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In this second phase of the research, we conducted in-depth case studies of federal land management units that were actively working to increase their application of prescribed fire. We selected four case studies based on interviewee recommendations from our first round of interviews. These cases were: the San Juan National Forest (Colorado), the BLM Socorro Field Office/Cibola National Forest (New Mexico), the Sierra National Forest (California), and the Rogue-River Siskiyou National Forest (Oregon), with a focus on the Ashland Forest Resiliency Project in the Siskiyou Mountains Ranger District. For each case study, we conducted between 11 and 17 interviews with Forest Service or BLM staff members and key external partners. In total, 53 interviews were conducted with 62 interviewees for this phase of the project. Interviews focused on the nature of the prescribed fire program on the unit, key partners, primary challenges, and strategies and opportunities for increasing use of prescribed fire.
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.
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Drawing from literature on natural hazard vulnerability, disaster recovery, and wildfire ecology, this paper proposes a linked social-ecological model of community recovery and adaptation after disaster. The model contends that changes during post-wildfire recovery shape a community’s vulnerability to the next wildfire event. While other studies have highlighted linked social-ecological dynamics that influence pre-fire vulnerability, few studies have explored social-ecological feedbacks in post-fire recovery. This model contributes to interdisciplinary social science research on wildfires and to scholarship on community recovery by integrating hazard vulnerability reduction with recovery in a cyclical framework. Furthermore, it is adaptable to a variety of hazards beyond wildfire. The model provides a basis for future empirical work examining the nature and effectiveness of recovery efforts aimed at long-term vulnerability reduction.
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This report is intended to introduce policy makers and citizens to issues related to wildfire management and fuel treatments on Idaho’s rangelands. It summarizes the findings of fuel treatment studies on rangelands in Idaho and comparable areas of the western U.S., examines the risks associated with fuel treatment alternatives, summarizes the policies that currently affect fuel treatment implementation, and suggests research and policy alternatives that may increase fuel treatment effectiveness.
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This study was designed to improve the understanding of both individual and community actions that homeowners currently do or might take to protect their home or property, and the barriers that impede homeowners from completing firewise treatments to their home or property.
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.).
In this video, Secretary of the Interior, Sally Jewell, announces that because of an unprecedented effort by dozens of partners across 11 western states, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service has determined that the greater sage-grouse does not require protection under the Endangered Species Act.
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This study found prescribed fire used to control woody encroachment had lower maximum spot-fire distances compared to wildfires and, correspondingly, a lower amount of land area at risk to spot-fire occurrence. Under more extreme wildfire scenarios, spot-fire distances were 2 times higher in grasslands, and over 3 times higher in encroached grasslands and Juniperus woodlands compared to fires burned under prescribed fire conditions. Maximum spot-fire distance was 450% greater in Juniperus woodlands compared to grasslands and exposed an additional 14,000 ha of receptive fuels, on average, to spot-fire occurrence within the Loess Canyons Experimental Landscape. This study demonstrates that woody encroachment drastically increases risks associated with wildfire, and that spot fire distances associated with woody encroachment are much lower in prescribed fires used to control woody encroachment compared to wildfires.
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This report presents a new fuel sampling method, called the photoload sampling technique, to quickly and accurately estimate loadings for six common surface fuel components (1 hr, 10 hr, 100 hr, and 1000 hr downed dead woody, shrub, and herbaceous fuels). This technique involves visually comparing fuel conditions in the field with photoload sequences to estimate fuel loadings. Photoload sequences are a series of downward-looking and close-up oblique photographs depicting a sequence of graduated fuel loadings of synthetic fuelbeds for each of the six fuel components.
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The purpose of the Data Product Review website is to provide a place where people can work through a review process of various LANDFIRE data products and a method for submitting feedback and suggestions on a number of LANDFIRE data products in a guidebook structure. The site is based on a content management platform with structured content for a dynamic web experience. The feedback and suggestions will be reviewed both within and external to LANDFIRE and potentially improve future mapping updates and remaps.