Research and Publications
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Using a Delphi approach, whereby individual participants complete anonymous iterative surveys and provide feedback on group responses, wildfire management professionals in Arizona and New Mexico provided input on which incentives would have the greatest impact on use of “other than full suppression” OTFS strategies and how feasible implementation would be. Consistent public support from agency leadership, financial rewards for successful use of OTFS strategies, and allowing acres burned by OTFS wildfires to count toward regional treatment targets were among the most impactful in the eyes of participants. These results suggest that incentivizing OTFS management requires a combination of policy adjustment and agency alignment to better leverage wildfire for ecosystem restoration.
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This paper will explore the relationship of the climate-nature nexus to wildfire in four sections:
- Summarize the state of the science on how climate and ecosystem changes are exacerbating fire risk.
- Showcase opportunities where ecosystem services may be used to reduce fire hazard and support fire defences.
- Identify barriers to implementing such risk reduction measures.
- Propose policy, financial, and research tools where insurance sector risk expertise can support nature-positive wildfire mitigation at the landscape scale. This helps mitigate risk to support insurability
for the long haul.
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This paper does three things: (1) Identifies features correlated with structure loss. (2) Compares methods of characterizing structure susceptibility, including home assessments and emerging fire spread models. (3) Evaluates methods and open data sources used to measure these features. We find that relative feature importance varies widely among studies due to data limitations and scale issues. Built-environment fire spread models show limited inclusion of structure-level features. Additional research, model validation, improved data, and improved data collection methods are needed to bridge the gaps between primary research, susceptibility indices, and built-environment fire spread models. Advancing scalable methods for characterizing built-environment fuels and susceptibility will refine risk mitigation efforts globally.
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A set of 435 severe injuries in wildland firefighters in the United States from 2019 to 2023 was classified by activity being performed, hazard encountered and injury severity. Statistical summaries were used to contextualize the data and to examine the frequency and severity of these injuries. Proportional odds models tested the impact of activity, region and fire complexity on injury severity. Aviation activities are associated with higher injury severity; there is no statistically significant difference in injury severity among other activities. Region and fire type do not impact injury severity. Injury frequency and severity vary among hazards and associated activities. Given the hazard mitigations in place, reducing injury frequency and severity may be challenging without clearly defined agency level risk tolerances.
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We asked how the soil-microbiome responded to the bioherbicide Pseudomonas fluorescens strain ACK55 in comparison to the separate and combined effects of a conventional pre-emergent chemical herbicide, imazapic, in two cheatgrass-invaded sagebrush-steppe sites. First-year microbial responses were evaluated using targeted sequencing of the 16S and LSU rRNA genes for bacteria+archaea and fungi, respectively, and were related to plant-community responses. A strong cheatgrass reduction with imazapic at one site was accompanied by a small shift in bacteria+archaea (16S) community composition with no effect on microbial alpha diversity, and this shift was small in comparison to natural microbiome variation between sites. ACK55 was not detected in soil a year after application, and it caused only transient and marginally significant reductions in annual grass cover accompanied by small reductions in soil fungi species richness. Full-length sequencing of the ACK55 16S rRNA gene and phylogenetic analyses revealed that ACK55 is more likely P. salmonii than P. fluorescens. Knowledge gaps remain on the duration and consequences of microbial-community shifts with imazapic and why molecular analyses showed ACK55 did not persist in soils. Confusion regarding microbial biopesticides can result where isolation, effectiveness testing, commercial release, and regulation are not guided by molecular taxonomic analyses.
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In a factorial design replicated across four common garden locations in Idaho and Wyoming, USA, we tested for the effect of current environment (i.e., density treatment, temperature treatment, and common garden location), source environment (i.e., genotype source climate), and their interaction on each plant’s flowering phenology. Flowering timing was strongly influenced by a plant’s current environment, with plants that experienced warmer current climates and higher densities flowering earlier than those that experienced cooler current climates and lower densities. Genotypes from hot and dry source climates flowered consistently earlier than those from cool and wet source climates, even after accounting for genotype relatedness, suggesting that this genetically based climate cline is a product of natural selection. We found minimal evidence of interactions between current and source environments or genotype-by-environment interactions. Phenology was more sensitive to variation in the current climate than to variation in source climate. These results indicate that cheatgrass phenology reflects high levels of plasticity as well as rapid local adaptation. Both processes likely contribute to its current success as a biological invader and its capacity to respond to future environmental change.
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The dimensions of specialization, personal experience, and transmission of Indigenous Knowledges and Sciences (IKS) are diverse and complex. Researchers and professionals need to recognize this diversity and understand that the information gathered by Indigenous Peoples is collected and communicated in different ways. Immense variation is present among Indigenous cultural roles, languages, and oral histories, as well as in methods of obtaining information. In order for IKS to maintain its accuracy, reliability, and relevance, users must dedicate time and resources to its interpretation and contextualization. Western thought and reasoning does not inherently align with the complexities of Indigenous knowledge transmission; thus, working with tribal experts to gain well-rounded understanding and avoid bias is recommended.
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Wildfires can produce health impacts that persist for years in affected communities. This article describes an Extension-led study of health impacts in rural Oregon communities one year after a destructive wildfire. Data collection included key informant interviews (n=36), an online survey (n=80), and three focus group interviews with survivors (n=23). Mental health, exposure to contaminants, physical stress, food insecurity, and other issues were frequently identified health concerns. Survivors’ difficulties in dealing with housing displacement significantly exacerbated health challenges. We describe potential roles for Extension in addressing wildfire risk and mitigating health impacts, including a description of the Oregon Fire Program.
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The area burned in the western United States during the 2020 fire season was the greatest in the modern era. Here we show that the number of human‐caused fires in 2020 also was elevated, nearly 20% higher than the 1992-2019 average. Although anomalously dry conditions enabled ignitions to spread and contributed to record area burned, these conditions alone do not explain the surge in the number of human‐caused ignitions. We argue that behavioral shifts aimed at curtailing the spread of COVID‐19 altered human‐environment interactions to favor increased ignitions. For example, the number of recreation‐caused wildfires during summer was 36% greater than the 1992-2019 average; this increase was likely a function of increased outdoor recreational activity in response to social distancing measures. We hypothesize that the combination of anomalously dry conditions and COVID‐19 social disruptions contributed to widespread increases in human-caused ignitions, adding complexity to fire management efforts during the 2020 western US fire season. Knowledge of how social behavior changes indirectly contributed to the increased number of ignitions in the 2020 wildfire season can help inform resource management in an increasingly flammable world.
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Ecological restoration is vital for sustaining healthy habitats supporting human and wildlife populations in the United States. With limited intact natural ecosystems remaining, restoration plays a crucial role in reversing environmental degradation by halting harmful activities and implementing proactive management strategies. Beyond benefiting wildlife, restoring degraded lands and waters provides essential services to human communities, including clean water filtration, carbon sequestration, soil erosion prevention, and building resilience to catastrophic weather events. Restoration efforts help mitigate drought, curb the spread of invasive species, and enhance wildfire resilience and flood control. In addition, land and water restoration fosters economic opportunities for local communities through sustainable land management and thriving working landscapes.