Treesearch

The combined effects of Indigenous fire stewardship and lightning ignitions shaped historical fire regimes, landscape patterns, and available resources in many ecosystems globally. The resulting fire regimes created complex fire–vegetation dynamics that were further influenced by biophysical setting, disturbance history, and climate. While there is increasing recognition of Indigenous fire stewardship among western scientists and managers, the extent and purpose of cultural burning is generally absent from the landscape–fire modeling literature and our understanding of ecosystem processes...

This report presents a summary of the most recent Forest Inventory and Analysis (FIA) data of Utah’s forests based on field data collected between 2008 and 2017. Many of the results were compared to earlier reports using data from 2000-2005 (DeBlander et al. 2010), and from 2003-2012 (Werstak et al. 2016). Utah’s forest land covers 18 million acres, of which 39 percent (7 million acres) are administered by the Bureau of Land Management, U.S. Department of Interior, 35 percent (6.4 million acres) by the Forest Service, U.S. Department of Agriculture, and 15 percent (2.7 million acres) are...

In early 2020 the US Forest Service (USFS) recognized the need to gather real-time information from its wildland fire management personnel about their challenges and adaptations during the unfolding COVID-19 pandemic. The USFS conducted 194 virtual focus groups to address these concerns, over 32 weeks from March 2020 to October 2020. This management effort provided an opportunity for an innovative practice-based research study. Here, we outline a novel methodological approach (weekly, iterative focus groups, with two-way communication between USFS staff and leadership), which culminated in...

Rangelands worldwide are essential for carbon sequestration, water retention, and habitat to name a few critical benefits. Prescribed fire is used to benefit vegetation and soil and reduce fuels on rangeland sites. What hasn’t been clear is how burning on rangelands may affect microbes in the soil, which are responsible for breaking down woody material. Also missing was an understanding of how the insects that typically call rangelands home respond to these burns.

The desert is hot, dry, and prickly … the perfect combination for wildfires. So, shouldn’t desert plants be used to fire? It turns out that Sonoran desert scrub communities, home to the iconic saguaro cactus, are vulnerable to frequent large or severe wildfires and may not recover for centuries, if at all. Recent publications by Rocky Mountain Research Station ecologists discuss how desert plants respond to fires, and how big, how often, and how hot fires burn in this ecosystem. The Fire Regime Synthesis about Sonoran desert scrub communities and associated Species Reviews are published in...

Fire suppression has increased competitive tree encroachment of Oregon white oak (Quercus garryanna Douglas ex Hook) ecosystems, threatening maintenance of this important species. Restoration of oak ecosystems is ideal to address this threat but not always possible, giving rise to a need for novel treatments that will allow oak to persist on an altered landscape. We tested the effect of three release treatments centered around individual Oregon oak trees within four forested sites that had developed following encroachment and overtopping by Douglas-fir (Pseudotsuga menziesii[Mirb.] Franco...

Inland wetlands are critical carbon reservoirs storing 30% of global soil organic carbon (SOC) within 6% of the land surface. However, forested regions contain SOC-rich wetlands that are not included in current maps, which we refer to as ‘cryptic carbon’. Here, to demonstrate the magnitude and distribution of cryptic carbon, we measure and map SOC stocks as a function of a continuous, upland-to-wetland gradient across the Hoh River Watershed (HRW) in the Pacific Northwest of the U.S., comprising 68,145 ha. Total catchment SOC at 30 cm depth (5.0 TgC) is between estimates from global SOC...

Seed banks can provide insight into a forest's past and give land managers valuable information to help them plan for the forest's future. For example, knowing which species may germinate after future fires is valuable, especially when nonnative invasive species in the seed bank could proliferate quickly following disturbances

The fast-growing tree, eastern cottonwood (Populus deltoides), currently is being planted to catalyze native forest restoration on degraded agricultural sites in the southeastern United States. Many of these restoration sites are appropriate for short rotation woody crop (SRWC) culture that addresses climate mitigation objectives, but information needed to optimize climate mitigation objectives through such plantings is limited. Therefore, we established a 10-year experiment on degraded agricultural land located in the Mississippi Alluvial Valley, USA, aiming to quantify the dynamics of...

This qualitative case study evaluates manager and researcher perceptions of the impact of a place-based, collaborative knowledge co-development process and examines the outcomes of that co-development for changes to management approaches. The USDA Forest Service (Forest Service) Rocky Mountain Research Station General Technical Report 373 (GTR-373) is a codeveloped science synthesis that functions as a boundary object providing a framework for planning, designing, and implementing management action for restoration of ponderosa and dry mixed-conifer forests. The process of creating and...