Assessing fuels treatment impacts for wildfire risk, forest carbon, and wildlife habitat

Increasing wildfire severity in the western U.S. threatens human health and safety, ecological functioning, and economies. Fuels treatments, such as prescribed burning and mechanical thinning, aim to reduce wildfire severity but are controversial due to potential or perceived trade-offs between wildfire risk reduction and ecosystem services. To facilitate science-based management, land managers urgently need evidence on fuels treatment effectiveness for multiple outcomes. We will advance this evidence base by addressing important aspects of the question: How do fuels treatments impact multiple management objectives, such as wildfire risk reduction and ecosystem services, at landscape scales? 

We will inform best management practices by quantifying the effect of fuels treatment practices on subsequent wildfire severity, carbon storage, and wildlife habitat quality. We will also assess how treatment efficacy varies with treatment type and environmental characteristics to identify conditions that minimize trade-offs in outcomes. We will focus our analysis on forests in Colorado and Forest Service Region 2 given a sufficient sample of treated areas affected by subsequent wildfire, and a committed network of stakeholders. We will overcome challenges in monitoring and evaluation of fuels treatments for multiple objectives through a novel integration of remote sensing and econometrics, enabling more strategic fuels treatments that minimize tradeoffs between outcomes.