Right fuel treatment, right place: Managing wildfire in sagebrush country

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To reduce the risk of wildfire, it’s important to understand where fuel treatments are most likely to succeed. Recent research by Rocky Mountain Research Station (RMRS) scientists and their collaborators provides insights for prioritizing fuel treatments in sagebrush country. The group first developed four spatial layers to characterize sagebrush and pinyon-juniper landscapes: (1) indicators of ecological resilience to disturbance and resistance to invasion, (2) sagebrush associations, (3) persistent pinyon-juniper woodlands, and (4) pinyon-juniper expansion phases. The new indicators of resilience and resistance are dynamic because they are based on climate and soil moisture availability and allow assessment of potential treatment effects in a rapidly changing environment.