Karen C. Short, PhD

Research Ecologist

Rocky Mountain Research Station

0000-0002-3383-0460

karen.c.short@usda.gov

Publications & Products
Related
Education

Treesearch Publications

Rochelle P. Worsnop, Andrew Hoell, Benjamin J. Hatchett, Teresa B. Chapman, Melissa L. Breeden, Zach Tolby, Karen C. Short, Mike Hobbins. 2026. Characterizing windows of opportunity for prescribed pile and broadcast burning in Northern California
Gavin D. Madakumbura, A. Park Williams, Karen C. Short, Max A. Moritz, Bowen Wang, Caroline S. Juang. 2026. Evolving fire frequency in the western United States and its links to human influence
Amirhossein Montazeri, John Abatzoglou, Jeffrey P. Prestemon, Karen C. Short, Erin J. Belval, Zachary Holden, Jennifer Pierce, Jodi Mead, Yavar Pourmohamad, Ata Akbari Asanjan, Mojtaba Sadegh. 2026. Spatial and temporal changes in wildfires and their attributes across the western United States
Jeffrey P. Prestemon, Shannon Kay, Jennifer Costanza, Linda A. Joyce, Karin Riley, Karen C. Short, Erin J. Belval, Bruno Kanieski da Silva, Prakash Nepal, Jeffrey T. Morisette. 2026. Wildfire, Suppression, and Federal Spending, 2020–2100
Yavar Pourmohamad, John T. Abatzoglou, Erica Fleishman, Erin J. Belval, Karen C. Short, Matthew Williamson, Michael Perlmutter, Seyd Teymoor Seydi, Mojtaba Sadegh. 2026. Predictive understanding of wildfire ignitions across the western United States
Megan R. Dolman, Karen C. Short, Jodi S. Brandt, Mark A. Finney, T. Trevor Caughlin, Megan E. Cattau. 2026. Recreation and firearms use as an emerging wildfire risk on western United States National Conservation Lands
A. Park Williams, Caroline S. Juang, Karen C. Short. 2025. The Western United States MTBS-Interagency database of large wildfires, 1984-2024 (WUMI2024a)
Michelle A. Day, Claire Tortorelli, Lisa M. Ellsworth, Karen C. Short, Jessi L. Brown, Sofia Koutzoukis, Julia Olszewski, Alan Ager, Jeanne C. Chambers. 2025. Optimizing woody fuel treatments to reduce wildfire risk to sagebrush ecosystems in the Great Basin of the western US
Sylvia Kantor, Jeanne C. Chambers, Duncan Leao, Jessica L. Brown, Brice Hanberry, Matt C. Reeves, Karen C. Short, Claire Tortorelli, Alexandra K. Urza. 2025. Right fuel treatment, right place: Managing wildfire in sagebrush country
Adam L. Jorge, John T. Abatzoglou, Erica Fleishman, Emily L. Williams, David E. Rupp, Jeffrey S. Jenkins, Mojtaba Sadegh, Crystal A. Kolden, Karen C. Short. 2025. COVID‐19 fueled an elevated number of human‐caused ignitions in the western United States during the 2020 wildfire season
Yavar Pourmohamad, John T. Abatzoglou, Erica Fleishman, Karen C. Short, Jacquelyn Shuman, Amir AghaKouchak, Matthew Williamson, Seyd Teymoor Seydi, Mojtaba Sadegh. 2025. Inference of wildfire causes from their physical, biological, social and management attributes
Thomas A. Bridges-Lyman, Jessi L. Brown, Jeanne C. Chambers, Lisa M. Ellsworth, Matthew C. Reeves, Karen C. Short, Eva K. Strand, Michael H. Taylor. 2024. Evaluating the economic efficiency of fuel reduction treatments in sagebrush ecosystems that vary in ecological resilience and invasion resistance
Michele R. Crist, Karen C. Short, Todd B. Cross, Kevin Doherty, Julia Olszewski. 2024. Will it burn? Characterizing wildfire risk for the Sagebrush Conservation Design
Andrina Gincheva, Juli G. Pausas, Andrew Edwards, Antonello Provenzale, Artemi Cerda, Chelene Hanes, Dominic Roye, Emilio Chuvieco, Florent Mouillot, Gabriele Vissio, Jesus Rodrigo, Joaquin Bedia, John T. Abatzoglou, Jose Maria Senciales Gonzalez, Karen C. Short, Mara Baudena, Maria Carmen Llasat, Marta Magnani, Matthias M. Boer, Mauro E. Gonalez, Miguel Angel Torres-Vazquez, Paolo Fiorucci, Peter Jacklyn, Renata Libonati, Ricardo M. Trigo, Sixto Herrera, Sonia Jerez, Xianli Wang, Marco Turco. 2024. A monthly gridded burned area database of national wildland fire data
Alexandra K. Urza, David Board, John B. Bradford, Jessi L. Brown, Jeanne C. Chambers, Daniel R. Schlaepfer, Karen C. Short. 2024. Disentangling drivers of annual grass invasion: Abiotic susceptibility vs. fire-induced conversion to cheatgrass dominance in the sagebrush biome
Yavar Pourmohamad, John T. Abatzoglou, Erin J. Belval, Erica Fleishman, Karen C. Short, Matt C. Reeves, Nicholas Nauslar, Philip E. Higuera, Eric Henderson, Sawyer Ball, Amir AghaKouchak, Jeffrey P. Prestemon, Julia Olszewski, Mojtaba Sadegh. 2024. Physical, social, and biological attributes for improved understanding and prediction of wildfires: FPA FOD-Attributes dataset
Jeffrey P. Prestemon, Erin J. Belval, Jennifer Costanza, Jeffrey T. Morisette, Karin Riley, Shannon Kay, Karen C. Short, Bruno Kanieski da Silva. 2024. Climate financial risk: the federal government's exposure to financial risk due to climate change
Jeanne C. Chambers, Eva K. Strand, Lisa M. Ellsworth, Claire Tortorelli, Alexandra K. Urza, Michele R. Crist, Richard F. Miller, Matt C. Reeves, Karen C. Short, Claire L. Williams. 2024. Review of fuel treatment effects on fuels, fire behavior and ecological resilience in sagebrush (Artemisia spp.) ecosystems in the Western U.S.
Martin C. Holdrege, Daniel R. Schlaepfer, Kyle A. Palmquist, Michele Crist, Kevin E. Doherty, William K. Lauenroth, Thomas E. Remington, Karin Riley, Karen C. Short, John C. Tull, Lief A. Wiechman, John B. Bradford. 2024. Wildfire probability estimated from recent climate and fine fuels across the big sagebrush region
Molly C. Daniels, Kristin H. Braziunas, Monica G. Turner, Ting-Fung Ma, Karen C. Short, Adena R. Rissman. 2024. Multiple social and environmental factors affect wildland fire response of full or less-than-full suppression
Dung Nguyen, Erin J. Belval, Yu Wei, Karen C. Short, Dave E. Calkin. 2024. Dataset of United States Incident Management Situation Reports from 2007 to 2021
Jeanne C. Chambers, Jessi L. Brown, Matt C. Reeves, Eva K. Strand, Lisa M. Ellsworth, Claire Tortorelli, Alexandra K. Urza, Karen C. Short. 2024. Fuel treatment response groups for fire‑prone sagebrush landscapes
Lise A. St. Denis, Karen C. Short, Kathryn McConnell, Maxwell C. Cook, Nathan P. Mietkiewicz, Mollie Buckland, Jennifer K. Balch. 2023. All-hazards dataset mined from the US National Incident Management System 1999-2020
Jeanne C. Chambers, Jessi L. Brown, John B. Bradford, Kevin E. Doherty, Michele R. Crist, Daniel R. Schlaepfer, Alexandra K. Urza, Karen C. Short. 2023. Combining resilience and resistance with threat-based approaches for prioritizing management actions in sagebrush ecosystems
Bradley Pietruszka, Jesse D. Young, Karen C. Short, Lise A. St. Denis, Matthew P. Thompson, Dave E. Calkin. 2023. Consequential lightning‑caused wildfires and the “let burn” narrative
Claire L. Williams, Lisa M. Ellsworth, Eva K. Strand, Matt C. Reeves, Scott E. Shaff, Karen C. Short, Jeanne C. Chambers, Beth A. Newingham, Claire Tortorelli. 2023. Fuel treatments in shrublands experiencing pinyon and juniper expansion result in trade‑offs between desired vegetation and increased fire behavior
Nadine Borduas-Dedekind, Karen C. Short, Samuel P. Carlson. 2023. Journals with open-discussion forums are excellent educational resources for peer review training exercises
Karen C. Short, Mark A. Finney. 2022. Agency records of wildfires caused by firearms use in the United States
Jeffrey P. Prestemon, Erin J. Belval, Sara H. Brown, Jennifer Costanza, Linda A. Joyce, Shannon Kay, Mark Lichtenstein, Jeffrey T. Morisette, Karin Riley, Karen C. Short. 2022. Climate risk exposure: An assessment of the Federal Government's financial risks to climate change
Erin J. Belval, Karen C. Short, Crystal S. Stonesifer, Dave E. Calkin. 2022. A historical perspective to inform strategic planning for 2020 end-of-year wildland fire response efforts
William M. Downing, Christopher J. Dunn, Matthew P. Thompson, Michael D. Caggiano, Karen C. Short. 2022. Human ignitions on private lands drive USFS cross‑boundary wildfire transmission and community impacts in the western US
Benjamin M. Gannon, Yu Wei, Matthew P. Thompson, Joe H. Scott, Karen C. Short. 2022. System analysis of wildfire-water supply risk in Colorado, USA with Monte Carlo wildfire and rainfall simulation
Alan Ager, Michelle A. Day, Fermin J. Alcasena, Cody R. Evers, Karen C. Short, Isaac C. Grenfell. 2021. Predicting Paradise: Modeling future wildfire disasters in the western US
Karen C. Short, Marty Ahrens, Sarah Harris, Jesus San-Miguel-Ayanz. 2020. Fire data
Lise A. St. Denis, Nathan P. Mietkiewicz, Karen C. Short, Mollie Buckland, Jennifer K. Balch. 2020. All-hazards dataset mined from the US National Incident Management System 1999-2014
Katharine Haynes, Karen C. Short, Gavriil Xanthopoulos, Domingos Viegas, Luis Mario Ribeiro, Raphaele Blanchi. 2020. Wildfires and WUI fire fatalities
Marc-Andre Parisien, Alan Ager, Ana M. Barros, Denyse Dawe, Sandy Erni, Mark A. Finney, Charles W. McHugh, Carol L. Miller, Sean A. Parks, Karin Riley, Karen C. Short, Christopher A. Stockdale, Xianli Wang, Ellen Whitman. 2020. Commentary on the article “Burn probability simulation and subsequent wildland fire activity in Alberta, Canada - Implications for risk assessment and strategic planning” by J. L. Beverly and N. McLoughlin
Dave E. Calkin, Karen C. Short, Meg Traci. 2019. California wildfires [Chapter 7]
Alan Ager, Palaiologos Palaiologou, Cody R. Evers, Michelle A. Day, Chris Ringo, Karen C. Short. 2019. Wildfire exposure to the wildland urban interface in the western US
Karin Riley, A. Park Williams, Shawn P. Urbanski, Dave E. Calkin, Karen C. Short, Christopher D. O'Connor. 2019. Will landscape fire increase in the future? A systems approach to climate, fire, fuel, and human drivers
Christine S. Olsen, Jeffrey D. Kline, Alan Ager, Keith A. Olsen, Karen C. Short. 2017. Examining the influence of biophysical conditions on wildland-urban interface homeowners' wildfire risk mitigation activities in fire-prone landscapes
Alan Ager, Michelle A. Day, Karen C. Short, Cody R. Evers. 2016. Assessing the impacts of federal forest planning on wildfire risk-mitigation in the Pacific Northwest, USA
Matthew P. Thompson, Jessica R. Haas, Mark A. Finney, Dave E. Calkin, Michael Hand, Mark J. Browne, Martin Halek, Karen C. Short, Isaac C. Grenfell. 2015. Development and application of a probabilistic method for wildfire suppression cost modeling
Karen C. Short. 2015. Sources and implications of bias and uncertainty in a century of US wildfire activity data
Alan Ager, Michelle A. Day, Charles W. McHugh, Karen C. Short, Julie Gilbertson-Day, Mark A. Finney, Dave E. Calkin. 2014. Wildfire exposure and fuel management on western US national forests
Karen C. Short. 2014. A spatial database of wildfires in the United States, 1992-2011
Karen C. Short. 2013. A spatial database of wildfires in the United States, 1992-2011 [Discussions]
Matthew P. Thompson, David E. Calkin, Jason Herynk, Charles W. McHugh, Karen C. Short. 2012. Airtankers and wildfire management in the US Forest Service: Examining data availability and exploring usage and cost trends
James E. Vogelmann, Jay R. Kost, Brian Tolk, Stephen Howard, Karen C. Short, Xuexia Chen, Chengquan Huang, Kari Pabst, Matthew G. Rollins. 2011. Monitoring landscape change for LANDFIRE using multi-temporal satellite imagery and ancillary data
Mark A. Finney, Charles W. McHugh, Isaac C. Grenfell, Karin Riley, Karen C. Short. 2011. A simulation of probabilistic wildfire risk components for the continental United States
Chris Toney, Matthew G. Rollins, Karen C. Short, Tracey Frescino, Ronald Tymcio, Birgit Peterson. 2007. Use of FIA plot data in the LANDFIRE project

Citations of Non-Forest Service Publications

Short, Karen C. 2021. Spatial wildfire occurrence data for the United States, 1992-2018 [FPA_FOD_20210617]. 5th Edition. Fort Collins, CO: Forest Service Research Data Archive. https://doi.org/10.2737/RDS-2013-0009.5
Short, Karen C.; Finney, Mark A.; Vogler, Kevin C; Scott, Joe H.; Gilbertson-Day, Julie W.; Grenfell, Isaac C. 2020. Spatial dataset of probabilistic wildfire risk components for the conterminous United States (270m) (2nd Edition). Fort Collins, CO: Forest Service Research Data Archive. https://www.fs.usda.gov/rds/archive/catalog/RDS-2016-0034-2
Short, Karen C.; Grenfell, Isaac C.; Riley, Karin L.; Vogler, Kevin C. 2020. Pyromes of the conterminous United States. Fort Collins, CO: Forest Service Research Data Archive. https://doi.org/10.2737/RDS-2020-0020
Short, K., Ahrens, M., Harris, S., San-Miguel-Ayanz, J. 2020. Fire data. In: Manzello, S.L, ed. Encyclopedia of Wildfires and Wildland-Urban Interface (WUI) Fires. Cham, Switzerland: Springer. 23p
Haynes, K., Short, K., Xanthopoulos, G., Viegas, D., Ribeiro, L.M., Blanchi, R. 2020. Wildfires and WUI fire fatalities. In Manzello, S.L. ed., Encyclopedia of Wildfires and Wildland-Urban Interface (WUI) Fires. Cham, Switzerland: Springer. 16p.
Calkin, D.E., Short, K.C., Traci. M. 2019. California wildfires [Chapter 7]. In: Rubin, C. B., and S. L. Cutter, eds., From Disaster to Catastrophe: U.S. Emergency Management in the 21^st Century. CRC Press, Boca Raton, FL. P. 155-182.
Olsen, C.S., Kline, J.D., Ager, A.A., Olsen, K.A., Short, K.C. 2017. Examining the influence of biophysical conditions on wildland-urban interface homeowners' wildfire risk mitigation activities in fire-prone landscapes. Ecology and Society 2:21.
Ager, A.A., Day, M.A., Short, K.C., Evers, C.R. 2016. Assessing the impacts of federal forest planning on wildfire risk-mitigation in the Pacific Northwest, USA. Landscape and Urban Planning 147:1-17.
Thompson, M.P., Haas, J.R., Finney, M.A., Calkin, D.E., Hand, M.S., Browne, M.J., M. Halek, M., Short, K.C., Grenfell, I.C. 2015. Development and application of a probabilistic method for wildfire suppression cost modeling. Forest Policy and Economics 50:249-258.
Ager, A.A., Day, M.A., McHugh, C.W., Short, K., Gilbertson-Day, J., Finney, M.A., Calkin, D.E. 2014. Wildfire exposure and fuel management on western US national forests. Journal of Environmental Management 145:54-70.
Thompson, M.P., Calkin, D.E., Herynk, J., Short, K.C., McHugh, C.W. 2012. Airtankers and wildfire management in the US Forest Service: examining data availability and exploring usage and cost trends. International Journal of Wildland Fire 22:22-233
Vogelmann, J.E., Kost, J.R., Tolk, B., Howard, S., Short, K., Chen, X., Huang, C., Pabst, K., Rollins, M. 2011. Monitoring landscape change for fire science investigation using multi-temporal satellite imagery. IEEE Journal of Selected Topics in Applied Earth Observations and Remote Sensing (Special Issue on Multi-temporal Imagery Analysis: Methods and Applications for Earth Observation) 4:252-264.
Toney, C., Rollins, M., Short, K., Frescino, T., Tymcio, R., Peterson, B. 2007. Use of FIA plot data in the LANDFIRE project. Pp. 309-319 in McRoberts, R. E., Reams, G. A., Van Deusen, P. C., McWilliams, W. H., eds. Proceedings of the seventh annual forest inventory and analysis symposium, 3-6 October 2005, Portland, OR. Gen. Tech. Rep. WO-77. Washington, DC: U.S. Department of Agriculture, Forest Service: 309-319.
Kost, J.R., Peterson, B., Short, K. 2006. Use of pseudo-plot data for supplementing existing field data for training decision-tree vegetation models. In Proceedings of the RS 2006 Eleventh Biennial Forest Service Remote Sensing Applications Conference, April 2006, Salt Lake City, UT. CD-ROM.
Short, K., Negron, J. 2003. Arthropod responses: a functional approach. Pp. 286-305 in P. Friederici, ed. Ecological Restoration of Southwestern Ponderosa Pine Forests. Island Press, Covelo, CA.
Borduas-Dedekind, Nadine; Short, Karen C.; Carlson, Samuel P. 2023. Journals with open-discussion forums are excellent educational resources for peer review training exercises. Earth System Science Data. 15: 1437-1440.