Synthesis / Tech Report
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This review and analysis of the relevant scientific literature on the subject suggest that fuel characteristics have a gradual diminishing effect on the rate of fire spread in forest and shrubland fuel types with increasing fire danger, with the effect not being observable under extreme fire danger conditions. Empirical-based fire spread models with multiplicative fuel functions generally do not capture this effect adequately. The implications of this outcome on fire spread modelling and fuels management are discussed.
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This “Sagebrush Conservation Strategy—Challenges to Sagebrush Conservation,” is an overview and assessment of the challenges facing land managers and landowners in conserving sagebrush ecosystems. This strategy is intended to provide guidance so that the unparalleled collaborative efforts to conserve the iconic greater sage-grouse (Centrocercus urophasianus) by State and Federal agencies, Tribes, academia, nongovernmental organizations, and stakeholders can be expanded to the entire sagebrush biome to benefit the people and wildlife that depend on this ecosystem. This report is organized into 3 parts.
Part I. Importance of the Sagebrush Biome to People and Wildlife; Part II. Change Agents in the Sagebrush Biome—Extent, Impacts, and Effort to Address Them; and Part III. Current Conservation Paradigm and Other Conservation Needs for Sagebrush
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In developing this report, a cross-functional group of stakeholders and subject matter experts (SMEs) from across the nation convened to identify 33 challenges within 13 key WUI issues and develop recommendations to address each challenge. In total, 112 recommendations are presented. These recommendations address challenges in firefighter health and safety, public health and safety, evacuations, forest and rangeland health and resiliency, climate change, community planning and resiliency, infrastructure and utilities, communication strategy and engagement operations, socioeconomic impacts, recovery, emerging technology, data use and modeling, and risk management in wildland fire. The recommendations should be pursued together, forming a system of strategies that require urgent, sustained and actionable implementations. These recommendations are not quick fixes, but solutions for the long term. Leadership on and commitment to the implementation of these recommendations results in a safer America.
In this report, we summarize existing research on the air quality and human health impacts of wildfire and prescribed fire. This report is intended to inform policy solutions that support safe and effective prescribed fire, and that reduce the scale of health impacts caused by smoke from catastrophic wildfires. Beyond the scope of this report are other fire management and mitigation strategies (e.g., forest thinning, pile burns, the use of thinned biomass for energy production), and other forms of prescribed fire used for purposes other than fire management (e.g., agricultural burning). Additionally, occupational wildfire-related exposures of firefighters and emergency responders are beyond the scope of this report.
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The average annual acreage burned by wildfires in the United States has increased over the past 30 years, affecting both federal and nonfederal lands. In this report, the Congressional Budget Office analyzes trends in wildfire activity; considers the effects of wildfires on the federal budget, the environment, people’s health, and the economy; and reviews forest-management practices meant to reduce the likelihood and seriousness of fire-related disasters.
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This review spanned 1976 to 2013 and used thematic coding to identify key factors that affect the decision to manage a wildfire. A total of 110 descriptive factors categories were identified. These were classified into six key thematic groups, which addressed specific decision considerations. This nexus of factors and decision pathways formed what we describe as the ‘Managed Fire Decision Framework’, which contextualizes important pressures, barriers, and facilitators related to managed wildfire decision-making. The most prevalent obstacles to managing wildfire were operational concerns and risk aversion. The factor most likely to support managing a fire was the decision maker’s desire to see the strategy be implemented. Ultimately, we found that the managed fire decision-making process is extremely complex, and that this complexity may itself be a barrier to its implementation.
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In this document, authors used the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) reports over the past decade, as well as studies from other experts in the field, to summarize projected changes to U.S. rangelands. Since U.S. rangelands are so diverse, authors divided the country into five eco-regions, organized into three separate sections: Southwest North America (including the desert Southwest and Great Basin); the Great Plains; and the Gulf Coast (including Florida coastal rangelands and the Texas coastal prairies).
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This paper review science-based adaptation strategies for western North American (wNA) forests that include restoring active fire regimes and fostering resilient structure and composition of forested landscapes. As part of the review, we address common questions associated with climate adaptation and realignment treatments that run counter to a broad consensus in the literature. These include the following: (1) Are the effects of fire exclusion overstated? If so, are treatments unwarranted and even counterproductive? (2) Is forest thinning alone sufficient to mitigate wildfire hazard? (3) Can forest thinning and prescribed burning solve the problem? (4) Should active forest management, including forest thinning, be concentrated in the wildland urban interface (WUI)? (5) Can wildfires on their own do the work of fuel treatments? (6) Is the primary objective of fuel reduction treatments to assist in future firefighting response and containment? (7) Do fuel treatments work under extreme fire weather? (8) Is the scale of the problem too great? Can we ever catch up? (9) Will planting more trees mitigate climate change in wNA forests? And (10) is post-fire management needed or even ecologically justified?
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Multiple research and management partners collaboratively developed a multiscale approach for assessing the geomorphic sensitivity of streams and ecological resilience of riparian and meadow ecosystems in upland watersheds of the Great Basin to disturbances and management actions. The approach builds on long-term work by the partners on the responses of these systems to disturbances and management actions. At the core of the assessments is information on past and present watershed and stream channel characteristics, geomorphic and hydrologic processes, and riparian and meadow vegetation. In this report, we describe the approach used to delineate Great Basin mountain ranges and the watersheds within them, and the data that are available for the individual watersheds. It also describes the resulting database and the data sources. Furthermore, it summarizes information on the characteristics of the regions and watersheds within the regions and the implications of the assessments for geomorphic sensitivity and ecological resilience. The target audience for this multiscale approach is managers and stakeholders interested in assessing and adaptively managing Great Basin stream systems and riparian and meadow ecosystems.
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A new USDA Forest Service, Rocky Mountain General Technical Report on geomorphic sensitivity and ecological resilience of Great Basin streams and riparian ecosystems is now available. It provides the information needed to evaluate the sensitivity and resilience of Great Basin watersheds based on the characteristics of the streams and riparian ecosystems, determine how they are likely to respond to disturbance and management actions, and prioritize areas for conservation and restoration actions.
A website has been developed that provides an overview of GTR-426 and has downloadable, autofill forms for implementing the assessment.