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The IBHS test chamber is a unique facility to study the effects of wind on fire. The test chamber area is equal to four basketball courts which allows researchers to perform large scale wind and fire tests. The test chamber is equipped with 105 fans that can generate gusty wind ranging from 12 to 120 mph. In this presentation, we will share our experience on creating realistic gusty wind and its effects on full-scale fire tests. Then, we will talk about our ongoing collaborative research projects with USFS, NIST and Cal Fire. Finally, we will describe our role in building codes and public policy.
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Description: In this webinar, Kira Hoffman will describe some of the factors that have contributed to the recent impactful wildfire seasons experienced in British Columbia in the last five years. She will discuss some of the barriers to applying controlled fire to the broader landbase and the importance of supporting Indigenous-led fire stewardship.
Presenter: Kira Hoffman is a fire ecologist and former wildland firefighter. Hoffman’s research focuses on how humans have used fire for millennia to manage and enhance their natural surroundings. In concert with Indigenous and local ecological knowledge, she uses western science to better understand how present-day forests have been shaped by stewardship techniques such as burning and how ongoing fire suppression has eroded the resiliency of landscapes and human communities. From field expeditions sampling fire-scarred trees to historical photograph interpretation and remote sensing imagery, her methods also integrate a range of disciplines including dendrochronology, botany, and archaeology. Currently a Postdoctoral Researcher at the University of British Columbia, she is passionate about linking knowledge to action through science communication and supporting Indigenous-led solutions to environmental problems.
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Federally owned public lands, originally designated to properly manage natural resources, are prone to wildfire in the southern Rocky Mountains, a risk which has increased as a result of environmental conditions and historical land management. Outdoor recreation has become increasingly prevalent since the twentieth century, providing greater access to fire-prone lands. Using San Juan National Forest as the study site, this presentation explores research analyzing the influence outdoor recreation and human access have on anthropogenic wildfire occurrence and size in the southern Rocky Mountains. GIS methodologies and statistical analysis demonstrate the impact designated outdoor recreation locations have on anthropogenic wildfires, giving insight into specific usage patterns that result in human-caused wildfire ignitions.
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In the year-plus since President Biden issued Executive Order 14008: Tackling the Climate Crisis at Home and Abroad, USDA agencies have put a central focus on promoting and expanding the use of climate-smart agriculture and forestry practices. This session will dig into how conservation and land management agencies – namely the Forest Service and NRCS – are operationalizing the Administration’s climate priorities through new and existing programs, initiatives, and funding sources. We’ll also hear from land management practitioners about how they are incorporating climate considerations into all-lands work at the local scale.
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Join the Rocky Mountain Research Station and the Southwest Ecological Restoration Institutes for an upcoming land manager-focused LIGHTNING TALK webinar dedicated to forest regeneration and reforestation in western fire-adapted forests. Short science presentations will highlight what is happening with regeneration following fire and forest treatments plus considerations and tools for reforestation. Discussion and Q&A during this session will facilitate information exchange between scientists and managers.
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Invasive annual grasses pose ecological and economic challenges for invasive species managers and agricultural producers across the West. On this Working Lands, Working Communities Initiative webinar, speakers will examine management tools and strategies to effectively manage cheatgrass, medusahead, and ventenata.
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Description: In the southwestern US humans and ecosystems share a history of fire. Here, contemporary ecological patterns and processes that are thought to be natural may be highly influenced by past human land use legacies, at millennial time scales. The Jemez Mountains of central New Mexico provide a landscape laboratory rich in archaeological, ethnographic, and ecological data sets, within which to study the reciprocal, long-term interactions of humans and fire. Evidence from tree-rings, fire scars, and charcoal sediments suggests that prior to the 20th century, southwestern pine forests sustained frequent, low-severity surface fires. During a period of dense occupation in the 13th and 14th centuries, land and resource use may have significantly influenced forest structure, fuel properties, ignitions, and landscape fire dynamics. We developed complex spatial models, informed by rich archaeological, ethnographic, and dendroarchaeological data sets, to examine how plausible scenarios of human activities influenced forests and fire regimes ca. 1200-1900 CE. We found that prehistoric populations influenced forest and fire patterns at broad spatial scales, with feedbacks that maintained ecological resilience. Our results highlight the complexity and extent of long-term human-environment interactions and can be used as a comparative framework within which to evaluate the significance of contemporary and predicted anthropogenic impacts on landscapes and ecosystems.
Presenter: Rachel Loehman is a landscape and fire ecologist with the US Geological Survey. Her research focuses on the role of natural and anthropogenic disturbances in shaping ecological patterns and processes. Her current research projects include developing strategies for enhancing ecosystem and forest resilience to changing climate and disturbance regimes (western U.S.) and monitoring and modeling fire impacts to archaeological resources (southwestern U.S.).
Webinar recording.
Presenter: Sarah McCaffrey
Description: Fire management in the United States is currently facing numerous challenges. While many of these challenges involve questions about how to increase pace and scale of fuels treatments and adapt to longer, sometimes year-round, fire seasons and more frequent extreme fires, there is also a need to adapt wildfire communication efforts to changing fire management needs and practices. This presentation will discuss insights from two decades of fire social science research about a range of topics to consider in improving wildfire communication including issues with conflation of language (prevention is not mitigation), when more rather than less complex explanations may be merited, and the need to account for how fire fits in everyday lives. The presentation will draw from general Communication, Natural Hazards, and Risk Communication theory, as well as specific fire social science research findings, about topics and approaches that are more or less likely to resonate with the public.
Webinar recording.
Over the past decade, government policies and programs to incentivize “all-lands approaches” to reducing wildfire risk have emerged that call for collective action among diverse public, private, and Tribal landowners who share fire-prone landscapes. This presentation draws on research from Oregon and California to offer insights into what collective action looks like, when it is desirable, and how to promote it to increase the resilience of fire-prone forests.
Webinar recording.
Description: Effects of juniper encroachment and removal on multiple wildlife species in the Steens Mountains area and quantifying effects of grazing on sagebrush ecosystems and associated wildlife.
Presenter: Vanessa Schroeder is a faculty research assistant at Eastern Oregon Agricultural Research Center-Burns, which is in the heart of Oregons’s sagebrush country. She holds a master’s degree in Wildlife Science from OSU.