Articles

Belowground plant traits, such as fine roots and belowground organs and buds, can play a crucial role in the response of grasslands to aridification.

The Fire Weather Alert System is designed to automatically warn on-the-ground wildland firefighters of dangerous weather conditions approaching their area and provide easy access to fire-relevant weather information.

With partnerships, a model, and maps, fire managers on the Oconee National Forest in Georgia doubled the acres treated with prescribed fire.

Does timber harvesting near a campsite cause campers to recreate elsewhere? This study suggests that yes, it does, and the decline in campsite use can last up to a year following the year of timber harvest operations.

Dr. Dave Calkin, a research forester at the USDA Forest Service Rocky Mountain Research Station, has been recognized for sustained excellence as a wildland fire scientist. Calkin accepted the Ember Award on May 17 at the 2023 International Wildland Fire Conference in Porto, Portugal. The International Association of Wildland Fire (IAWF) presents the prestigious award to recognize sustained achievement in wildland fire science.

Unmanned aerial systems (drones) hold the potential to characterize both traditional and less-traditional forest inventory metrics for restoring ponderosa pine forests.

Researchers and collaborators developed a method for using field plot data and lidar to map fuel loads across the Kaibab Plateau in Arizona.

The 2021 Forest Health Monitoring report includes short- and long-term forest health assessments from the continental U.S., Alaska, Hawaii, and the U.S. Caribbean territories. Specific chapters address status and trends in forest wildfire, drought, insect and disease effects, tree mortality, and satellite-detected canopy disturbance

The Forest Service, in cooperation with University of Idaho College of Natural Resources and Air Burners, Inc., co-hosted a demonstration of the brand new CharBoss®. Representatives from federal, state, local, and Tribal organizations were on-site to see the CharBoss® in action.

Forest biomass utilization is linked with federal, state, and local policies that govern what is used, how much is used, and the fate of the end product.

The Rocky Mountain Research Station co-leads a major state-wide connectivity conservation initiative in the Southwest.

In 1972, USDA Forest Service scientist Richard C. Rothermel published his pioneering fire modeling work. Fifty years later in 2022, it was commemorated as the most widely used tool for wildfire behavior modeling, not only in the US but throughout the world. The development of his model and the associated research was conducted in the 1960s and 1970s at the Forest Service Missoula Fire Sciences Laboratory. The “Rothermel Model” is embedded in dozens of computerized fire behavior systems used for fire management planning, training, and operational predictions.

Last year’s precipitation can impact how plants respond to rainfall this year. To better understand the importance of legacies of past precipitation on plant performance, we tested the impact of year-to-year changes in precipitation on current plant responses with the candidate biofuel species Panicum virgatum (switchgrass).

Growing seasons on U.S. rangelands are projected to decrease substantially by mid-to-late century.

Should wilderness be understood as primarily untrammeled or primarily natural, and what are the implications of this for the role of wilderness in 21st century conservation?

Severe drought and wildfires lead to rapid decline in mature conifers in Sierra Nevada forests.

Development, physiological mechanisms, fitness consequences, and phylogenetic history offer different perspectives on why phenological differences between males and females exist.

Clonal growth of the invasive smooth brome is greater than the native western wheatgrass except under the most intermittent precipitation climate change scenario.

Herbicide resistance is most likely to develop in annual plant species with persistent seed banks occurring outside of riparian or wetland areas.

Understanding the public health benefits and costs of prescribed fire.