Understory

Maximizing the effectiveness of fuel treatments at the landscape scale is a key research and management need given the inability to treat all areas at risk from wildfire, and there is a growing body of scientific literature assessing this need. Join the Joint Fire Science Program Exchanges and the Rocky Mountain Research Station as scientists present their research and results on landscape-scale fuel treatment effectiveness, followed by a panel discussion and Q&A.

Drone-Based Monitoring of Dry-Conifer Forest Structure from Tree to Stand ScalesPresentation Slides

Research and Development At-A-Glance

The Co-Management of Fire Risk Transmission research management partnership, or CoMFRT, engages with communities and fire managers to identify and improve pertinent fire-adaptation strategies that facilitate cross-boundary activities to address wildfire risk in fire-prone areas. CoMFRT includes a diverse group of researchers, field fire managers, local community professionals and national and state policymakers.

DNA Applications for Terrestrial WildlifePresentation Slides

In 2019, the Pacific Northwest Research Station joined forces with its partners in state governments, universities, and a host of other organizations to combine efforts in the Carbon Research Initiative. The overarching goal of the initiative is to increase understanding of the tradeoffs and synergies among different approaches to forest stewardship. In essence, the Carbon Research Initiative seeks to identify which forest stewardship practices and resource uses are most beneficial for sequestering and storing excess atmospheric carbon emissions that drive global warming.The 2022 Carbon Resear...

In his September 24, 2020 testimony before Congress, John Phipps, the Forest Service’s Deputy Chief of State and Private Forestry, stated “the system is not designed for this,” to illustrate the misalignment between the design of the wildland fire system and the reality that wildland fire responders routinely experience. The El Dorado Fatality provides an opportunity to reflect, learn, and redesign the system so it can better handle this new reality wildland fire responders are facing, and will continue to face into the future.The Forest Service has identified itself as a learning organization...

Our nation’s wildlife and plant populations are at risk due to habitat loss, climate change, invasive species, and other emerging threats. The USDA Forest Service Rocky Mountain Research Station (RMRS) studies species of concern in order to address these risks and provide land managers with the information needed to support healthy wildlife habitat and landscapes.

The U.S. Department of Agriculture, Forest Service Wildfire Crisis Strategy calls for treating up to an additional 20 million acres of National Forest System lands and up to an additional 30 million acres of other federal, state, Tribal and private lands. Research on firesheds – large, forested landscapes with a high likelihood that an ignition could expose homes, communities, or infrastructure to wildfire – is foundational to the strategy.