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High severity wildfires led to the greatest decrease in cover for all plant functional types, while low severity wildfires caused the least decrease in the functional type cover in most cases, though some variations existed. Furthermore, the impacts of wildfires on vegetation cover were greater in woody (SHR and TREE) types than in herbaceous (AFG and PFG) types. Significant negative correlation existed between percent changes in AFG and PFG cover and SPEI indicating higher prefire soil moisture conditions likely increased fine fuel loads and led to a larger decrease in AFG and PFG cover following wildfires. Significant positive correlation existed between percent changes in SHR and TREE cover and SPEI indicating drier prefire conditions resulted in larger decreases in SHR and TREE cover following wildfires.
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This guide features 40 bird species that utilize sagebrush habitats and includes tips on species identification, biology, and conservation status. Because not all of these species require similar habitat types and not all sagebrush is managed for the same goals, this guide discusses how avian needs can be incorporated into land management plans.
Meeting website.
Join us in the heart of New Mexico for the 75th Annual SRM Meeting. The beautiful high desert rangelands, diverse cultures, authentic art, and painted skies of Albuquerque will make for a great meeting.
Webinar recording and additional Q and A.
Federal and state agencies across Utah and the Great Basin have been actively treating pinyon and juniper woodlands to improve wildlife habitat, reduce fuel loads, and achieve watershed objectives. Increasingly these activities have been questioned by stakeholder groups and citizens who are concerned about the unintended consequences of such treatments. This webinar addresses some of the recent criticisms of pinyon-juniper treatment, sharing results of research on woody vegetation removal as well as identifying questions that still need to be answered through research and monitoring.
Speakers: Eric Thacker, Mark Brunson
New technologies may enhance management by enabling quantitative testing of assumptions of vegetation response to climate and management. State-and-transition simulation models can keep track of interactions that are too complicated for us to comprehend using only conceptual models. This tool takes conceptual state-and-transition models to the next level, fostering greater communication and dialogue with stakeholders. Based on the models and climate data used here, increased drought may enhance transitions between vegetative states. It is important to be as explicit and quantitative as possible as to how you expect vegetation states or ecosystem processes to transition between one another.
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Spot fires caused by wind-blown burning embers are a significant mechanism of fire spread in the wildland and Wildland-Urban Interface (WUI). Fire spread and structure ignition by embers can be characterized by three major processes or mechanisms: ember production, ember transport, and ember ignition of fuel. This study investigates ember production from selected wildland and structural fuels under a range of environmental conditions through full-scale, intermediate-scale, and small-scale laboratory experiments.
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Presenters: John Kim, USDA Forest Service
Alex Dye, Oregon State University
Description: Fire is an integral part of the disturbance regime of the Pacific Northwest’s moist temperate forests, but future fire patterns for this region remain uncertain. Using Energy Release Component (ERC) from 12 global climate models (GCM), we simulated thousands of plausible fire seasons with the fire spread model FSim for mid-21st century (2035-2064) for 5 northwestern pyromes. Projected changes to burn probability, fire size, and number of fires varied among pyromes and GCMs. The largest increases in burn probability and fire size occur in the cooler and wetter northern parts of the region (North Cascades, Olympics & Puget Lowlands) and Oregon West Cascades, with more moderate changes projected for the Washington West Cascades and Oregon Coast Range. We provide new insights into changing fire regimes characterized by the possibility of shifts towards more frequent large fires (especially > 40,000 ha), and shifts in seasonality, including more fires burning at the beginning of fall when extreme synoptic weather events have the potential to increase fire spread and fire’s impact on communities. Our work highlights the potential geographic variability in climate change effects in the Northwest, pointing to a rapid acceleration of fire in the coming decades for which current wildfire risk reduction strategies based on recent historical data, and not climate change or rare events, may be insufficient.
Risk assessments that account for climate change and rare events can help prepare expectations for how future changes to fire regimes will impact communities, and we explore these impacts using two different methods for the present and future time periods. We used building location data to evaluate community wildfire exposure and identify plausible disasters that are not based on mean-based statistical approaches. Nearly half of communities are vulnerable to a future disaster, and the magnitude of plausible disasters exceeds any recent historical events. Ignitions on private land are most likely to result in very high community exposure. We also conducted a screening of wildfire evacuation vulnerability for 696 Oregon and Washington rural towns. By combining the road and fire metrics, we score and rank all towns by their overall evacuation vulnerability. Many of the most vulnerable towns are located in remote, forested, mountainous terrain, where topographic relief constrains the available road network and high fuel loads increase wildfire hazard. Work is underway to characterize how the vulnerabilities shift by mid-century.
Webinar recording.
Fire and land manager-focused panel discussion hosted by the USDA Forest Service Rocky Mountain Research Station
From 50 to 90% of wild plant species worldwide produce seeds that are dormant upon maturity, with specific dormancy traits driven by species’ occurrence geography, growth form, and genetic factors. While dormancy is a beneficial adaptation for intact natural systems, it can limit plant recruitment in restoration scenarios because seeds may take several seasons to lose dormancy and consequently show low or erratic germination. During this time, seed predation, weed competition, soil erosion, and seed viability loss can lead to plant re‐establishment failure. Understanding and considering seed dormancy and germination traits in restoration planning are thus critical to ensuring effective seed management and seed use efficiency. There are five known dormancy classes (physiological, physical, combinational, morphological, and morphophysiological), each requiring specific cues to alleviate dormancy and enable germination. The dormancy status of a seed can be determined through a series of simple steps that account for initial seed quality and assess germination across a range of environmental conditions. In this article, we outline the steps of the dormancy classification process and the various corresponding methodologies for ex situ dormancy alleviation. We also highlight the importance of record‐keeping and reporting of seed accession information (e.g. geographic coordinates of the seed collection location, cleaning and quality information, storage conditions, and dormancy testing data) to ensure that these factors are adequately considered in restoration planning.
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This article argues that decisions regarding planned wildfire are marred by an anachronistic and inaccurate distinction between “natural” and “anthropogenic” fire. Rationalizing that unplanned wildfires are “natural,” the federal government excludes pollutants from such fires from air quality compliance calculations at the same time it encourages states to vigorously control pollutants from “anthropogenic,” prescribed fires. The result contributes to an undervaluation of necessary, planned wildfire. Several solutions are suggested to remove these distortions, including adopting a default rule whereby all wildfire smoke, of whatever origin, “counts” for purposes of air quality compliance.