Research and Publications
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Wildland Fire Lessons Learned Center’s Two More Chains Summer Issue featured Ted Adams, Assistant Supervisor on the Hells Canyon Wildland Fire Module, Payette National Forest. The article focused on whether or not fire science research is being applied to decision-making on the fire line. The following quote from Ted was highlighted in the article’s opening: “We have all of this research that’s available to us and yet you could argue that a majority of individuals on the fire line are not reading peer-reviewed research and applying it to their decision-making, into their mental models.” After reading the article, Coleen Haskell contacted us. She asked if she could continue the conversation that we started with Ted.
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Spatial wildfire suppression costs regressions have been re-estimated at a more disaggregated level for the nine Geographic Area Coordination Center (GACC’s) regions using five years of data for fires involving National Forests. Results of these revised regression determined that only in the California GACCs did mechanical fuel treatment reduce wildfire suppression costs. However, the results of our second major hypothesis tests that fuel treatments, by making wildfires less damaging and easier to control, may reduce property damages (i.e., structures—barns, out buildings, etc. and residences lost) seems to be confirmed for acres treated with prescribed burning. In four out of the seven GACC regions prescribed burning lowered the number of structures damaged by wildfire. The results for mechanical fuel treatment were more mixed, with a significant negative effect in reducing property damages in two of the three regions with a significant coefficient on mechanical fuel treatment. These results are consistent with past research that suggests that for fuel treatments to reduce wildfire suppression costs it may be necessary to substantially increase the amount of area treated.
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Fire Adapted Communities Network published 100 blogs in 2017, each one offering a combination of insight, resources, stories and sometimes even humor. Our authors flooded your inboxes with so much wisdom that your biggest challenge may very well have been making time to read it all. In case you’ve missed a blog, or a few (dozen), here are 17 community wildfire resilience takeaways from the last year.
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This paper presents a case study to demonstrate the ability of the modeling framework to capture the onset and dynamics of a post-fire dust event and then use the modeling framework to estimate particulate matter (PM) emissions from burn scars left by wildfires in U.S. western sagebrush landscapes during 2012. Modeled emissions from 1.2 million ha of burned soil totaled 32.1 Tg of dust as PM10 and 12.8 Tg as PM2.5. Despite the relatively large uncertainties in these estimates and a number of underlying assumptions, these first estimates of annual post-fire dust emissions suggest that post-fire PM emissions could substantially increase current annual PM estimates in the U.S. National Emissions Inventory during high fire activity years. Given the potential for post-fire scars to be a large source of PM, further on-site PM flux measurements are needed to improve emission parameterizations and constrain these first estimates.
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The daily probability of a male sage-grouse moving among leks ranged 0.003 in 2011 to 0.010 in 2013, indicating high daily lek fidelity throughout the season, although there was a 5–42% chance annually a male would move at least once to another lek throughout the season. Interlek movement probabilities were strongly affected by day of year, peaking early in the lek season. Interlek movements were positively associated with elevation. Seasonal interlek movements occurred more frequently than previously reported, and can bias lek counts in early spring as males move from low to high elevation leks, which reinforces interlek movements as a critical component of lek ecology.
The Nature Conservancy used soils data and satellite imagery to map plant communities to a one-meter resolution. They determined that 268 acres in Great Basin National Park is a basin wildrye ecosystem. This ecosystem was identified as the most endangered plant community in the Park through a park-wide watershed analysis and conservation planning assessment process.
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Sage grouse are the ‘canary in the coal mine’ that herald how this vital ecosystem is faring. These birds rely entirely on sagebrush-dominated landscapes: it’s their primary food source, their breeding grounds, their chick-rearing sites, their safe zones from hungry predators.
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This was a study of ranchers in southeastern Arizona and southwestern New Mexico using Q Methodology to understand their views and motivations about ranching, conservation, and the government. Our results show three complex viewpoints, which we term radical center ranchers (20% of variance), innovative conservationists (19% of variance), and traditional ranchers (12% of variance). A commitment to conservation and corresponding lack of anti-conservation sentiment is held across these viewpoints. Mistrust of government coexists with conservation values for two groups. This information is useful for finding common ground between ranchers and government officials, conservationists, and extension agents on range management and conservation goals.
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Through one case study in Lake County, Oregon, we examined voluntary landowner conservation as part of an Oregon-wide strategy to preclude listing of greater sage-grouse under the Endangered Species Act (ESA). We focused, in particular, on features of program offerings for sage-grouse conservation that motivated participation of private landowners engaged in cattle production. In October 2016 and spring of 2017, we conducted 23 total interviews with Lake County landowners, governmental and nongovernmental (NGO) staff in Lake County, and governmental and NGO actors at the state level.
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A review of fuel treatment findings from JFSP studies, suggests:
- Appropriately designed fuel treatments substantially reduce fire intensity and detrimental ecological effects. In forest ecosystems that are adapted to frequent, low intensity fires, the combination of tree thinning followed by the regular use of prescribed fire are most effective.
- Fuel treatments can improve wildlife habitat, increase biodiversity, and increase forage production when they are designed with these considerations in mind.
- Not all wildfires have negative impacts. A wildfire that burns under specific conditions can be an effective surrogate for a fuel treatment.