Research and Publications

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Photoload sampling technique: Estimating surface fuel loadings

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This report presents a new fuel sampling method, called the photoload sampling technique, to quickly and accurately estimate loadings for six common surface fuel components (1 hr, 10 hr, 100 hr, and 1000 hr downed dead woody, shrub, and herbaceous fuels). This technique involves visually comparing fuel conditions in the field with photoload sequences to estimate fuel loadings. Photoload sequences are a series of downward-looking and close-up oblique photographs depicting a sequence of graduated fuel loadings of synthetic fuelbeds for each of the six fuel components.

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Rethinking the wildland fire management system

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Using the Forest Service of the US Department of Agriculture (USDA) as a relevant test case for systemic investigation, this paper argues that fundamental changes in how the fire management community thinks about, learns from, plans for, and responds to wildland fires may be necessary. The intent is to initiate a broader dialog around the current and future state of wildland fire management.

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Characterizing fire behavior from laboratory burns

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The original objective of the study was to determine how ignition, smoldering, and flaming are affected by the age of masticated fuels using a combined field and lab approach.

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Mulching treatments promoted understory communities in Colorado forests

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This brief presents the following findings:

  • Overall, mulching treatments in three Colorado conifer forest types promoted denser and more diverse native understory plant communities, particularly over the longer-term.
  • The positive effect of mulching on understory plants was largely driven by the response of herbaceous plants; shrubs showed little response to mulching treatments.
  • Exotic plants tended to be more common in mulched stands than in untreated stands.
  • While understory plants in mulched stands could be heavily suppressed in localized areas where mulch contributed to a deep forest floor, these areas were rare.
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Hand-built structures for restoring degraded meadows in sagebrush

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This technical note provides conservation practitioners with information on simple yet effective “Zeedyk” restoration techniques. The emphasis here is on structures that can be built by hand to address shallow headcuts or small incised channels (< 4 ft deep) impacting meadows and low-to-moderate gradient (< 3% slope) intermittent/ephemeral drainages in sagebrush rangelands. The note provides examples and lessons learned from partners in the Gunnison Climate Working Group who have been implementing a landscape-scale project using these techniques in the Upper Gunnison River Basin, Colorado. The note provides information and references to help practitioners identify opportunities, prioritize treatments, and design projects in similar watersheds across the West.

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Historical fire-climate relationships in contrasting interior Pacific Northwest forest types

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Similar to results from other fire history studies across the American West, this research documents an increased incidence of burning in the southern Blue Mountains prior to 1900 associated with more arid conditions as measured with Palmer Drought Severity Index (PDSI).
Positive values of the El Niño-Southern Oscillation (ENSO) were associated with fire years when multiple sites burned within the 688000 ha study area. Although ponderosa pine and grand fir study sites were significantly different with respect to site productivity as well as historical and contemporary species composition, there were only marginal differences in historical mean fire return intervals between these forest types.

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Dormant-season fire inhibits sixweeks fescue, increases forage in shortgrass steppe

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Study results indicate that burning during fescue establishment can prevent proliferation, but burning two years later when fescue had reached peak abundance was ineffective. All three burn treatments that suppressed fescue subsequently enhanced C4 grass production. Researchers suggest that rangeland managers be aware of the potential for sixweeks fescue germination and establishment during warm, wet winters that follow drought years, and consider the use of dormant-season prescribed fire to adaptively reduce negative impacts on forage production.

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Amount and timing of precipitation affect the structure and physiology of Artemisia tridentata

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This study found that for sagebrush seasonal timing is at least as important as the amount of precipitation, and that responses to changes in precipitation timing occur through changes in carbon allocation more so than changes in leaf-level carbon gain.

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SageSTEP Newsletter Issue 32: Pinyon jay decline has roots in pinyon-juniper removal

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Pinyon jays present both a conservation challenge and a paradox. While the species has declined, its preferred habitat (pinyon-juniper woodlands) has expanded, and in some areas to a large extent. It seems that population declines are not a function of reductions in habitat amount, but are related to changes in habitat quality. Up to now research on the species has been paltry,
and so details about the trend have only recently begun to surface.

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Thresholds and hotspots for shrub restoration following heterogeneous fire

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This study approach revealed interactive, ecological relationships such as novel soil-surface effects on first year establishment of sagebrush across the burned landscape, and identified ‘‘hot spots’’ for recovery. The approach could be expanded across sites and years to provide the information needed to explain past seeding successes or failures, and in designing treatments at the landscape scale.

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