) with increasing frequency. These trends are contributing to increased desertification of forest lands. This presentation examines the role of these large fires in producing desertification of wildland ecosystems.

Accounting for the benefits of public lands
2022-04-06 09:00 - 10:00
Webinar recording.
Presented by: Travis Warziniack
Though National Forests are required to address ecosystem services and human benefits in planning and management decisions, most have limited capacity to meet those requirements. New tools are helping forests more easily identify impacts to ecosystem services and communicate their role in providing benefits to stakeholders. Moving toward nationally consistent methods will allow forests to more easily assess their ecosystem services, with the flexibility of adding local knowledge when needed.

Investing in Forest Infrastructure Virtual Conference
2022-04-12 - 2022-04-13
Conference recordings.
The Idaho Forest Restoration Partnership and Montana Forest Collaboration Network will cohost the 2022 virtual conference Investing in Forest Infrastructure. The Infrastructure Investments and Jobs Act was signed into law on November 15, 2021. Title VIII of the Act includes appropriations for legacy roads and trails, wildfire risk reduction, ecosystem restoration, and Joint Chiefs Landscape Restoration Partnership. The conference explores priorities stipulated by Congress, the role of collaborative groups in implementation, and expectations for the outcomes of the investments.

Farming native seed for the future: Considering evolutionary potential and ecological function
2022-04-13 07:00 - 08:00
Webinar recording.
Description: Agricultural seed production is needed to meet ambitious restoration goals, which will require more seeds than can be harvested from wild populations. However, there may be direct conflicts between traits that are favorable in conventional agriculture and those that are adaptive in restoration settings, which could have long-lasting impacts on restored communities. Here, we review some of these evolutionary and ecological conflicts and suggest research directions needed to meld the needs of agriculturalists and restoration practitioners. Partnerships between ecologists, engineers, breeders, and growers are essential to develop best practices for providing seeds for successful native species restoration.
Presenters:
Alison Agneray has ten years of experience executing long-range research and monitoring programs across the Western United States. She is currently a PhD candidate working with Dr. Beth Leger at the University of Nevada Reno to optimize seed mixes used to restore degraded habitats in North America’s Great Basin Desert.
Owen Baughman is a Restoration Scientist with The Nature Conservancy of Oregon, USA, and has worked to understand, test, and/or demonstrate new and innovative approaches to native plant restoration in North America’s sagebrush steppe. He earned an MS in Plant Ecology in 2014 from the University of Nevada Reno, and a BS in Ecology and Conservation Biology in 2010 from the University of Idaho.

Collective action for wildfire risk reduction across land ownerships in the West
2022-04-19 11:00 - 12:00
Webinar recording.
Over the past decade, government policies and programs to incentivize “all-lands approaches” to reducing wildfire risk have emerged that call for collective action among diverse public, private, and Tribal landowners who share fire-prone landscapes. This presentation draws on research from Oregon and California to offer insights into what collective action looks like, when it is desirable, and how to promote it to increase the resilience of fire-prone forests.

Effective communication about wildfire management: Observations from 20 years of fire social science research
2022-04-20 09:00 - 10:00
Webinar recording.
Presenter: Sarah McCaffrey
Description: Fire management in the United States is currently facing numerous challenges. While many of these challenges involve questions about how to increase pace and scale of fuels treatments and adapt to longer, sometimes year-round, fire seasons and more frequent extreme fires, there is also a need to adapt wildfire communication efforts to changing fire management needs and practices. This presentation will discuss insights from two decades of fire social science research about a range of topics to consider in improving wildfire communication including issues with conflation of language (prevention is not mitigation), when more rather than less complex explanations may be merited, and the need to account for how fire fits in everyday lives. The presentation will draw from general Communication, Natural Hazards, and Risk Communication theory, as well as specific fire social science research findings, about topics and approaches that are more or less likely to resonate with the public.

Fire and humans in resilient ecosystems of the American SW
2022-04-21 12:00 - 13:00
Webinar recording.
Description: In the southwestern US humans and ecosystems share a history of fire. Here, contemporary ecological patterns and processes that are thought to be natural may be highly influenced by past human land use legacies, at millennial time scales. The Jemez Mountains of central New Mexico provide a landscape laboratory rich in archaeological, ethnographic, and ecological data sets, within which to study the reciprocal, long-term interactions of humans and fire. Evidence from tree-rings, fire scars, and charcoal sediments suggests that prior to the 20th century, southwestern pine forests sustained frequent, low-severity surface fires. During a period of dense occupation in the 13th and 14th centuries, land and resource use may have significantly influenced forest structure, fuel properties, ignitions, and landscape fire dynamics. We developed complex spatial models, informed by rich archaeological, ethnographic, and dendroarchaeological data sets, to examine how plausible scenarios of human activities influenced forests and fire regimes ca. 1200-1900 CE. We found that prehistoric populations influenced forest and fire patterns at broad spatial scales, with feedbacks that maintained ecological resilience. Our results highlight the complexity and extent of long-term human-environment interactions and can be used as a comparative framework within which to evaluate the significance of contemporary and predicted anthropogenic impacts on landscapes and ecosystems.
Presenter: Rachel Loehman is a landscape and fire ecologist with the US Geological Survey. Her research focuses on the role of natural and anthropogenic disturbances in shaping ecological patterns and processes. Her current research projects include developing strategies for enhancing ecosystem and forest resilience to changing climate and disturbance regimes (western U.S.) and monitoring and modeling fire impacts to archaeological resources (southwestern U.S.).

Invasive annual grasses management
2022-04-28 09:00 - 10:00
Webinar recording.
Invasive annual grasses pose ecological and economic challenges for invasive species managers and agricultural producers across the West. On this Working Lands, Working Communities Initiative webinar, speakers will examine management tools and strategies to effectively manage cheatgrass, medusahead, and ventenata.

Smoke ready Oregon: Preparing for wildfire smoke
2022-05-02 11:00 - 12:00
Webinar recording.
Smoke from wildfires is becoming a reality that individuals and communities face each fire season. Want to learn how you can protect yourself and those you care about from wildfire smoke? In this webinar, we talk about smoke impacts to human health, how to access important air quality information and how to differentiate between the levels of air quality. We also cover things you can do right now to prepare.

Forest regeneration in fire-adapted landscapes: Too much, too little, or just right?
2022-05-05 09:00 - 10:30
Webinar recording.
Join the Rocky Mountain Research Station and the Southwest Ecological Restoration Institutes for an upcoming land manager-focused LIGHTNING TALK webinar dedicated to forest regeneration and reforestation in western fire-adapted forests. Short science presentations will highlight what is happening with regeneration following fire and forest treatments plus considerations and tools for reforestation. Discussion and Q&A during this session will facilitate information exchange between scientists and managers.

Outdoor recreation and anthropogenic wildfire as exemplified through the San Juan NF
2022-05-10 11:00 - 12:00
Webinar recording.
Federally owned public lands, originally designated to properly manage natural resources, are prone to wildfire in the southern Rocky Mountains, a risk which has increased as a result of environmental conditions and historical land management. Outdoor recreation has become increasingly prevalent since the twentieth century, providing greater access to fire-prone lands. Using San Juan National Forest as the study site, this presentation explores research analyzing the influence outdoor recreation and human access have on anthropogenic wildfire occurrence and size in the southern Rocky Mountains. GIS methodologies and statistical analysis demonstrate the impact designated outdoor recreation locations have on anthropogenic wildfires, giving insight into specific usage patterns that result in human-caused wildfire ignitions.

Our future with fire: Barriers and opportunities for fire stewardship
2022-05-13 08:30 - 10:00
Webinar recording.
Description: In this webinar, Kira Hoffman will describe some of the factors that have contributed to the recent impactful wildfire seasons experienced in British Columbia in the last five years. She will discuss some of the barriers to applying controlled fire to the broader landbase and the importance of supporting Indigenous-led fire stewardship.
​Presenter: Kira Hoffman is a fire ecologist and former wildland firefighter. Hoffman’s research focuses on how humans have used fire for millennia to manage and enhance their natural surroundings. In concert with Indigenous and local ecological knowledge, she uses western science to better understand how present-day forests have been shaped by stewardship techniques such as burning and how ongoing fire suppression has eroded the resiliency of landscapes and human communities. From field expeditions sampling fire-scarred trees to historical photograph interpretation and remote sensing imagery, her methods also integrate a range of disciplines including dendrochronology, botany, and archaeology. Currently a Postdoctoral Researcher at the University of British Columbia, she is passionate about linking knowledge to action through science communication and supporting Indigenous-led solutions to environmental problems.

2022 Southwestern Tribal Climate Change Summit
2022-05-16 - 2022-05-18
Summit summary.
In partnership with the La Jolla Band of Luiseño Indians, the Pala Band of Mission Indians, and the Institute for Tribal Environmental Professionals, the Climate Science Alliance co-hosted the 2022 Southwestern Tribal Climate Change Summit (SWTCCS) May 16-18, 2022. The 2022 theme: “Exploring the Fire Within Us”
The 2022 SWTCCS built upon key takeaways from the 2019 SWTCCS held in Idyllwild, CA. The 2022 summit brought together tribal leaders, professionals, and community members from across the Southwest to explore the kinship with fire and its role in community, conservation, and climate change adaptation while putting our own unique twist with hands-on activities, networking, and professional training opportunities.

Emerging WUI and fire science research
2022-05-17 14:00 - 15:00
Webinar recording.
The IBHS test chamber is a unique facility to study the effects of wind on fire. The test chamber area is equal to four basketball courts which allows researchers to perform large scale wind and fire tests. The test chamber is equipped with 105 fans that can generate gusty wind ranging from 12 to 120 mph. In this presentation, we will share our experience on creating realistic gusty wind and its effects on full-scale fire tests. Then, we will talk about our ongoing collaborative research projects with USFS, NIST and Cal Fire. Finally, we will describe our role in building codes and public policy.

Fire and Climate: Impacts, Issues, and Futures
2022-05-23 - 2022-05-27
Visit event website.
Fire and Climate 2022 will bring attention to one of the most important forces shaping wildfire and better prepare how we can focus and respond to this formidable challenge in the new decade. This conference will feature insights, case studies, innovations and opinions from around the world to begin to form a collective, global approach to the wildfire challenge. California has been at the forefront of innovation in wildland fire management and holding a conference in California to fully leverage the lessons learned and adaptive behaviors that will continue to emerge after the Camp Fire will benefit the entire international wildland fire community.

Climate-focused strategies and opportunities for all-lands practitioners
2022-05-24 11:00 - 12:00
Webinar recording.
In the year-plus since President Biden issued Executive Order 14008: Tackling the Climate Crisis at Home and Abroad, USDA agencies have put a central focus on promoting and expanding the use of climate-smart agriculture and forestry practices. This session will dig into how conservation and land management agencies – namely the Forest Service and NRCS – are operationalizing the Administration’s climate priorities through new and existing programs, initiatives, and funding sources. We’ll also hear from land management practitioners about how they are incorporating climate considerations into all-lands work at the local scale.

Accelerating the use of Rx fire through policy and partnerships
2022-05-26 10:00 - 11:00
Webinar recording.
Passage of the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act and the Forest Service’s 10-year Wildfire Strategy signal a new era of historic investments in ecosystem restoration and wildfire risk reduction in the western U.S. But as initial projects and implementation plans are announced, the opportunities for community-based prescribed fire practitioners and advocates to engage in and inform the strategic expansion of prescribed fire continues to be unclear. In this session, we will:

Unpack the complex terrain of federal policymaking entities and venues that will influence federal wildfire and fuels reduction strategies.
Review RVCC’s and partners’ collective prescribed fire and cooperative burning advocacy interests and recommendations.
Identify opportunities for engagement, coalition-building, and advocacy using existing or new venues and strategies.

Wildland Firefighter Health Webinar Series: Current Knowledge for Body, Mind, and Well-Being
2022-05-31 10:00 - 2022-06-02 12:30
Webinar recordings-
May 31 (Physical Health)
June 1 (Mental Health)
June 2 (Supporting a Healthy Workforce)
Each day will consist of approximately 2.5 hrs of presentations and panel discussions. May 31st: Physical Health, June 1st: Mental Health, June 2nd: Supporting a Healthy Workforce. 10-2 Pacific/11-3 Mountain each day. Agenda and registration links coming next week. If you are a program manager, line officer, or decision-maker that can impact structural or cultural practices in wildland firefighting, please join us! This webinar is also open to anyone interested in these topics!

Grassland and sagebrush conservation portal: Aggregating geospatial resources for practitioners
2022-06-02 11:00 - 12:00
Webinar recording.
To aid practitioners in planning and implementing conservation actions, we recently developed the Grassland and Sagebrush Conservation Portal in the web platform, ArcGIS Online. This portal provides access to geospatial resources such maps, apps, and data developed by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and its partners as well as other open-access resources. We intend to grow the resources in the portal in ways that are complementary to other online platforms. The Service’s development team will provide a tour of the portal, answer questions, and ask for suggestions for relevant resources that could be added.
The webinar will be presented by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service team that developed the Grassland and Sagebrush Conservation Portal. For questions, please contact mary_mcfadzen@fws.gov or matthew_heller@ fws.gov.

Introducing the North American tree-ring fire-scar network
2022-06-08 10:00 - 11:00
Webinar recording.
Description: A recent collaboration by ~90 tree-ring and fire-scar scientists has resulted in the publication of the newly compiled North American Tree-Ring Fire-Scar Network* (NAFSN), which contains 2,562 sites, > 37,000 fire-scarred trees, and covers large parts of North America. In this publication, authors investigate the NAFSN in terms of geography, sample depth, vegetation, topography, climate, and human land use.
In this webinar presenters will present major findings from the publication, demonstrate data accessibility, highlight management applications, and discuss future steps planned for the NAFSN.
Presenter: Ellis Margolis, Research Ecologist, USGS Fort Collins Science Center and Dr. Christopher Guiterman, Cooperative Institute for Research in Environmental Sciences (CIRES) University of Colorado at Boulder, and NOAA’s National Centers for Environmental Information (NCEI)

Returning fire to the land: Stewardship through traditional practices of the Séliš, Qĺispé and Ksanka
2022-06-12 08:00 - 17:00
View video (7:05).
For thousands of years, the vast majority of fires on the land were intentionally set by Indigenous Peoples of this region for a variety of reasons. Today, on the Flathead Reservation in Western Montana, the Division of Fire of the Confederated Salish & Kootenai Tribes’ Forestry Department is reclaiming a traditional relationship with fire on the landscape. Hear from the team about this work and how these fire dependent landscapes benefit from this holistic approach.

Nevada Youth Range Camp
2022-06-16 - 2022-06-26
Range Camp Flyer
High school youth are invited to enjoy a week of fun, camping and learning about rangelands and natural resource management in Nevada. Camp will be held at the Timber Creek Campground providing a beautiful setting for learning. The purpose of this camp is to provide youth with the knowledge and understanding of how decisions are made about natural resources on Nevada’s rangelands.
The last camp was June 19-26, 2022 at Timber Creek Campground northeast of McGill, NV.
This camp is sponsored by the Nevada Section of the Society for Range Management. See https://nevada.rangelands.org/youth-range-camp/
for more details and application materials.
Contact Camp Director Ethan Mower with questions at emower@parks.nv.gov | 775-726-3564

Engaging Indigenous communities in climate resilience research
2022-06-16 12:00 - 13:00
Webinar recording.
Description: This presentation discusses a partnership between the Pyramid Lake Paiute Tribe (PLPT) in northern Nevada and a team of university-based scientists. The research team engaged PLPT stakeholder groups through workshops, interviews, and focus groups to understand how climate change and upstream pressures threaten PLPT ecosystems, lands, and resources. Stakeholders emphasized that climate change planning must be grounded in and informed by Indigenous knowledge practices and protocols, in conjunction with decolonizing approaches to climate adaptation research that returns agency to the PLPT.
Presenters: Schuyler Chew is Mohawk Wolf clan from Six Nations Grand River and grew up on the Tuscarora Nation. As an environmental scientist, he is committed to partnering with Indigenous communities on climate adaptation research. His dissertation research on the Pyramid Lake Paiute Tribe’s resilience to climate change was funded in part by the Southwest Climate Adaptation Science Center.
Karletta Chief (Diné) is an Associate Professor and Extension Specialist in the Department of Environmental Science at the University of Arizona, and is also the Director of the Indigenous Resilience Center (IRC). As an Extension Specialist, she works to bring relevant water science to Native American communities in a culturally sensitive manner, and at the IRC she aims to facilitate efforts of UArizona climate/environment researchers, faculty, staff, and students working with Native Nations to build resiliency to climate impacts and environmental challenges.

Structural damage from wildfires in WUI communities
2022-06-21 14:00 - 15:00
Webinar recording.
Destructive wildfires are now a real threat in regions across the country and beyond what was once considered as the fire season, examples of which are the 2016 Gatlinburg Fire in the Southeast and the 2021 Marshall Fire in late December. Existing wildfire risk assessment procedures typically use simulation modeling to quantify the wildfire exposure to wildland-urban interface (WUI) communities, but rely on subjective estimates of the susceptibility of structures to fire in order to quantify risk. Thus, there is a need to better understand and characterize the effectiveness of different mitigation actions related to individual structure features and community layout on the resilience of a WUI community to fire. This presentation discusses findings from the analyses of past wildfire events and introduces a streamlined model to capture fire spread inside WUI communities to quantify structural damage. The proposed model can be used to guide mitigation actions in existing and new communities, and inform preparedness and response strategies by evaluating the likelihood of successful suppression based on the rate of fire spread.

Denver water and US Forest Service spent over $60 million to protect Denver's water supply. Did it work?
2022-06-22 11:00 - 12:00
Webinar recording.
This webinar presents research which provides insight on how the economic returns from proactive wildfire mitigation could be improved. The research team produced an economic assessment of Denver’s Forests to Faucets partnership, a collaboration which invested >$60 million in wildfire mitigation projects between 2011 and 2019. The research, combining wildfire modeling, sediment modeling, and primary and secondary data on economic values, quantified the impact of the actual investments on multiple values at risk. Large benefits to source water protection and other values at risk resulted from these proactive investments but the benefits only exceed the costs of funding wildfire mitigation under certain conditions.

Westwide Fuel Assessment: June 2022 (S3 E3 of Reading the Tea Leaves)
2022-06-23 08:00 - 17:00
Webinar recording.
The cool wet spring across much of the northwestern US has created a sea of cheatgrass that has improved fuelbed continuity and fuel loading, often exceeding 200 percent of normal. As a result we expect the potential for grass driven wildfires, especially in the Snake River Plain, eastern Washington, northwestern Nevada and northeastern California to be at least average to considerably above average.

IFTDSS for prescribed fire plans
2022-06-27 08:00 - 17:00
Access free online course.
You can enroll yourself in this on-demand online course once you enter the Wildland Fire Learning Portal. Select “How to Use IFTDSS for Rx Burn Plans” on the righthand side.

Wildfire and climate change for teachers (grades 6-12)
2022-06-28 08:00 - 10:30
Check back for upcoming virtual workshop opportunities and curriculum materials.
Engage your students in hands-on activities to explore climate change and wildfire in the Southwest! This standards-aligned curriculum unit developed in coordination with the USDA Southwest Climate Hub uses experiments, games, demonstrations, and a group project to introduce students to how increased temperature and changes in precipitation affect wildfire risk in ecosystems. In this workshop, you will hear from an expert in the field, participate in a Q&A session, and then get training to implement these lessons in your classroom. Participating teachers will receive a $50 stipend and the opportunity to win raffle prizes.

Five key areas around the home to examine for fire risk
2022-07-05 08:00 - 08:30
Short video (2:39).
Learn 5 key areas around your home to inspect when assessing your property’s wildfire risk.

FlamMap 6.2: An introduction and overview of new capabilities
2022-07-06 10:00 - 11:00
Webinar recording.
Description: This webinar will provide an introduction and overview of the FlamMap modeling system and its new capabilities with focus on several new additions:

Landscape Utility for the creation and extraction of LANDFIRE based landscape files
Spatial version of the First Order Fire Effects Model (FOFEM)
Additional support for raster formats
GeoTIFFs now supported when generating landscapes
Save Raster Outputs as Single GeoTIFF File
Measure Tool
New tools to edit and graph weather

Presenter: Chuck McHugh, Fire Spatial Analyst, USFS RMRS Missoula Fire Sciences Lab
