Treesearch

Reducing catastrophic fire risk is an important objective of many fuel treatment programs (Kent et al. 2003; Machlis et al. 2002; USDA/USDI 2001a). In practice, risk reductions can be accomplished by lowering the probability of a given loss to forest fires, the amount of probable loss, or both. Forest fire risk objectives are seldom quantified, however, making it difficult to compare alternative management options. Instead, fuel treatment programs are often selected based on expert judgment.

Riparian forest communities in the southwestern United States were historically structured by a disturbance regime of annual flooding. In recent decades, however, frequency of flooding has decreased and frequency of wildfires has increased. Riparian forests provide important breeding habitat for a large variety of bird species, and the effects of this altered disturbance regime on birds and their breeding habitat is largely unknown. To evaluate effects of high-intensity spring and summer wildfire on the quality of breeding bird habitat in the Middle Rio Grande valley, we measured vegetation...

The composition of the landscape between patches (the matrix) can have important effects on movement rates that potentially outweigh the effects of patch size and isolation. We conducted a small-scale experiment with radiocollared meadow voles (Microtus pennsylvanicus) to quantify the effects of matrix habitat on movement behavior of voles. Habitat patches were created within an enclosure and connected by pathways of different vegetation heights designed to represent different levels of predation risk to the voles. Voles were fitted with radiocollars and tracked 4 times daily for 1-3...

We examined home range size of Black-backed Woodpeckers (Picoides arcticus) in burned ponderosa pine (Pinus ponderosa) / Douglas-fir (Pseudotsuga menziesii) forests of southwestern Idaho during 2000 and 2002 (6 and 8 years following fire). Home range size for 4 adult males during the post-fledging period was 115.6-420.9 ha using the 95% fixed-kernel method, and 150.4-766.1 ha using the 100% minimum convex polygon method. Smoothed bootstrap estimates (95%) were 130.0-521.9 ha. Home range sizes were significantly smaller 6 years after fire than 8 years after fire. Each male had from 2 to 8...

Fire is a primary change agent in many terrestrial ecosystems. Appreciation is growing for the essential role fire plays in fire-adapted ecosystems. Nevertheless, humans living in the wildland urban interface (WUI) understandably regard fires as a threat to their safety, their property, or the natural resources and ecosystem services upon which they depend. As land development has expanded into the WUI, so has the demand for better spatial information regarding fire danger and fire effects, both short- and long-term.

The need for current information about the effects of fires, harvest, and storms is evident in many areas of sustainable forest management. While there are several potential sources of this information, each source has its limitations. Generally speaking, the statistical rigor associated with traditional forest sampling is an important asset in any monitoring effort. However, the act of sampling implies that spatial patterns below the level of the estimation unit are ignored. Disturbance information derived from remote sensing is spatially explicit at the local level. This spatially...

The exchange of carbon between forests and the atmosphere is a function of forest type, climate, and disturbance history, with previous studies illustrating that forests play a key role in the terrestrial carbon cycle. The North American Carbon Program (NACP) has supported the acquisition of biennial Landsat image time-series for sample locations throughout much of North America for the purpose of characterizing carbon fluxes associated with forest dynamics. Disturbance events such as harvests or fires can release large amounts of forest carbon, whereas subsequent sequestration of carbon...

Forest roads are obliterated to lower the risks of surface erosion and mass failures. One purpose of the road obliteration is to return the compacted forest roads to productive pre-road conditions, i.e., a forest floor with high infiltration capacity, low interrill erodibility, and high vegetation ground cover. It is important to know how these characteristics recover following road obliteration. Infiltration capacity, interrill erodibility, and vegetation ground cover are essential parameters for modeling erosion from obliterated roads for erosion prediction models such as the Water...

The Rocky Mountain Research Station has a long and celebrated legacy of conducting relevant natural resources research throughout the Interior West and beyond. Land managers and planners regularly rely upon our science to help make wise resource decisions. Our niche among research organizations is distinct: mission-oriented, close to the customers, a reputation for objectivity and science quality, millions of acres of living laboratory, a science and support workforce that concentrates on solving complex problems, and an active presence in all the major ecosystems of the Interior West.

United States wildland fire policy and program reviews in 1995 and 2000 required both the reduction of hazardous fuel and recognition of fire as a natural process. Despite the fact that existing policy permits managing natural ignitions to meet resource benefits, or Wildland Fire Use (WFU), most fuel reduction projects rely on mechanical treatments and prescribed fire. Budget constraints suggest that successful fuel and ecosystem management hinges on expanding WFU. The decision to authorise WFU in the US Department of Agriculture Forest Service (USFS) rests with line officers, and the...