Webinar
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Wildfire risk is shared across landscapes, ownerships, and administrative boundaries. Consequently, successful efforts to mitigate this risk depend on coordination of individual and collective actions across sets of public and private institutions and individuals associated with managing components of fire-prone landscapes. We need to understand how these diverse sets of actors, including individual residents, communities, non-profit organizations, and local, state, tribal, and federal agencies can and do interact and make decisions that affect fire and risk based on their rules, processes and social norms. Initiated in 2017, the Co-Management of Wildfire Risk Transmission Partnership (CoMFRT) brings together wildfire researchers, practitioners and decisionmakers to co-produce knowledge and actionable recommendations to support people and institutions successfully working together across scales and circumstances to best mitigate fire risk and build adaptation to wildfire. This presentation will provide an overview of the CoMFRT Partnership, key results and recommendations to date, and next steps all designed to underscore approaches for a variety of actors responsible for managing wildfire risk to better live with fire.
Webinar recording.
Last summer’s wildfire events impacted many Oregonians. These events reminded us of how important it is to plan and be prepared for wildfire. Planning and preparing for wildfire can feel like a massive endeavor. What can we do? Who can help? How do we continue to build wildfire adapted and prepared communities? Every community is unique; however, you are not alone. We can learn from our neighbors whether they are next door, across the state or even in a different state.
For this webinar, we invited our neighbors from southwest Colorado to tell us their story. Join us and learn how one community was affected by wildfires in 2002 and their journey to come together, rebuild, and take the action needed to save their lives and property from wildfire and the impact their actions had on wildfires in their neighborhoods since.
What you will learn:
– How other communities in the west have adapted to living in a wildfire environment
– Tools and resources available to help you prepare for wildfire
– How to engage your neighbors and build capacity to strengthen your wildfire adapted community
Webinar recording.
Dendrochronology: The trees that surround us have a story to tell, yet so many of us have no idea what that story is. What is dendrochronology? How old is the oldest recorded tree? Can trees get scars? Where are some of the oldest forests located? These are just some of the questions we aim to answer with our guest Dr. Justin DeRose, Assistant Professor of Silviculture and Applied Forest Ecology at Utah State University.
Webinar recording.
Description: The desert city of St. George, Utah is one of the fastest growing metropolitan areas in the country. Three federally listed endangered plant species that grow directly in the path of this juggernaut development are at extreme risk of further decline and possible extinction. With the help of drones, deep learning technology and innovative restoration methods, we are engaged in research and active management to give these unique and beautiful species a better chance at long-term survival.
Presenter: Susan E. Meyer
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Disturbance events, such as overgrazing and the catastrophic fires, in our shrub steppe landscape can kick-start a negative feedback loop with invasion of noxious weeds. These invasive species can have a direct effect on services and ecological benefits provided by the shrug steppe landscape. Learn what we can do to minimize the spread of invasive plant species and how native seeds and grasses can be used to restore this brittle system.
Webinar recording.
Presenter: Melanie Colavito, Ecological Restoration Institute
Description: The Ecological Restoration Institute recently completed a project analyzing the use and adoption of wildfire risk assessment and fuels treatment prioritization methods and products—broadly referred to here as decision support tools (DSTs)—by federal land managers. There is a need to demystify the topic of spatial fire planning specifically with respect to assessing wildfire risk and determining areas for fuels treatment prioritization to facilitate effective development and use of DSTs for pre-fire planning. We used semi-structured interviews with key informants to identify common DSTs for assessing wildfire risk and treatment planning and prioritization, approaches for the development and transfer of DSTs, examples of DST uses, common barriers and facilitators in the development and use of DSTs, and recommendations for facilitating the development and use of DSTs. Although there were many barriers identified to the effective development, integration, and use of DSTs in pre-fire planning, interview respondents had numerous recommendations for improving this process. We hope these recommendations can help shape the perspectives of science, management, and decision-making audiences for how to improve the use of DSTs for wildfire risk assessment and treatment prioritization in order to effectively meet the goals of national policies and frameworks.
Webinar recording.
Description: Burn severity is the ecological change resulting from wildland fires. Areas burned with high severity are of concern to land managers and others because postfire vegetation, soil, and other important ecosystem components can be highly altered. Using satellite-derived maps of burn severity for almost 12,000 fires, researchers at the US Forest Service, Rocky Mountain Research Station developed statistical models to describe the spatial distribution of high-severity fire and produce a predictive map of severe fire potential for the contiguous United States. In this webinar, hear about methods used in this study and how the results and data products can be useful to scientists and land managers.
Presenter: Greg Dillon, Spatial Fire Analyst, U.S. Forest Service
Webinar recording.
There is broad understanding and agreement lately that there is a need to substantially increase the use of prescribed fire to create landscape resiliency, protect communities and ensure a safe and effective wildfire response. In response, more and more Prescribed Burn Associations are forming. Please join us as we visit with nine practitioners involved with Prescribed Burn Associations to learn about their models for implementation, their challenges and successes, and how you might start a similar organization where you live.
Webinar recording.
Presenter: Marc Titus, Staff Specialist, Nevada Division of Forestry’s Fire Adapted Communities and MS Student in Psychology, Arizona State University.
Description: PTSD is quietly impacting wildland firefighters with its often devastating personal and professional repercussions. While no official numbers exist, suicide has become another statistic now necessary to track within the wildland community as anecdotal data show an alarming trend. While agency’s come to grips with this burgeoning problem, firefighters can educate themselves to better understand the dynamics of stress, trauma and PTSD. This event will provide a unique view of the insidious nature of trauma, its effects on the human being with an eye towards recovery and nine key insights derived from the experiences of a wildland firefighter afflicted by this nervous system injury.
The California Range Management Advisory Committee, an advisory body to the California Natural Resources Agency under the Board of Forestry and Fire Protection, is co-hosting a virtual workshop with the California Fire Science Consortium to discuss the use of prescribed livestock grazing as a sustainable fuel reduction and environmental management tool.
Three separate workshops will be hosted on different topics as listed below. Each workshop will be followed by an optional virtual networking hour where participants can engage with each other and ask questions. All sessions are tentatively scheduled to start at 10am and last for 2 hours with an optional networking option.