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The North American tree-ring fire-scar network

Publications Posted on: July 20, 2022
Fire regimes in North American forests are diverse and modern fire records are often too short to capture important patterns, trends, feedbacks, and drivers of variability. Tree-ring fire scars provide valuable perspectives on fire regimes, including centuries-long records of fire year, season, frequency, severity, and size.

SRRT: A decision support tool to inform postfire reforestation of ponderosa pine and Douglas-fir in the southern Rocky Mountains

Publications Posted on: July 14, 2022
Recent increases in area burned, combined with poor natural regeneration in some areas, have promoted concerns about widespread forest losses throughout the western U.S. Postfire reforestation is one strategy commonly employed by land managers and land owners to facilitate forest recovery, but the area in need of planting only becomes larger each year.

Transforming wildfire governance to improve adaption to wildfire: Using a complex risk approach to inform wildfire management

Science Spotlights Posted on: May 11, 2022
Following Indigenous fire management of land across the world, wildland fire management has primarily operated under a simple risk paradigm that emphasizes minimizing costs associated with hazards and their management, effectively focusing on loss prevention. While important, focusing resources primarily on this approach alone is not addressing contemporary wildfire risk. To address the complexity of wildfire more effectively, this paper proposes broadening the approach to wildland fire risk in a way that treats wildfire as a complex risk—explicitly accounting for the dynamic nature of wildfire risk in a way that is inclusive, just, and dynamic.

Geoenvironmental impacts of post-wildfire hillslope stabilization with xanthan gum and polyacrylamide

Publications Posted on: May 05, 2022
Wildfire-burnt hillslopes are vulnerable to erosion, precipitation-induced landslides, and debris flows. Xanthan gum (XG) and polyacrylamide (PAM) were recently shown as attractive alternatives for controlling surface erosion. However, their mobility on the hillslopes or effects on downstream waters are unknown. This study showed that after three wet-dry cycles, vertical movement of XG and PAM into the soil with rainfall is possible.

Prescribed fire limits wildfire severity without altering ecological importance for birds

Publications Posted on: May 05, 2022
Fire suppression and anthropogenic land use have increased severity of wildfire in western U.S. dry conifer forests. Managers use fuels reduction methods (e.g., prescribed fire) to limit high-severity wildfire and restore ecological function to these fire-adapted forests. Many avian species that evolved in these forests, however, are adapted to conditions created by high-severity wildfire.

Ain’t No Mountain High Enough: Why fires are climbing higher than ever before due to increased western aridity

Science Spotlights Posted on: April 28, 2022
Fires are burning higher and broader. Increases in burned area and altogether larger fire occurrences have been noted throughout the past half-century within western regions of the United States. The key word in all of this: higher. Recent collaborative research by Rocky Mountain Research Station, McGill University, University of California, and Boise State University focuses on the elevational distribution amongst forest fires in mountainous areas of the western United States—showing unique and unprecedented burned forest rates in areas above 2,500 m (8,200 ft) from 1984 to 2017.​​

Science Supporting the Wildfire Crisis Strategy

Pages Posted on: April 22, 2022
The Woolsey Fire seen from Topanga, California.</body></html>

Climate-induced fire regime amplification in Alberta, Canada

Publications Posted on: April 22, 2022
Acting as a top-down control on fire activity, climate strongly affects wildfire in North American ecosystems through fuel moisture and ignitions. Departures from historical fire regimes due to climate change have significant implications for the structure and composition of boreal forests, as well as fire management and operations.

Adaptation strategies and approaches for managing fire in a changing climate

Publications Posted on: April 21, 2022
As the effects of climate change accumulate and intensify, resource managers juggle existing goals and new mandates to operationalize adaptation. Fire managers contend with the direct effects of climate change on resources in addition to climate-induced disruptions to fire regimes and subsequent ecosystem effects.

Hydroclimatic conditions, wildfire, and species assemblages influence co‐occurrence of bull trout and tailed frogs in northern Rocky Mountain streams

Publications Posted on: April 05, 2022
Although bull trout (Salvelinus confluentus) and tailed frogs (Ascaphus montanus) have coexisted in forested Pacific Northwest streams for millennia, these iconic cold‐water specialists are experiencing rapid environmental change caused by a warming climate and enhanced wildfire activity. Our goal was to inform future conservation by examining the habitat associations of each species and conditions that facilitate co‐occupancy.

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