Post-fire Environment & Management
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In the weeks following the 2022 Cedar Creek Fire, an Interagency Burned Area Emergency Response (BAER) team was mobilized to identify and mitigate risks to human life and safety and critical water resources in the surrounding communities, including Oakridge, Oregon. During their assessment, the BAER team used a field guide developed by the Rocky Mountain Research Station to create a soil burn severity map and identify areas prone to elevated erosion. Their field work led to quick assessment of potential harm to water quality in Waldo Lake.
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Native species that are abundant and persistent across disturbance-succession cycles can affect recovery and restoration of plant communities, especially in drylands. In the sagebrush-steppe deserts of North America, restoring deep-rooted perennial bunchgrasses (DRPBGs) is key to the strategy for breaking an increasingly problematic cycle of wildfire promoted by exotic annual grasses (EAGs) and displacement of perennials by post-fire increases in EAGs. We asked how Sandberg bluegrass (Poa secunda)—a common native grass that shares traits with EAGs such as resilience to disturbance and rapid, shallow-rooted, early season growth—(1) recovered after wildfire, (2) responded to different combinations of native-plant seedings of DRPBGs and EAG-targeting herbicides; and (3) in turn, related to DRPBG recovery.
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Fuels, pre-fire weather, and topography were important predictors of burn severity, although predictor importance varied between fires. Post-fire debris-flow hazard rankings from predicted burn severity (pre-fire) were similar to hazard assessments based on observed burn severity (post-fire).
Rising from Ashes: A Tribe’s Nature-based Approach to Watershed Restoration will highlight an innovative and iconic case study in public and private collaboration on sovereign tribal lands following a series of catastrophic wildfires. Given the increasing frequency of these fires, there is a vital need to mitigate destruction through preemptive nature-based restoration practices before disaster strikes. By collaborating with federal agencies and other partners to incorporate indigenous knowledge and values into the recovery planning process, the Santa Clara Pueblo is working to achieve long-term, sustainable resiliency of the watershed.
The purpose of this Stewardship in Action Field Workshop is not simply to share what was learned by the Santa Clara Pueblo and their many partners, but also to engage land and water management practitioners from tribal nations, federal and state agencies, and nonprofit organizations from around the continent to share information and leverage success for the benefit of local communities.
The agenda features three days of content featuring both indoor presentations and field experiences. Sessions will explore public and private collaboration on sovereign tribal lands, process-based restoration and watershed resilience, forestry and fire management, sediment stabilization, native plant restoration, indigenous knowledge, nature-based solutions, and preparing for future climate impacts by working together.
Conference website.
Save the Date. Conference will be in Estes Park, CO
Over the last 38 years, wildfires have burned an average of 5.2 million acres annually in the United States. Much of the cost of recovery and restoration is borne by state and local entities and those residents and businesses who live and work in and around the fire scar. There are communities across the county that have been working hard on improving how we live better with fire for many years, yet the work has been especially slow within the post-fire sector.
Webinar registration.
Parts of the western U.S., like southern California and Colorado, have a history of damaging debris flows after wildfire. Other regions are facing new postfire risks due to expanded wildfire activity. After a wildfire, emergency managers need rapid answers to the questions: Where in the burn area are debris flows likely? How much rain will it take to cause a problem? And how big will that problem be?
Using examples of recent postfire events, Jason Kean will describe how the U.S. Geological Survey and its partners work to answer those questions. He will also discuss current research to improve debris-flow hazard assessments with new tools to answer the questions: Where will debris flows will travel? How long it will take the burn area to recover? And what are the risks to future fires?
Webinar recording.
The Wildfire Ready Watersheds Program provides guidance to help predict where and what post-fire impacts will be felt in local communities. The program provides a detailed work plan that community groups can use to refine and add detail to the study in ways that reflect local priorities and values. Importantly, the Wildfire Ready Watersheds Program also provides guidance on actions that may be taken to reduce the impact of these post-fire hazards on infrastructure and natural resources – both before, and after, a wildfire occurs. The Wildfire Ready Watershed Program hopes to support pre-and post-wildfire planning and response efforts in your community.
Webinar recordings.
Monday, May 15, SCIENCE x Planning for Forests of the Future: Resources Planning Act – Forest Resources and Disturbance
• RPA Overview, presented by Claire O’Dea (recorded session)
• Forest Resources, Current and Future, presented by John Coulston
• Recent and future trends in disturbances to forests and rangelands across the conterminous U.S., presented by Jennifer Costanza
Tuesday, May 16, SCIENCE x Planning for Forests of the Future: Resources Planning Act – Forest Products and Water Resources
• RPA Overview, presented by Claire O’Dea (recorded session)
• Forest Products Markets, presented by Jeff Prestemon
• Current and future projections of water use and supply in the United States, presented by Travis Warziniack
Wednesday, May 17 SCIENCE x Planning for Forests of the Future: Resources Planning Act – Rangeland Resources and Biodiversity
• RPA Overview, presented by Claire O’Dea (recorded session)
• The 2020 Rangeland Assessment, presented by Matt Reeves
• Patterns and threats to biological diversity across the United States: Focusing on land use and climate change, presented by Becky Flitcroft
Thursday, May 18 SCIENCE x Planning for Forests of the Future: Resources Planning Act – Land Resources and Outdoor Recreation
• RPA Overview, presented by Claire O’Dea (recorded session)
• The past and future of land resources: foundations for the 2020 RPA Assessment, presented by Kurt Riitters
• Outdoor recreation participation in in the U.S. in 2040 and 2070, presented by Eric White
Friday, May 19 SCIENCE x Planning for Forests of the Future: National Report on Sustainable Forests
• USDA Forest Service National Reporting on Forest Sustainability: Observations and Program Overview, presented by Guy Robertson
• Key Findings from the 2020 National Report on Sustainable Forests, presented by Lara Murray
• The Montréal Process: a voluntary international agreement to measure, monitor and make progress on forest conservation and sustainable management, presented by Kathleen McGinley
Webinar recording.
Description: The greater Flagstaff area in northern Arizona has experienced multiple wildfires in recent years that have resulted in post-wildfire flooding. These events galvanized collaborative efforts to reduce hazardous fuels on steep slopes and implement flood mitigation improvements around the city and in the municipal watershed. In this presentation, the 2019 Museum Fire provides a case study for better understanding how the cascading disturbances of wildfire and post-wildfire flooding, which can be further compounded by adjacent disturbances like monsoon-related flooding, impact the public and how residents are informed of, perceive, and respond to these risks. This webinar examines findings from two household surveys: one conducted in 2019 immediately following the Museum Fire, and a follow-up survey conducted in 2022 following flooding associated with the burn scar and monsoonal events. The research presented provides insights into public experiences with and perceptions of wildfires, post-wildfire flooding, and forest management more broadly over time, and offers suggestions for improving the exchange of information between and among agencies and the public to facilitate mutual understanding and enhance adaptive capacity for future wildfires and flood events.
Presenters: Melanie Colavito, PhD, Director of Policy and Communications, ERI at NAU; Niki vonHedemann, PhD, Senior Research Coordinator and Human Dimensions Specialist, ERI at NAU; and Catrin Edgeley, PhD, Assistant Professor, School of Forestry at NAU
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Postfire regeneration is sensitive to high-severity fire, which limits seed availability, and postfire climate, which influences seedling establishment. In the near-term, projected differences in recruitment probability between low- and high-severity fire scenarios were larger than projected climate change impacts for most species, suggesting that reductions in fire severity, and resultant impacts on seed availability, could partially offset expected climate-driven declines in postfire regeneration. Across 40 to 42% of the study area, we project postfire conifer regeneration to be likely following low-severity but not high-severity fire under future climate scenarios (2031 to
2050). However, increasingly warm, dry climate conditions are projected to eventually outweigh the influence of fire severity and seed availability. The percent of the study area considered unlikely to experience conifer regeneration, regardless of fire severity, increased from 5% in 1981 to 2000 to 26 to 31% by mid-century, highlighting a limited time window over which management actions that reduce fire severity may effectively support
postfire conifer regeneration.