Webinar
Webinar recording.
Presented by: Dan Neary
Wildfires can produce significant hydrological and ecological impacts on forest, woodland, and grassland ecosystems depending on fire size, severity, duration, timing, fuel loads, and weather conditions. In the past several decades, wildfire conditions have changed from previous ones in the 20th Century. Wildfires are now burning larger areas in hotter, windier, and drier weather. In addition, the timeframe for these fires has expanded by four months in some regions to 12 months in fire-prone states like California. These large fires, known as megafires (greater than 40,000 acres) are burning more wildland areas every year. Some reach the giga-fire classification (405,000+ acres) with increasing frequency. These trends are contributing to increased desertification of forest lands. This presentation examines the role of these large fires in producing desertification of wildland ecosystems.
Webinar recording.
Presented by: Sean Healey and Zhiqiang Yang
Forest managers increasingly require statistically grounded estimates of forest carbon storage at the resolution of individual ownerships (a few thousand acres). Carbon offset markets and general recognition of climate change mitigation as an ecosystem service provide incentive for monitoring carbon, but stand exams are costly, and varying methods may reduce comparability across ownerships. NASA’s GEDI mission provides high-quality lidar data across the country, and the Forest Service’s OBIWAN tool (Online Biomass Inference using Waveforms and iNventory) allows owners to generate and document GEDI-based estimates of mean carbon storage for their own land.
Webinar recording.
Presented by: Matt Reeves
Estimating the number of animals that can be sustainably supported depends on numerous factors such as forage quantities, terrain, distance from water, and the type of vegetation being considered. Historically most approaches to conducting capacity estimates were limited by a paucity of spatially explicit data describing these factors. However, recent advances in remotely sensed data products and modelling ideas have improved our ability to refine these estimates and do it consistently across all lands which has significant implications for future land management plans such as Allotment Management Plans and Annual Operating Instructions (AOI) for federally managed grazing allotments. In this presentation we demonstrate application of our modernized modelling approach and present results of our recent assessment of wild horse and burro capacity in California.
Webinar recording.
Presented by: Crystal Stonesifer
Aircraft are important fire management tools, but their use can bring substantial costs and associated risks. We developed the Aviation Use Summary (AUS), which is a decision support framework to help track the location, timing, and amount of aircraft use in fire suppression; this information is presented in a way that helps guide decision makers through a structured risk assessment and a repeatable check-in process. Extensive use in large fire support has demonstrated the effectiveness of the framework, related limitations, and potential for future improvements and broad adoption in fire management.
Webinar recording.
In this deep dive webinar, Dr. Becky Kerns and collaborating scientists will present and synthesize results from a Joint Fire Science funded project aimed at understanding the current and future Ventenata dubia (ventenata) invasion in the Blue Mountains Ecoregion. Wildfires in 2014 and 2015 in the ecoregion reportedly spread in an unusual fashion owing to this invasive annual grass. Concern was raised that ventenata might be a “game-changer” for wildfire. Results from our studies show that ventenata has ecosystem transformation potential and influences landscape-scale fire across the ecoregion. In this webinar we report these findings and the management implications, as well as place our results in the context of other plant invasion research. The webinar includes 90 minutes of scientific presentations with short Q&A, and ends with a 30-minute wrap up and panel discussion. Talks will adhere to the following agenda to allow attendees to join and leave the meeting for specific talks, if desired.
Webinar recording.
The National Integrated Drought Information System (NIDIS) and the National Weather Service (NWS) are pleased to host two webinars on soil moisture data and applications. The webinars are intended to help NWS operational forecasters, and other weather and climate service providers, to better understand soil moisture monitoring and its practical applications.
This first webinar will provide an overview of soil moisture monitoring and interpretation. It will include a series of brief recorded presentations, followed by live Q&A with the presenters:
“Overview of Soil Moisture Monitoring” – Mike Cosh, USDA Agricultural Research Service
“In situ Soil Moisture Data and Products” – Chris Fiebrich, Oklahoma Mesonet
“Satellite-based Remote Sensing of Soil Moisture” – John Bolten, NASA Goddard
“Model-output Soil Moisture Data and Products” – Marina Skumanich, NIDIS
Webinar recording.
FTDSS is becoming a go-to tool for fuels planning across interagency partners. With its all-access web-based approach, IFTDSS makes fuels management planning accessible to fire practitioners at all levels. From viewing project areas on a user-friendly map interface to completing a full blown Quantitative Wildfire Risk Assessment, IFTDSS has something for everyone. IFTDSS contains fire behavior models, reference data sets, mapping tools, comparison workflows, and summary reports useful for prescribed fire planning, treatment prioritization, and NEPA analysis and reports. With upwards of 2800 user accounts, IFTDSS is being used across all federal agencies as well as state and private partners, NGOs, and Universities. This webinar will provide an overview of what the application can do as well as some examples of how it is being used in the field.
Webinar recording.
Webinar join links and recordings.
The SCIENCE X webinar series brings together scientists and land management experts from across U.S. Forest Service research stations and beyond to explore the latest science and best practices for addressing large natural resource challenges across the country.
Webinar recording.
This webinar will include presentations and interactive breakout sessions to explore implications and opportunities for forest collaboratives:
Larry Chambers, Change Management and Communication Lead, U.S. Forest Service
Jake Donnay, Director, Legislative Affairs, U.S. Forest Service
Steve Moyer, Vice President of Government Affairs, Trout Unlimited
Bill Imbergamo, Executive Director, Federal Forest Resource Coalition