Webinar
Webinar recordings.
Webinars will be Wednesdays, August 4 through September 8, 2021. Each webinar will last approximately one hour and include a Q&A session.
Planned webinar topics are:
Lessons learned in nursery operations during the pandemic
Water management and its effects on pests, pathogens, and plant growth
Hot planting and fall/summer planting: operational tips and tricks for success
Current programs and resources regarding genetics and assisted migration
Innovative nursery technologies from other industries
Current reforestation pipeline goals and legislation: expected impacts on growers and land managers
Webinar recording.
Overview: This webinar shares results of a recent study of contemporary fire regimes over a 32-year period (1985-2017) in the Madrean Sky Islands of the U.S. and México. During the study period 335 fires burned approximately 28% of the study area, with re-burns occurring on over 25% of the burned areas. The greatest variation in fire regimes, including fire size, frequency, and severity was observed in places with the most diverse human activities and land uses – particularly in the mountain ranges adjacent to the U.S.- México border. Average severity of recent fires was low despite some extreme outliers in cooler, wetter environments. Fire frequency was also higher than historical expectations in these cool and wet environments that support forest types such as Spruce-Fir, indicating threats to these systems possibly attributable to drought and other factors. In cooler and wetter environments in more remote areas of México, pine-oak forests burned with fire frequencies close to historical. In contrast, fires were absent or infrequent across large expanses of lower elevation Woodlands and Grasslands due possibly to overgrazing, which reduces abundance and continuity of fine fuels needed to carry fire. Our findings provide a new depiction of fire regimes in the Sky Islands that can help inform fire management, restoration, and regional conservation planning, fostered by local and traditional knowledge and collaboration among landowners and managers.
Presenter: Dr. Miguel Villarreal
Co-authors: José M. Iniguez, Aaron D. Flesch, Jamie S. Sanderlin, Citlali Cortés Montaño, Caroline R. Conrad, Sandra L. Haire
Webinar recording.
Presented by Joe Sol, Exercise Physiologist U.S. Forest Service and Brent Ruby, Professor, Department of Health and Human Performance, University of Montana. Joe and Brent will share their research on sustainment and maintenance throughout
the fire season.
Webinar recording.
Fire is an essential component in restoring and maintaining a healthy forest. However, historic land use and decades of fire suppression has excluded fire from millions of forested hectares across much of the western United States, including the Grand Canyon National Park. Forest restoration at the Grand Canyon aims to reduce wildfire vulnerability by applying fire to diversify or remove forest vegetation. However, the cost, complexity, and concerns associated with managing fire for resource benefit requires that fire managers utilize and implement locally-relevant, science-based knowledge to strategically identify when and where to use fire to produce the greatest benefits. This research specifically addresses the National Park Service, Fire Management Leadership Board priority area of: Research that assists in removing stumbling blocks and hurdles for implementing fuels treatments and managing wildfires for resource objectives. We observed fire behavior in the Grand Canyon in conjunction with topographic variation and weather conditions to provide thresholds that affect fire severity and spread that may be beneficial or incompatible with multiple resource objectives. In doing so, we also developed customized tools that can be used to assist with fire management planning and quickly identifying conditions likely to affect fire behavior at Grand Canyon National Park.
Historic drought conditions across the western United States continue to rapidly worsen and expand with over 80% of the West now in drought, according to the U.S. Drought Monitor. Widespread impacts are being felt. To provide the latest information on drought conditions across the Southwest, California, Pacific Northwest, and the Missouri River Basin, as well as the serious impacts on diverse sectors of the economy, NIDIS is joining with our federal, state, tribal, and local partners to host a drought webinar specifically for western communities.
The webinar will include an update on the current drought situation and outlook, an overview of wildland fire conditions and outlook, and will feature perspectives from those on the ground who are responding to worsening drought conditions. Key discussions will include a summary of past and current conditions in terms of many climate variables like snowpack, temperatures, precipitation, soil moisture, etc.; as well as potential and ongoing impacts from drought across sectors (e.g., agriculture, water resources, recreation, etc.).
Webinar recording.
A year ago, the Landscape Fire and Resource Planning Management Tools (LANDFIRE) Program released its 2016 Remap for the conterminous United States (CONUS). The update was the most significant in LANDFIRE’s 16-year history, a ground-up rebuild of the base map to reflect 2016 land surface conditions that included a host of improvements to its 20-plus GIS mapping layers.
Join the Western Region of the Wildland Fire Leadership Council (WFLC) and the Fire Adapted Communities Learning Network (FAC Net) for a panel-style webinar.
See also, this Smoke Resources List developed from the webinar.
Webinar recording.
Do you use (or *wish* you could use) soil moisture data or maps to support your decision making, advising, or other work activities? Do you want to share your opinions on which soil moisture datasets, maps, and tools are needed to better inform drought, flood, or other natural resource issues?
In July, the National Coordinated Soil Moisture Monitoring Network is hosting two listening sessions for soil moisture end users to share their thoughts, wish lists, and out-of-the-box ideas about what types of soil moisture products would best serve them. Target participants include federal, regional, and state program staff; state climatologists; water resource managers; extension agents; and any others who are interested in products derived from soil moisture data, whether it be from in situ mesonets, modeling outputs, and/or satellite retrievals.
Participants can choose either this session (July 13) or an identical session on July 22, both at 1 – 3 p.m. ET. Please register by Wednesday, July 7.
Webinar recording.
The Pacific Northwest Drought Early Warning System (PNW DEWS) Drought & Climate Outlook Webinar is part of a series of regular drought and climate outlook webinars designed to provide stakeholders and other interested parties in the region with timely information on current drought status and impacts, as well as a preview of current and developing climatic events (i.e. El Niño and La Niña).
Webinar recording.
Utah State University Research Landscapes will address the latest in wildfire science and management, including:
Controlling aspects of the “fire triangle.”
Using fire as a tool to limit “disaster fires.”
Managing fuel to reduce severity of fires.
Focusing less on the number of acres burned and more on human impact of fires.
The event will feature a presentation by Dr. Larissa Yocom, USU assistant professor of wildland resources and Utah’s only dedicated wildfire ecologist. Her presentation will be followed by a live question-and-answer session.