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Conservation Efforts Database: Batch uploading and approving

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In this webinar, the Conservation Efforts Database Team guides you through the process to populate the Batch Upload Template with information from existing databases/datasets. We’ll also discuss ‘Approving Officials’, their role, and how to select one for your agency or organization.

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Use of the Target Plant Concept to promote successful post-fire restoration

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Restoration of severely burned forest lands is limited in the southwestern US primarily due to a lack of research and resources. For those areas that have been reforested, there has been little success with an average of only 20% survival of planted seedlings. Major limitations to the establishment of tree seedlings are exposure to harsh abiotic factors, poor soil conditions such as reduced water holding capacities and fertility, animal damage, and competing vegetation, all of which limit basic physiological and growth processes in plants. However, there are different approaches, both in forest tree nursery production and during active reforestation planting operations, that could remediate one or more of these limitations. Success for any forest planting effort begins with the “Target Plant Concept” (TPC), which is defined as those morphological and physiological attributes of a nursery grown plant that will result in successful establishment and productivity on specific outplanting sites, such as the harsh, dry environments of the Southwest. This concept is the basis for all research conducted at the John T. Harrington Forestry Research Center with New Mexico State University.

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SageSuccess Project Findings

Recording of Part I (2/20)
Recording of Part II (2/21)

The SageSuccess Project, a joint USGS, BLM, and USFWS effort, examines the factors contributing to big sagebrush establishment across the range of sage-grouse. In two webinars, USGS researchers will present major findings of studies on restoration, resistance and resilience, soils, population dynamics, and more.

SageSuccess Project findings were presented over two days by 6 presenters. 

2/20 – 

History, Study Design, and Partnerships of the SageSuccess Project: David Pilliod
The SageSuccess project required considerable planning and partnership building and coordination. Early partner engagement and flexibility were key to our success. This presentation sets the stage for why and how the project formed, what lessons we learned along the way, and where the science may take us next.

Big Picture Considerations for Sagebrush Restoration: Matt Germino
Sagebrush ecosystems, while often perceived as homogenous “seas” of shrubs, exhibit striking variation within and among sites. Heterogeneity exists over time and across space due to weather, climatic, topographic, and edaphic factors. In addition to this variability is remarkable genetic diversity within sagebrush and its associated species. This variability presents challenges and opportunities for sagebrush restoration.

Is Resistance & Resilience a Useful Predictive Tool? Robert Arkle
Ecological resistance and resilience to disturbance and subsequent invasion is becoming a cornerstone of conservation management in the Great Basin. However, whether this theory works in practice is largely untested at broad spatial and temporal scales. R & R theory was evaluated from field data from over 200 post-wildfire rehabilitation sites sampled from 1–35 years post-treatment throughout the Great Basin.

2/21  –

Gradients in Sagebrush Recovery after Fire are Associated with Soil and Biocrust Characteristics: Dave Barnard
The influence of soil properties on the recovery of sagebrush canopy structure after fire is not well documented. In this study, we investigated associations between soil depth, texture, and surface characteristics and the recovery of sagebrush canopy structure. We show that a diversity of associations exists and that soil characteristics such as depth and structure can surpass precipitation in terms explaining post-fire sagebrush responses.

Population Trajectories of Sagebrush after Restoration: Connecting Pattern and Process: Bob Shriver
It’s assumed that in the absence of drought, invasive species, or other disturbance, populations should recover soon after restoration, but there is little data to support this. When we examined the population dynamics of restoration, we found sagebrush populations declined for decades following seeding, even in the absence of environmental change. It took an average of 20 years to see increases in sagebrush cover. Much of this prolonged recovery can be linked to the sagebrush life history.

To Plant or to Seed? A Good Question: Dave Pyke
Sagebrush restoration typically takes two forms: seeding or transplanting. Transplants can bypass some of the roadblocks to establishment that seedings face. However, growth can sometimes be a challenge with transplanted species growing poorer than seeded species. We examine canopy and height growth of seeded and transplanted sagebrush across the Great Basin. Transplants have an early growth advantage in the first three to five years, but seeded plants eventually match the growth of transplants.

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Smoke exposure health effects and mitigations for wildland fire personnel

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Wildland firefighters are exposed to wood smoke, which contains hazardous air pollutants, during wildland fire management assignments across the U.S. each year. In this webinar, Kathleen Navarro, PhD, presented on a recent Joint Fire Science Program study estimating the lifetime risk of lung cancer and cardiovascular disease from exposure to particulate matter (PM) from smoke. This analysis combined measured PM exposures on wildfires, estimated wildland firefighter breathing rates, and an exposure disease relationship for PM to estimate mortality of lung cancer and cardiovascular disease mortality from lifetime exposure to PM. In addition, Zone Fuels AFMO, Megan Martinez, reviewed previous smoke research, as well as field-based experiences with successes and challenges of implementing smoke exposure mitigations.

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Engaging fires before they start: Spatial fire planning for the 21st century

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New fire management paradigms are emerging that recognize fire is inevitable, and in many cases desirable. During this webinar you will be introduced to a new process for spatial fire planning using tools such as Potential Control Line atlases (PCLs), Quantitative wildfire Risk Assessments (QRAs), and Suppression Difficulty Index (SDI). Chris Dunn, Oregon State Univ, will demonstrate how these tools can align wildfire management decisions and actions, from the development of strategic wildfire response zones to in situ wildfire response decisions that balance operational success, firefighter safety and values at risk.

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Unraveling the complexity of mixed severity fire regimes: New insights from three Rocky Mountain ecosystems

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In this webinar, Dr. Cameron Naficy presents findings from a synthesis of multiple projects conducted in 3 unique mixed-severity ecosystems from the Rocky Mountains of the U.S. and Canada. He briefly reviews a new reconstruction method his research group developed that combines extensive dendroecological plot networks and detailed forest structure mapping from high-resolution historical aerial imagery. Using these data, he describes the spatial and temporal patterns of fire frequency and severity for each study ecosystem, the fire-mediated stand dynamics and vegetation conditions that characterized each ecosystem, and some novel resilience mechanisms and ecological surprises associated with the mixed-severity fire regime model. This project demonstrates how historical data can be used to move beyond simple summaries of historical fire regime attributes and landscape condition by using historical data to reveal fundamental fire regime processes, drivers, and ecological outcomes.

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Prescribed fire is an emergency

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This interactive webinar will explore how systems level trends impact the way we manage fire in unexpected ways. Hear why cutting trees in overstocked forests does far less than you might think to increase a community’s resilience to catastrophic fire; how the public framing of the “wildfire crisis” creates narratives that negatively impacts fire management; and how the unintended consequences of policy and demographics muzzle the most important ecological disturbance in almost 80% of America’s landscapes. The webinar will address both opinions and opportunities for re-creation of a restoration economy and fire’s New Deal.

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Let’s fix the fire problem: Here’s a solution

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Fire is the first of three Great Constants in our lives. Change is the second. A web of change, consisting of population growth; density of homes built in outlying areas; new home construction; weather drying and heating; biomass build-up from fire suppression, management, etc. is converging on our communities, landscapes, economies, and collective resources. That convergence is creating negative impact and loss at unprecedented rates. This webinar discusses solutions to the fire problem.

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Expect the unexpected: Fire management challenges and opportunities in a changing climate

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With increasing fire season duration and complexities in the fire management environment come opportunities to scale up the application of prescribed fire. In this webinar, we will explore the challenges climate change poses for fire managers, as well as the opportunities present in more numerous and longer prescribed burn windows with the increasing availability of fuels to burn.

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Gambel oak management symposium

Part 1 recordings.
Part 2 recordings.

Gambel oak (Quercus gambelii) is a widespread species found throughout the US Southwest and southern Rocky Mountains. While the species has been widely studied in Arizona and New Mexico, comparatively little is known about Gambel oak at the northern extent of its range (Colorado, Utah, southern Wyoming). Research in this geographic region is particularly important given substantial differences in growth form across the species’ range (tree vs. shrub), and because potential habitat for Gambel oak is likely to spread northward under future climate scenarios. In this webinar, we will discuss the current state of knowledge on the ecology and management of Gambel oak in the southern Rocky Mountains, with a focus on silviculture, wildfire, and post-fire.

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