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This study assessed causal relationships between conifer encroachment and sagebrush restoration (conifer removal and seeding native plants) on small mammal communities over 11 yr using a Before-After-Control–Impact design. Sagebrush habitat supported an additional small mammal species, twice the biomass, and nearly three times higher densities than conifer-encroached habitat. Sagebrush restoration increased shrub cover, decreased tree cover, and density but failed to increase native herbaceous plant density. Restoration caused a large increase in the non-native, invasive annual cheatgrass. Counter to prediction, small mammal diversity did not increase in response to sagebrush restoration, but restoration maintained small mammal density in the face of ongoing conifer encroachment. Piñon mice, woodland specialists with highest densities in conifer-encroached habitat, were negatively affected by sagebrush restoration. Increasing cheatgrass due to sagebrush restoration may not negatively impact small mammal diversity, provided cheatgrass density and cover do not progress to a monoculture and native vegetation is maintained. The consequences of conifer encroachment, a long-term, slow-acting impact, far outweigh the impacts of sagebrush restoration, a short-term, high-intensity impact, on small mammal diversity. Given the ecological importance of small mammals, maintenance of small mammal density is a desirable outcome for sagebrush restoration.
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We synthesized restoration techniques and their effectiveness in the Mojave and western Sonoran Desert, provide estimated costs of candidate techniques, and anticipate future research needs for effective restoration in changing climates and environments. Over 50 published studies in the Mojave and western Sonoran Desert demonstrate that restoration can improve soil features (e.g., biocrusts), increase cover of native perennial and annual plants, enhance native seed retention and seed banks, and reduce risk of fires to conserve mature shrubland habitat. We placed restoration techniques into three categories: restoration of site environments, revegetation, and management actions to limit further disturbance and encourage recovery. Within these categories, 11 major restoration techniques (and their variations) were evaluated by at least one published study and range from geomorphic (e.g., reestablishing natural topographic patterns) and abiotic structural treatments (e.g., vertical mulching) to active revegetation (e.g., outplanting, seeding).
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Description: Compare and view up to 5 Weather Scenarios to evaluate effects on fire behavior. Only in the Interagency Fuel Treatment Decision Support System (IFTDSS) can you run fire behavior models and compare the outputs side-by-side. Easily view on the map, change the inputs and re-run to explore the impacts of weather on fire behavior outputs. Great for enhancing your burn plans, NEPA documents or understanding and calibrating model outputs.
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Fuel treatments decreased intrinsic water use efficiency relative to the control in Arizona although the differences were not sufficiently large to reach the threshold of statistical significance. Very dry conditions characterized post-treatment climate in Arizona and treatment decreased competition among trees for water. Decreased competition appears to have led to higher stomatal conductance in surviving trees and thus lower intrinsic water use efficiency, even with post-treatment growth increases as measured by basal area index. The treatment response supports our hypothesis of the expected treatment response.
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After they have been delineated, PODs are essentially big boxes on the landscape that illustrate where fire could potentially be contained. Collaborators can then use CWPPs and other planning processes to fill those boxes with a wide variety of local and statewide spatial data about expected fire behavior, homes, infrastructure, and other values at risk to inform where resources should be expended to protect community values. Because PODs delineate where fires are likely to be contained, they can help operationalize CWPPs. Like CWPPs, PODs institutionalize knowledge and can be used to create a variety of maps and spatial data products. However, the real value of PODs and CWPPs comes from the collaborative processes used to create them, the interagency coordination and conversations they facilitate, and their power as communication tools between communities, land management agencies, and other stakeholders. By incorporating the PODs framework into a new or updated CWPP, a community is able to incorporate the latest science and use an operationally based planning framework that is broadly adopted and supported by federal agencies.
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.
View fact sheet, pg. 74.
Great Basin sagebrush communities are experiencing widespread degradation due to the introduction of invasive annual weeds and disturbances that promote weed expansion, including inappropriate grazing and fire. Many sites previously occupied by diverse communities of perennial grasses, forbs, and shrubs have been reduced to depauperate sagebrush stands that readily become dominated by invasive annuals following fire. Post-fire seeding may be necessary to prevent these areas from converting to annual grasslands.
View all topics reviewed in the Fact Sheet series.
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Soil temperature extremes are not uncommon when woody fuels are ignited in prescribed burns or wildfires. Whether this leads to substantial loss of soil organic matter or microbial life is unclear. We created a soil heat gradient by burning four levels of masticated woody fuels (0, 34, 101, and 169 Mg ha−1) to determine if heat thresholds produce abrupt changes in soil C, N, microbial biomass, or fungal hyphae. Twenty-four burns were conducted with masticated fuels overlaying a clay loam soil equilibrated at either 4 or 25% volumetric soil water content. Maximum temperatures ranged from 40 to 450 °C depending on fuel load and soil moisture content, with heat duration (>60 °C) as great as 22 h. Moist soil quenched temperatures two- to threefold compared with dry soil at comparable fuel loads. A slight, gradual decline in total C and N was found with increasing temperature and heat duration, reaching a maximum loss of 14–18% of the total at the highest heat load. Available NH4 increased linearly starting at 150–175 °C and reached a maximum 15-fold increase relative to unburned soil by 450 °C. Nitrification (30 d post-fire) was low regardless of treatment and was essentially eliminated at the highest temperatures. Microbial biomass declined curvilinearly with increased heating, approaching 65% loss compared with unburned soil, and was most rapid in moist soil once temperatures exceeded 60–70 °C. Ultimately, we found no evidence of abrupt heat thresholds for these common soil properties. Instead, property changes followed a slightly declining trajectory (soil C, N, NO3, fungal hyphae) or a steady incremental increase (NH4) or decrease (microbial biomass).
Webinar recording.
Attendees will:
- Receive updates from the Forest Service on the Collaborative Forest Landscape Restoration Program (CFLRP);
- Learn about an approach for building and maintaining a solid foundation for collaborative efforts using the 4-Ps (Purpose, People, Process, and Products);
- Hear from speakers about how CFLRP changed their collaborative efforts; and
- Be able to ask questions and join in a discussion about the process of building and maintaining a solid foundation for collaboration.
Read UT Conservation Plan.
This Plan identifies strategies to address localized threats to sage-grouse populations in Utah. Those strategies include—but are not limited to—the following:
- Identify the highest-priority sage-grouse habitats and migration corridors, and protect at least 5,000 of those acres annually through conservation easements, or other mechanisms.
- Improve and increase sage-grouse seasonal habitats by 75,000 acres each year, including riparian and mesic habitats.
- Monitor sage-grouse population trends annually and, if necessary, implement adaptive management responses to ensure that priority populations remain viable and stable.
- Coordinate with local, state and federal firefighting jurisdictions to include sage-grouse habitats as a priority during pre-fire attack planning and suppression, second only to the protection of human life and property.
- Fund, support and implement critical research that supports the implementation of this Plan.