Post-fire Environment & Management
Access the synthesis.
In this report, we identify and characterize scientific literature produced by USGS scientists during 2006–17 that addresses topics associated with wildland fire science. Our goals were to (1) make the most complete list possible of product citations readily available in an organized format, and (2) use bibliometric analysis approaches to highlight the productivity of USGS scientists and the impact of contributions that the Bureau has provided to the scientific, land management, and fire management communities.
Access the story map and biochar resources.
Biochar is a modern technology that returns carbon to the soil in the form of long-lasting charcoal. It’s made by baking biomass (such as tree wood, plants, manure, and other organic materials) without the oxygen that could cause it to burn completely to ash.
This presentation describes recent research on the important roles of fire refugia, highlighting in particular the capacity for refugia to support forest landscape recovery. We sampled tree regeneration in twelve different burns across the West, analyzed relationships between tree regeneration and refugia pattern, and developed a landscape simulation model of forest recovery. We found that regeneration by ponderosa pine and obligate-seeding mixed-conifer tree species assemblages was strongly and positively predicted by refugia proximity and density. Simulation models revealed that for any given proportion of the landscape occupied by refugia, small patches produced greater landscape recovery than large patches. These results highlight the disproportionate importance of small, isolated islands of surviving trees, which may not be detectable with coarse-scale satellite imagery. Implications and applications for land managers and conservation practitioners include strategies for the promotion and maintenance of fire refugia as components of resilient forest landscapes.
Presenter: Jonathan Coop, Western Colorado University
After the Flames Science Session Recordings
Post-fire science needs for emergency response hazards and rehabilitation: An online opportunity to discuss the state of post-fire science and identify future needs was designed to:
- Assess science needs and barriers to communication of post-fire science
- Determine communication strategies for post-fire science
- Develop pathways forward for working together in post-fire response
This webinar will provide an overview of The Pew Charitable Trust’s recent work on natural disaster spending. Remarks will focus on how all levels of government—and states in particular—can manage rising disaster costs by improving how they track spending and by investing in mitigation. Research by Pew has found that disaster assistance is spread across many federal and state agencies and that comprehensive data, especially on what states spend, is missing. Better data could allow both federal and state policymakers to make more strategic decisions about how they spend on disasters, including mitigation measures that reduce the impact of future events—which a recent Pew analysis found saves money in every state and across disaster types.
Colin Foard, Associate Manager, Fiscal Federalism, The Pew Charitable Trusts, presents.
This webinar explores the social challenges to implementing codes that support a resilient building stock. A public survey by University of Colorado Boulder researchers found that the public is willing to pay for more-resilient buildings, yet several social forces beyond cost pose obstacles to enhancing building-code performance objectives. Many builders, for instance, oppose any code changes that increase construction cost. Engineers might sometimes favor private interests over code changes, which can hinder consensus and support. For legislators, the future benefits of code changes aren’t immediate enough to be politically expedient. In short, even while the technical case for creating resilient building stock is strong, there are factors that must be overcome to implement it. This webinar will use several recent scholarly studies to examine the ethics and economics behind those factors and how we can address challenges head on.
Keith Porter, Research Professor, Civil, Environmental, and Architectural Engineering, University of Colorado Boulder presents.
This webinar will explore the goals and recommendations presented in the National Mitigation Investment Strategy, which provides a national approach to investing in mitigation and risk management across the United States.
The strategy will:
- Provide stakeholders with a foundational understanding of how mitigation investments protect what their communities value
- Foster a better understanding of risks in order to support investment decisions, align risk reduction goals with programs and incentives, and simplify access to investment funds
- Assure that national stakeholders are participating in mitigation activities, especially decisions to enhance building codes and infrastructure standards and the use of financial products that link to mitigation.
Angela R. Gladwell, Deputy Assistant Administrator for the Risk Management Directorate within the Federal Insurance and Mitigation Administration, Federal Emergency Management Agency presents.
This study found that mulch did not influence understory plant diversity, species richness, or fractional ground cover. However, on mulched plots, tree seedlings grew taller faster, especially on north-facing aspects, and there was slightly more graminoid cover. Mulch did not affect overall tree seedling density, but there were fewer ponderosa pine (Pinus ponderosa Lawson & C. Lawson) and more Douglas-fir (Pseudotsuga menziesii [Mirb.] Franco) in mulched areas, especially on south-facing slopes.
View paper.
In this study, we evaluated associations between soil properties and gradients in sagebrush canopy structure in stands that had successfully reestablished after fire and subsequent seeding treatments. Using a dataset collected across the Great Basin, USA, of sagebrush stands that had burned and reestablished between 1986 and 2013, we tested soil depth and texture, soil surface classification, biological soil crusts plus mean historical precipitation, solar heatload, and fire history as modeling variables to explore gradients in sagebrush canopy structure growth in terms of cover, height, and density. Deeper soils were associated with greater sagebrush canopy structure development in terms of plant density and percent cover, coarser textured soils were associated with greater sagebrush cover and density, and more clayey soils were typically associated with greater height. Biological crust presence was also positively associated with enhanced sagebrush canopy growth, but adding more demographically or morphologically explicit descriptions of biocrust communities did not improve explanatory power. Increasing heatload had a negative effect on sagebrush canopy structure growth, and increased mean annual precipitation was only associated with greater sagebrush height. Given that conservation and restoration of the sagebrush steppe ecosystems has become a priority for land managers, the associations we identify between gradients in post‐fire sagebrush canopy structure growth and field‐identifiable soil characteristics may improve planning of land treatments for sagebrush restoration and the understanding of semi‐arid ecosystem functioning and post‐disturbance dynamics.
View paper.
To forestall loss of ecological values associated with forests, land managers need to consider where and when to prioritize active reforestation following major disturbance events. To aid this decision-making process, we summarize recent research findings pertaining to the Sierra Nevada region of California, USA to identify contexts in which active reforestation or passive recovery may best promote desirable post-fire ecological trajectories. Based on our synthesis, we suggest conceptual frameworks for assessing landscape conditions and determining areas that may be the highest priorities for tree planting to avoid persistent loss of conifer forests. Field studies have shown that some large patches of high severity burn can have relatively low levels of natural regeneration, especially among desired pine species. The accumulation of fuels and competition with shrubs and resprouting hardwoods may hinder the reestablishment of mature conifer trees. However, severe fires could also play a restorative role, by promoting non-conifer forested communities, such as meadows, shrubfields, and open forests with significant hardwood components. Such communities were historically rejuvenated and maintained by fire but have been replaced by conifer forest due in part to fire suppression. Reforestation in such areas may run counter to restoring ecological function and the ecosystem services that are provided by non-conifer communities. Through this framework, managers and stakeholders may better understand the contexts in which planting and passive recovery may better support ecological restoration.