Fire Ecology

Fire plays an important role in most forests and grasslands in the United States. But climate change and past management actions such as fire suppression, grazing, and the introduction of non-native species have drastically altered how fire affects these ecosystems. These changes impact everything from fire behavior and smoke to biotic disturbances that interact with wildland fire, such as bark beetle outbreaks. Research at the USDA Forest Service Rocky Mountain Research Station focuses on the fundamental knowledge of fire effects and ecology in fire-dependent ecosystems, products and tools related to fuels and vegetation management, strategies to support ecosystem restoration, and accurate forecasting of future conditions. 

Featured Work

Restoring fire prone forests

• Long-term forest studies—and the photographs taken at these sites —help us understand how different types of fire and other forest management affect the trajectory of forests. This Science You Can Use — in Photos brings together what we know about fire and fuel treatments in dry conifer forests across the western United States.

High-severity fire

• New research helps describe how severe wildfire can reshape the soil microbiome and impact soil health and forest regeneration.
• More high-severity wildfire is occurring in the western United States and affecting people and forests in challenging ways. A comprehensive review of fuel treatment research shows that returning low-severity fire through fuel treatments is an effective way to reduce high-severity fire.
• When, where, and why are severe wildfires likely to occur and how do they lead to forest conversion? Research informs these questions, and explores the possibility of profound and persistent ecological change across forested ecosystems.

Fire refugia

• Scientists took a close look at where fire refugia, forested locations that are burned less frequently or severely than their surrounding, occur on a given landscape. Recently published research sheds light on the factors that influence where tree survival and recruitment are likely.

Fire in ecosystems of concern

• Sonoran desert scrub communities, home to the iconic saguaro cactus, are vulnerable to frequent large or severe wildfires and may not recover for centuries, if at all. Recent publications by Rocky Mountain Research Station ecologists discuss how desert plants respond to fires, and how big, how often, and how hot fires burn in this ecosystem.
• Whitebark pine depend on fire but are also easily killed by fire. A new fact sheet details important considerations when using prescribed burns and mechanical fuel treatments to help restore whitebark pine forests.
• A webinar and Science You Can Use Bulletin give an overview of science-based management solutions to increase the resilience of high-elevation 5-needle pine forests to climate change, pests, and pathogens.