Fact Sheet / Brief
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This brief was developed to help guide collaborative landscape planning efforts, through use of a framework of seven core principles and their implications for management of fire-prone interior forest landscapes.
Key findings included:
- Historically, forests were spatially heterogeneous at multiple scales as a result of interactions among succession, disturbance, and other processes.
- Planning and management are needed at fine to broad scales to restore the key characteristics of resilience.
- Landscapes must be viewed as socio-ecological systems that provide services to people within the limited capacities of ecosystems.
- Development of landscape-level prescriptions is the foundation of restoration planning.
Read research brief.
This research brief reports that applying salvaged biocrust material to severely disturbed soil rapidly reestablished favorable biocrust characteristics and stabilized soil more than doing nothing. This is likely a useful restoration strategy when unavoidable soil disturbances are planned and there are opportunities to salvage material.
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This brief synthesizes best-management practices for reducing non-native grasses while increasing native species and desirable features in desert tortoise habitats.
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This research brief is based on several studies that can inform decision making by fire managers. Knowing that fire occurrence, size, and severity are limited by recent wildfires should provide greater flexibility and confidence in managing fire incidents and managing for resource benefit. Specifically, the findings from this study can be used by fire managers to help predict whether a previous fire will act as a fuel treatment based on fire age, forest type, and expected weather.
View bulletin.
Key findings highlighted in this brief:
- Community wildfire protection plans (CWPPs) are an effective way to reduce wildfire risk in the U.S. wildland urban interface (WUI), but most WUI communities have no such plan in place.
- Community support and involvement are necessary for CWPPs to succeed. WUI communities reflect a wide range of social characteristics, preventing an effective “one-size-fits-all” approach to CWPP creation.
- Scientists have identified four WUI community archetypes, which can be useful in working with individual communities to create effective CWPPs.
View technical note.
This technical note provides a brief synopsis of proactive, linear fuel breaks as a tool for reducing negative impacts associated with large-scale wildfire in sagebrush ecosystems. The note summarizes what fuel breaks are designed to do, features of effective fuel breaks, specifications of common fuel break designs, and maintenance and management considerations based on a compilation of existing publications and practical lessons learned from past greenstrip and plant materials trials in the Great Basin. The purpose is primarily to provide practitioners with sufficient information to begin cooperative landscape planning efforts.
View posters and postcards.
The Sage Grouse Initiative developed posters and postcards designed to promote conversations about the importance of taking care of sagebrush community plant health and diversity, above and below ground.
View infographic.
This infographic developed by SageSTEP.org describes sagebrush steppe restoration prioritization and methods to benefit sage-grouse habitat.
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This study shows that conifer removal for sage-grouse also benefits sagebrush-dependent songbirds. In the Warner Mountains of southern Oregon, Brewer’s sparrow abundance increased by +55% and green-tailed towhee jumped +81% following cuts. Annual increases each year post tree removal suggest that songbird use may increase even more with time. Abundances of species less dependent on shrublands including mountain bluebird and rock wren were unaffected by treatments.