Treesearch

Mastication is the process of chipping or shredding components of the tree canopy or above-ground vegetation to reduce the canopy, alter fire spread rates, and reduce crown fire potential. Mastication as a fuel treatment, either alone or in combination with prescribed fire, has been the subject of much research. This research has shown that modeling expected fire behavior in these fuels is challenging. Masticated materials from different ecosystems are unique and may react differently to fire. Therefore, there are no standard guidelines to help managers understand the potential fire...

Genetic resources have to be managed appropriately to mitigate the impact of climate change. For many wildland plants, conservation will require knowledge of the climatic factors affecting intraspecific genetic variation to minimize maladaptation. Knowledge of the interaction between traits and climate can focus management resources on vulnerable populations, provide guidance for seed transfer, and enhance fitness and resilience under changing climates. In this study, traits of big sagebrush (Artemisia tridentata) were examined among common gardens located in different climates. We focus...

In 2044 the United States is expected to be a majority-minority nation. Promoting participation in outdoor recreation among racial and ethnic minority populations has long been a challenge facing the contemporary recreation manager. In this article, we compare data from the US Forest Service National Visitor Use Monitoring program from 2010-2014 to US Census data from 2010 in order to examine whether there is disproportionate utilization of recreation resources on US Forest Service lands across the entire US Forest Service system. Our findings suggest an inequity gap wherein racial...

The Nez Perce-Clearwater National Forest (NPC) is planning a major restoration project to improve forest health and decrease the risk of wildfire in the 178 km2 (68 mi2) Clear Creek Watershed, southeast of Kooskia, ID (Moose Creek Ranger District, 2015). Elliot and Miller (2017) provided a detailed analysis estimating likely erosion from the proposed treatment areas, but at that time, did not have the tools to satisfactorily estimate sediment from the road network. Roads play a critical role in allowing access to the forest for the proposed treatments. However, the road network is the main...

Like many other high elevation alpine tree species, Rocky Mountain bristlecone pine (Pinus aristata Engelm.) may be particularly vulnerable to climate change. To evaluate its potential vulnerability to shifts in climate, we defined the suitable climate space for each of four genetic lineages of bristlecone pine and for other subalpine tree species in close proximity to bristlecone pine forests. Measuring changes in the suitable climate space for lineage groups is an important step beyond models that assume species are genetically homogenous. The suitable climate space for bristlecone pine...

We examined spatial patterns of post-fire regenerating conifers in a Colorado, USA, dry conifer forest 11-12 years following the reintroduction of mixed-severity fire. We mapped and measured all post-fire regenerating conifers, as well as all other post-fire regenerating trees and all residual (i.e., surviving) trees, in three 4-ha plots following the 2002 Hayman Fire. Residual tree density ranged from 167 to 197 trees ha-1 (TPH), and these trees were clustered at distances up to 30 m. Post-fire regenerating conifers, which ranged in density from 241 to 1036 TPH, were also clustered at...

This study introduces a large fire containment strategy that builds upon recent advances in spatial fire planning, notably the concept of potential wildland fire operation delineations (PODs). Multiple PODs can be clustered together to form a “box” that is referred as the “response POD” (or rPOD). Fire lines would be built along the boundary of an rPOD to contain a large fire. Assets such as communities and infrastructure within an rPOD could be protected through “point zone protection.” We develop a mixed integer program model to optimally aggregate PODs into an rPOD with an objective of...

The Sky Islands of southeastern Arizona, which consist of separate mountain ranges within a desert matrix, are a unique biodiversity hotspot hosting many neotropical bird species that cannot be seen anywhere else in the United States. Residents of this region depend on ecotourism for their livelihood and there is an above-average concentration of citizens skilled at identifying birds by sight and sound. After the Horseshoe Two wildfire in 2011 burned a large portion of the Chiricahua range, the local residents approached RMRS with concerns about effects on the bird populations. RMRS...

Purpose: Wildfire spatial patterns drive ecological processes including vegetation succession and wildlife community dynamics. Such patterns may be changing due to fire suppression policies and climate change, making characterization of trends in post-fire mosaics important for understanding and managing fire-prone ecosystems.Methods: For wildfires in California’s yellow pine and mixed-conifer forests, spatial pattern trends of two components of the post-fire severity matrix were assessed for 1984-2015: (1) unchanged or very low-severity and (2) high-severity, which represent remnant...

Energy flow through ecosystems plays a critical role in processes at multiple spatial and temporal scales, from phonologically driven growing season or monthly temporal scales of landscapes to sub-diurnal responses of soil respiration to temperature, photosynthesis and water inputs. The interaction of short and longwave radiation and their partitioning through ecosystems is complex with terrestrial canopies and aquatic structure both connecting above- and below-ground processes via energy fluxes. Previous work has shown that at 30-min timescales, only 8% of eddy covariance sites in the La...