Fire Ecology & Effects

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Fire regimes of quaking aspen in the Mountain West

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This review proposes a classification framework for aspen that is defined by key fire regime parameters (fire severity and probability), and that reflects underlying biophysical settings and correlated aspen functional types. Five aspen fire regime types are proposed: (1) fire-independent, stable aspen; (2) fire-influenced, stable aspen; (3) fire-dependent, seral, conifer-aspen mix; (4) fire-dependent, seral, montane aspen-conifer; and (5) fire-dependent, seral, subalpine aspen-conifer.

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Fuel treatments and fire severity: A meta-analysis

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In this literature synthesis and meta-analysis, researchers found that the overall mean effect of fuel treatments on fire responses is large and significant, equating to a reduction in canopy volume scorch from 100% in an untreated stand to 40% in a treated stand, a reduction in scorch height from 30.5 m to 16.1 m, or an inferred reduction in flame length from 3.4 m to 2.1 m. But our synthesis demonstrates that fuel treatments vary widely in effectiveness, which is largely explained by vegetation and treatment type.

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The efficacy of hazardous fuel treatments: A rapid assessment of the economic and ecologic consequences of alternative hazardous fuel treatments

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This special report from the Ecological Restoration Institute at Northern Arizona University was presented to the U.S. Department of Interior, Office of Wildland Fire. The goal of this synthesis was to find, analyze and synthesize the best available evidence that policy makers need to make decisions about how to spend the limited money available to address the nation’s growing fire problem.

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Fire and Fuels Science Quarterly – Summer 2013

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Abstracts of recent papers on fire and fuels management in the West. Prepared by Craig Goodell, Fire Ecologist, USFS Pacific Northwest Region, Portland, OR.

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Western juniper field guide: Asking the right questions to select appropriate management actions

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This guide provides a set of tools that will help field biologists, land managers, and private landowners conduct rapid qualitative field assessments that address the kind of site and its current state. These tools include a list of questions to be addressed and a series of photographs, keys, tables, and figures to help evaluate a site. Conducting this assessment will help prioritize sites to be treated, select the best treatment, and predict outcomes.

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Forest fires: Burn out

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This Nature article discusses large, severe fires, climate change, insect outbreaks, and recovery of western forests with USGS scientist, Craig Allen and WERC scientist, Nate Stephenson.  on the conversion of forest ecosystems due to climate change and altered fire regimes.

 

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Fuels and fire behavior dynamics in bark beetle-attacked forests in western North America and implications for fire management

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This paper reviews the nature and characteristics of bark beetle-altered fuel complexes in the conifer forests of the Interior West and the challenges of understanding the effects on extreme fire behavior, including the initiation and spread of crown fires. We also discuss how emerging fire management plans in the U.S. have begun to integrate wildfire management and other forest health objectives with the specific goal of achieving biodiversity and ecosystem resiliency while simultaneously reducing the existence of hazardous fuel complexes.

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Effects of forest fuel-reduction treatments in the United States

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This study suggests that both prescribed fire and its mechanical surrogates are generally successful in meeting short-term fuel-reduction objectives in seasonally dry forests in the western and southern United States, making treated stands more resilient to high-intensity wildfire. Although mechanical treatments do not serve as complete surrogates for fire, their application can help mitigate costs and liability in some areas. Desired treatment effects on fire hazards are transient, which indicates that after fuel-reduction management starts, managers need to be persistent with repeated treatment.

 

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Effects of bark beetle caused tree mortality on wildfire

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This study reviewed and synthesized the published literature on modifications to fuels and fire characteristics following beetle-caused tree mortality. The literature agreed about responses in many conditions, including fuels measurements and changes in stands with longer times since outbreak. Disagreement or gaps in knowledge existed in several conditions, particularly in early post outbreak phases and crown fire behavior responses.

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SageSTEP – Sagebrush steppe treatment evaluation project

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SageSTEP is a long-term multidisciplinary experiment evaluating methods of sagebrush steppe restoration in the Great Basin.

You can find and access information on this project’s:

  • Land management treatments
  • Treatment effects on vegetation and fuels; soils and biogeochemistry; water runoff and erosion; wildlife and insects
  • The economics and human perspectives of management treatments
  • Association with climate change
  • Research findings thus far and project future

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