Treesearch

Black huckleberry (Vaccinium membranaceum) - an economically, ecologically, and culturally important shrub across the Pacific and Inland Northwest - is experiencing widespread declines in suitable habitat because of fire suppression and climate change. We tested the role of experimentally placed downed woody debris (DWD) in mitigating unsuitable habitat conditions through creating favorable abiotic microsites and promoting black huckleberry seedling survival. We planted 1-year-old black huckleberry seedlings at four distances (0, 0.25, 0.5, and 1.5 m) from DWD, on the north and south...

In this review, we discuss current research on forest carbon risk from natural disturbance under climate change for the United States, with emphasis on advancements in analytical mapping and modeling tools that have potential to drive research for managing future long-term stability of forest carbon. As a natural mechanism for carbon storage, forests are a critical component of meeting climate mitigation strategies designed to combat anthropogenic emissions. Forests consist of long-lived organisms (trees) that can store carbon for centuries or more. However, trees have finite lifespans,...

The word "risk" is often used informally to talk about feelings of danger or chances of loss. When communicating about wildfire risk, both inside the Forest Service and with the public and others, careful and intentional use of the term “risk” is more likely to increase shared understanding of all involved.

Fire regimes in nearly all dry conifer forests in the western United States now vastly differ from past conditions, with many forests susceptible to uncharacteristic high-severity fire effects threatening human communities and degrading forest ecosystems. These forests historically experienced fire frequently, on the order of once every 3 to 30 years. Fires shaped the structure of the forest and the mix of plants. Forest treatments often aim to reduce the severity of future fire and improve the health and resilience of forests. But how do these treatments differ from each other? And how do...

Forest restoration treatments primarily aimed at reducing fuel load and preventing high-severity wildfires can also influence resilience to other disturbances. Many pine forests in temperate regions are subject to tree-killing bark beetle outbreaks (e.g., Dendroctonus, Ips), whose frequency and intensity are expected to increase with future climatic changes. Restoration treatments have the potential to increase resistance to bark beetle attacks, yet the underlying mechanisms of this response are still unclear. While the effect of forest restoration treatments on tree growth has been...

Projected increases in wildfire frequency, size, and severity may further stress already scarce firefighting resources in the western United States that are in high demand. Machine learning is a promising field with the ability to model firefighting resource usage without compromising dataset size or complexity. In this study, the Categorical Boosting (CatBoost) model was used with historical (2012-2020) wildfire data to train three models that calculate predicted daily counts of 1) total assigned personnel (total personnel), 2) assigned personnel that are at the fire (ground personnel),...

There is a need to convert fire danger indices into operational estimates of fire activity to support strategic fire management, particularly under climate change. Few studies have evaluated multiple accumulation times for indices that combine both dead and remotely sensed estimates of live fuel moisture, and relatively few studies have aimed at predicting fire activity from both such fuel moisture estimates and autoregressive terms of previous fires. The current study aimed at developing models to forecast the 10-day number of fires by state in Mexico, from an accumulated Fuel Dryness...

Disturbance seasonality and return interval can create complex interactions of direct and indirect effects on species and ecosystems. Fire is a key grassland disturbance, yet long-term research examining seasonality and return intervals is limited. A 15-year experiment testing combinations of fire seasonality (summer, fall, spring) and return interval (2, 3, 6-year) plus non-burned controls was conducted in northern mixed prairie to evaluate effects on the plant community. Hesperostipa comata is a native C3 bunchgrass and dominant species in northern mixed prairie and previously observed...

The state of forests is intricately linked to the lives of the people dependent on them. Forest-dependent communities are highly vulnerable to the impacts of climate change. This chapter examines the social impacts related to changes in climate and forests by focusing on the socioeconomic systems that are already being impacted by climate change, the ways social forces are mitigating or amplifying those impacts, and possible adaptation options. At the global scale, we are not on track to meet most targets related to human health and the environment. Urbanization and conversion for agricultu...

Fire agencies across the United States must make complex resource allocation decisions to manage wildfires using a national network of shared firefighting resources. Firefighters play a critical role in suppressing fires and protecting vulnerable communities. However, they are exposed to health and safety risks associated with fire, smoke inhalation, and infectious disease transmission. The COVID-19 pandemic further complicated these risks, prompting fire agencies to propose resource management adaptations to minimize COVID-19 exposure and transmission. It is unclear if and how the...