Webinar
Higher tree density, more fuels, and a warmer, drier climate have caused an increase in the frequency, size, and severity of wildfires in western U.S. forests. There is an urgent need to restore forests across the western United States. To address this need, the U.S. Forest Service began the Four Forest Restoration Initiative (4FRI) to restore four national forests in Arizona. The objective of this study was to evaluate how restoration of ~400,000 ha under the 4FRI program and projected climate change would influence carbon dynamics and wildfire severity from 2010 to 2099. We found that the fast‐4FRI scenario showed early decreases in ecosystem carbon due to initial thinning/prescribed fire treatments, but total ecosystem carbon increased by 9–18% over no harvest by the end of the simulation. This increased carbon storage by 6.3–12.7 million metric tons, depending on the climate model, equating to removal of carbon emissions from 55,000 to 110,000 passenger vehicles per year until the end of the century. Nearly half of the additional carbon was stored in more stable soil pools. However, climate models with the largest predicted temperature increases showed declines by late century in ecosystem carbon despite restoration. Our study uses data from a real‐world, large‐scale restoration project and indicates that restoration is likely to stabilize carbon and the benefits are greater when the pace of restoration is faster.
Presenter: Dr McCauley
This presentation describes recent research on the important roles of fire refugia, highlighting in particular the capacity for refugia to support forest landscape recovery. We sampled tree regeneration in twelve different burns across the West, analyzed relationships between tree regeneration and refugia pattern, and developed a landscape simulation model of forest recovery. We found that regeneration by ponderosa pine and obligate-seeding mixed-conifer tree species assemblages was strongly and positively predicted by refugia proximity and density. Simulation models revealed that for any given proportion of the landscape occupied by refugia, small patches produced greater landscape recovery than large patches. These results highlight the disproportionate importance of small, isolated islands of surviving trees, which may not be detectable with coarse-scale satellite imagery. Implications and applications for land managers and conservation practitioners include strategies for the promotion and maintenance of fire refugia as components of resilient forest landscapes.
Presenter: Jonathan Coop, Western Colorado University
Check here for webinar recording.
The Advanced Fire Environment Learning Unit (AFELU) hosts three speakers to talk about Predictive Services comparison tools, predicting fire behavior in Alaska, and smoke tools. The target audience is anyone interested in fire behavior, fire weather, or fire prediction.
Researchers present results from a National Science Foundation-funded project studying management responses to Mountain Pine Beetle infestations in the western U.S. This research includes case studies of national forests and surrounding communities that were heavily affected by impacts from the beetle in Colorado, Montana, South Dakota, and Washington. The scale, scope, and public visibility of the beetle outbreak resulted in different responses in the four case study areas, including the use of different management approaches and policies. The rapid pace at which the epidemic spread also created challenges around managers’ inability to respond quickly enough. In this presentation, the scientists share findings on differences and similarities between how the different case studies responded to mountain pine beetle impacts and what policies, authorities, and approaches managers used to address beetle issues in their national forests.
This webinar focuses on LANDFIRE Remap products in LF’s Southwest GeoArea: Nevada, Utah, and Arizona, and sections of New Mexico, Colorado, and California. Presenters Jim Smith and Kori Blankenship of The Nature Conservancy’s LF team review improvements to LF’s newest product offerings and also look at what remains the same as in previous versions. The Southwest is the second of nine Remap regional product releases that are scheduled through mid-2020.
The webinar informs participants about the new LANDFIRE Remap products, what has changed from previous product offerings, and what remains the same or has been updated. It offers application examples taken from the SW region, and will save time to answer questions and listen to comments at the webinar’s conclusion. The presentation is directed those who are or might be considering using LANDFIRE products to inform fire and vegetation management decisions, e.g. researchers, land and project managers, fire and fuel professionals, GIS specialists, scientists, and students.
Kori Blankenship, Fire Ecologist and Jim Smith, Program Lead, of The Nature Conservancy’s LANDFIRE Team, present.
This webinar will provide an overview of The Pew Charitable Trust’s recent work on natural disaster spending. Remarks will focus on how all levels of government—and states in particular—can manage rising disaster costs by improving how they track spending and by investing in mitigation. Research by Pew has found that disaster assistance is spread across many federal and state agencies and that comprehensive data, especially on what states spend, is missing. Better data could allow both federal and state policymakers to make more strategic decisions about how they spend on disasters, including mitigation measures that reduce the impact of future events—which a recent Pew analysis found saves money in every state and across disaster types.
Colin Foard, Associate Manager, Fiscal Federalism, The Pew Charitable Trusts, presents.
This webinar will take a close look at FEMA’s burgeoning Building Resilient Infrastructure and Communities (BRIC) program and what the next steps in the effort will be. BRIC, which was recently funded as part of the Disaster Recovery Reform Act of 2018, focuses on public infrastructure projects that can lower risk and increase community resilience. As a disaster mitigation program, BRIC allows the agency to invest grant money in infrastructure projects before a disaster. To date, FEMA has collected more than 4,000 comments from members of the public, local and regional partners, and representatives of other federal agencies to ensure the program meets the needs of the entire community.
Eric Letvin, Deputy Assistant Administrator for Mitigation, Federal Emergency Management Agency presents.
This webinar explores the social challenges to implementing codes that support a resilient building stock. A public survey by University of Colorado Boulder researchers found that the public is willing to pay for more-resilient buildings, yet several social forces beyond cost pose obstacles to enhancing building-code performance objectives. Many builders, for instance, oppose any code changes that increase construction cost. Engineers might sometimes favor private interests over code changes, which can hinder consensus and support. For legislators, the future benefits of code changes aren’t immediate enough to be politically expedient. In short, even while the technical case for creating resilient building stock is strong, there are factors that must be overcome to implement it. This webinar will use several recent scholarly studies to examine the ethics and economics behind those factors and how we can address challenges head on.
Keith Porter, Research Professor, Civil, Environmental, and Architectural Engineering, University of Colorado Boulder presents.
This webinar will explore the goals and recommendations presented in the National Mitigation Investment Strategy, which provides a national approach to investing in mitigation and risk management across the United States.
The strategy will:
- Provide stakeholders with a foundational understanding of how mitigation investments protect what their communities value
- Foster a better understanding of risks in order to support investment decisions, align risk reduction goals with programs and incentives, and simplify access to investment funds
- Assure that national stakeholders are participating in mitigation activities, especially decisions to enhance building codes and infrastructure standards and the use of financial products that link to mitigation.
Angela R. Gladwell, Deputy Assistant Administrator for the Risk Management Directorate within the Federal Insurance and Mitigation Administration, Federal Emergency Management Agency presents.