Treesearch

The Wildfire Risk to Communities website (https://wildfirerisk.org/) is a one-stop resource where citizens and community leaders can assess the wildfire risk of their area and find resources to reduce the risk.

Potential Operational Delineations (PODs) is a spatial wildfire planning framework that brings together operational fire responses and landscape management goals from Forest Planning documents. It was developed by scientists at the Rocky Mountain Research Station (RMRS) Wildfire Risk Management Science Team, Colorado Forest Restoration Institute (CFRI) and Oregon State University College of Forestry, and forest and fire managers.

In the western United States, many forests that had adapted to survive frequent fire look much different than they used to. Past and current management practices ranging from fire exclusion to timber harvesting and grazing have altered species composition and left forests with greater tree density. These changes leave extensive areas vulnerable to uncharacteristic high-intensity wildfire killing trees that had survived fires over centuries. How can we restore ponderosa pine-dominated forests today to make them more resilient to future fires especially given this quandary: no one alive...

Due to generally dry conditions of the central Rocky Mountain’s Front Range, morphological characteristics are a more reliable predictor of tree age than diameter at breast height (dbh). Older trees (> 150 years old) have morphological characteristics that include a high crown base height, large branches, a flattened crown, and orange smooth bark. Morphological characteristics of younger trees (< 150 years old) include a low crown base height, small branches, a pointed crown, and black, rough bark. Transitional trees, those with characteristics of both older and younger trees, were usually...

Dan McCollum, a research economist with the Rocky Mountain Research Station, recently co-authored a related article titled “Bark Beetle Infestation of Western U.S. Forests: A Context for Assessing and Evaluating Impacts.” Published in the March 2019 issue of Journal of Forestry, the article uses bark beetles as an example to describe an “overall impact” evaluation approach for complex disturbance events. According to the article, effective evaluations consider the interactions and feedbacks between ecological factors and socioeconomic factors, as well as between direct and indirect...

Seeding an area after a fire has long been used to control erosion and suppress problem invasive grasses like cheatgrass. But for managers, choosing the right seed mix to use can be tricky. Seed mixes containing only native species are ideal for areas where natural vegetation recovery is a long-term objective, but there is a question of both cost and whether native species will be as effective as nonnatives in outcompeting invasive species.

For a land type that covers relatively little area, riparian areas and groundwater-dependent ecosystems are an extremely important component of healthy watersheds and ecological function. Yet over the past few centuries, many of these areas have been stressed by a wide range of land uses. Restoring them can be complex, expensive, and even unpopular. In the Intermountain West, National Forests often provide more range than timber, making riparian areas and groundwater-dependent ecosystems both valuable and vulnerable. Additionally, more information on these systems is typically needed for...

The eDNAtlas contains over 15,000 samples from the Western and Eastern United States. Because the samples are archived, biologists can later test the samples for the presence of other species. The use of eDNA to confirm the absence or presence of a species is valuable when determining the success of a habitat restoration project, assessing the presence of federally listed species, or evaluating local distributions.

The most arid region of the United States - the Southwest - is expected to become even warmer and drier in the future as the climate changes, according to several global climate models. The USDA Forest Service and its partners need information about the potential effects of a changing climate so that adaptation strategies can be developed for people and ecosystems.

Increasing the sagebrush habitat in the Great Basin Ecoregion remains a management concern for the agencies and conservation organizations within this region. Large-scale removal of the pinyon-juniper woodlands is one method for achieving this objective, particularly in the greater sage grouse (Centrocercus urophasianus) priority areas for conservation (PACs). However, there’s concern that removal of these woodlands will result in a loss of habitat for pinyon-juniper associated bird species to the benefit of sagebrush associated bird species.