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The Interpreting Indicators of Rangeland Health (IIRH) protocol is designed for assessing ecosystem function on rangelands and woodlands. The protocol was developed by an interagency cadre of technical experts and has been in use by for two decades. The protocol is well accepted and is a valuable tool for communicating rangeland conditions with stakeholders. Technical Reference 1734-6 Version 4, which describes the IIRH protocol, was published in 2005.
Refinements and improvements identified through 12 years of experience with class participants and field office personnel applying the protocol as outlined in Version 4 are incorporated into Version 5 of the technical reference. Indicators and attributes used in previous versions of the technical reference are largely the same, and following instructions in Version 5 is not expected to result in differing attribute ratings as compared to assessments completed using Version 4 of TR 1734-6 assuming that the same reference information is used.
Webinar recording.
Description: Burn severity is the ecological change resulting from wildland fires. Areas burned with high severity are of concern to land managers and others because postfire vegetation, soil, and other important ecosystem components can be highly altered. Using satellite-derived maps of burn severity for almost 12,000 fires, researchers at the US Forest Service, Rocky Mountain Research Station developed statistical models to describe the spatial distribution of high-severity fire and produce a predictive map of severe fire potential for the contiguous United States. In this webinar, hear about methods used in this study and how the results and data products can be useful to scientists and land managers.
Presenter: Greg Dillon, Spatial Fire Analyst, U.S. Forest Service
Visit Cal Fire wildfire preparedness website.
Many resources are available on preparing and preventing wildfire and living and coping after wildfire.
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Monitoring Trends in Burn Severity (MTBS) includes all fires 1000 acres or greater in the west and 500 acres or greater in the east. The extent of coverage includes the continental U.S., Alaska, Hawai’i and Puerto Rico. MTBS data are freely available to the public.
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Land management and fire management goals are increasingly framed in terms of resilience, in part due to the combined impacts of climate change, land-use change, and legacies of land management. Implicit in this framing is the recognition that resilience to wildfire involves both ecological and social dimensions. Discussions surrounding resilience often do not explicitly articulate what resources should or must be resilient to wildfire, and seldom do they make explicit for whom resilience is important. Land managers need to understand and identify which resources their communities want to be resilient to wildfire before they can outline specific actions that could be taken to support resilience for those resources. We detail an approach for bringing together land and resource managers, community institutions, and other stakeholders—those people for whom resilience is important—to achieve these objectives. We describe a series of exercises used for a workshop but present them here in a more generic form that could be adapted to a variety of landscapes, audiences, and formats.
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Sampling seven taxa from the same sites allowed us to ask how trait–environment–performance associations differ among taxa and whether natural selection favors similar traits across multiple taxa and functional groups. All taxa showed trait–environment associations consistent with local adaptation, and both environment of origin and phenotypes predicted survival in competitive restoration settings, with some commonalities among taxa. Notably, rapid emergence and larger seeds increased survival for multiple taxa. Environmental factors at collection sites, including lower slopes (especially for grasses), greater mean annual temperatures (especially for shrubs and forbs), and greater precipitation seasonality were frequently associated with increased survival. We noted one collection site with high seedling survival across all seven taxa, suggesting that conditions within some sites may result in selection for traits that increase establishment for multiple species. Thus, choosing native plant sources with the most adaptive traits, along with matching climates, will likely improve the restoration of invaded communities.
Webinar recording.
Description: Worldwide, Indigenous peoples are leading the revitalization of their/our cultures through the restoration of ecosystems in which they are embedded, including in response to increasing “megafires.” Yet, despite growing recognition that just and effective conservation is only possible through partnerships with, or led by, Indigenous peoples, decolonizing approaches to restoration have received insufficient attention. Further, reconciliation will be incomplete without Indigenous-led restoration of Indigenous lands, knowledges, and cultures. In this webinar, we will introduce the concept of “walking on two legs” to guide restoration scientists and practitioners in advancing the interconnected processes of Indigenous-led restoration and reconciliation in Indigenous territories. As an action-oriented framework articulated by Secwépemc Elder Ronald E. Ignace, “walking on two legs” seeks to bring Indigenous knowledges into balance with western scientific knowledge in service of upholding an Indigenous stewardship ethic that is embedded in Indigenous ways of relating to land and embodies principles of respect, reciprocity, and responsibility. Grounding our discussion in the context of fire-adapted ecosystems of western Canada and unceded and traditional Secwépemc territory, Secwepemcúl̓ecw, we will share two case studies of collaborative and Indigenous-led research and restoration to demonstrate how “walking on two legs” provides a pathway to uphold respectful relationships with Indigenous peoples, knowledges, and territories through Indigenous-led restoration.
Presenters: Marianne Ignace, Director, Indigenous Languages Program and First Nations Language Centre, Simon Fraser University
Sarah Disckson-Hoyle, PhD candidate and Public Scholar, Faculty of Forestry, University of British Columbia
Webinar recording.
A presentation on Potential Operational Delineations (PODs) from multiple perspectives including both scientists and managers. We will discuss how PODs were used in Northern New Mexico past fire seasons where PODS were utilized; with an emphasis on PODs as a fire planning tool, new developments in research and applications, and innovations within the planning framework.
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This study expands on a 2011 tribal research needs assessment with a survey to identify tribal natural resource professionals’ research needs, access to research findings, and interest in participating in research. Information needs identified in our survey includes forest health, water quality, culturally significant species, workforce and tribal youth development, cultural importance of water, and invasive species. Additionally, postfire response and valuation, resilience and long-term forestry, protecting and curating tribal data, and Indigenous burning were more important research needs for tribal members than for nontribal members. This study can inform forestry research planning efforts and establish research priorities and collaborations that are aligned with needs identified by tribal natural resource managers.
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The USGS webpage for Survey Data Series 690 provides access to livestock grazing data from 25 BLM offices in 13 states including spatial and tabular data related to BLM grazing allotments.