Story Map
View story map.
The Pack Creek Wildfire, ignited by an abandoned campfire, started early in the fire season on June 9, 2021 in the Pack Creek Day Use Area on the Manti-La Sal National Forest.
Under the influence of down-slope, down-canyon winds, the fire made a push west and down Pack Creek. The fire quickly exploded as a crown fire through a riparian area composed largely of cottonwood trees and pinyon and juniper landscapes. Within the community, fuel breaks implemented by Forestry, Fire and State Lands (State of Utah, FFSL) were designed to act as intermittent catch points for firefighters to actively engage the fire.
View our 10-year highlights in this Story Map.
For a decade, the Great Basin Fire Science Exchange (GBFSE) has supported fire, fuels, and restoration research and outreach in the region. We accelerate awareness, adoption, and implementation of fire science by providing a forum for managers, scientists, policy makers, and the public to interact and share. As one of 15 regional fire science exchanges sponsored by the Joint Fire Science Program, we organize and disseminate current research, make connections, and support long-term relationships between practitioners, managers, and researchers to improve the health of Great Basin ecosystems. From climate to communication, we’ve tackled the toughest issues facing managers and stakeholders in a stressed and changing environment. On our 10-year anniversary, we review our accomplishments and look to future challenges.
Access the story map and biochar resources.
Biochar is a modern technology that returns carbon to the soil in the form of long-lasting charcoal. It’s made by baking biomass (such as tree wood, plants, manure, and other organic materials) without the oxygen that could cause it to burn completely to ash.
View story map.
Decades of overgrazing and wildfire suppression have let juniper trees grow large and spread far across sagebrush country, reducing habitat for sage grouse and other wildlife, and creating conditions for catastrophic wildfires.
In areas where fire is no longer a safe treatment, many land managers are stepping up to fill the role once played by wildfire.
View story map.
This study introduces a number of newer concepts and methods related to transboundary risk governance for the state of Arizona. The methods fill a gap in existing risk assessment efforts by explicitly identifying transboundary exposure. We show how the methods and results can be used to better define the scale of risk and design effective risk governance institutions. Improving scale recognition within existing transboundary risk governance systems can help reduce inefficiencies in risk planning.
Access story map.
The 2017 Fire Narrative and Timeline tells the story of successes and challenges, and also addresses emerging technology and science, such as Quantitative Risk Assessment, Risk Management Assistance Teams, and using Unmanned Aircraft Systems (drones) for infrared and reconnaissance flights.
View story map.
The photos in this story come from Sage Grouse: Icon of the West by Noppadol Paothong, a new book about the beautiful sagebrush landscape and the unique bird that defines its ecosystem and culture.
View executive summary, working paper, and/or story map.
Since the 1990s, numerous Rangeland Fire Protection Associations (RFPAs) have emerged in Oregon and Idaho, and a recent 2015 law authorizes RFPAs in Nevada as well. RFPAs organize and authorize rancher participation in fire suppression alongside federal agency firefighters (typically, the Bureau of Land Management or BLM). These all-volunteer crews of ranchers have training and legal authority to respond to fires on private and state lands in landscapes where there had been no existing fire protection, and can become authorized to respond on federal lands as well.
There has been growing policy interest in better understanding the RFPA model. This study analyzed RFPA establishment, functioning, successes, and challenges through four case studies of individual RFPAs and their respective state programs in Oregon and Idaho during 2015-2016.
To highlight the effectiveness and on-going success of this multi-faceted working lands approach, they’ve introduced the “Healthy Sagebrush Communities” website, story map, and poster.
The Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS), through its Sage Grouse Initiative (SGI), is there to empower ranchers to make well-balanced improvements on their ranching operations that are good for wildlife living in sagebrush country, as well as their business’s bottom line.
Access website.
Explore the Great Basin LCC, its projects, events, story maps, and news.
- « Previous
- 1
- 2