Understory

The Tahoe Central Sierra Initiative (TCSI) Blueprint is a set of strategy maps that identify opportunities for forest protection and adaptation across a 2.4-million-acre region of the central Sierra Nevada. It is the culmination of an effort to improve resilience to anticipated climate change and wildfire, beetle, and drought-caused tree mortality. The Tahoe Central Sierra Initiative group along with scientists and forest managers versed in the concept of resilience, defined resilience based on ten ecological and social pillars. The Blueprint includes evaluations of 30 unique metrics, such as ...

The Stewardship Mapping and Assessment Project (STEW-MAP) was applied in the Los Angeles River Watershed to answer the questions: Who are the active environmental stewardship groups in my area and where, why, and how are they caring for the land? STEW-MAP defines a “stewardship group” as a civic organization or group that works to conserve, manage, monitor, transform, educate on and/or advocate for the environment.Leveraging national expertise and previous regional investment in Los Angeles County STEW-MAP, the Los Angeles (LA) River STEW-MAP provides detailed information on the geographical f...

This user guide offers step-by-step instructions for how to use the Phenomap tool, as well as documentation for the layers and information used to make the tool.

The Potential Operational Delineations (PODs) process is a framework for cross-boundary, collaborative, and integrative fire planning that can support place-based implementation of the National Cohesive Wildland Fire Management Strategy. PODs are based on best available science about fire operations and risks to communities, ecosystems, and responders. The PODs process is holistic. It brings together local managers and stakeholders to plan for future fires using a sophisticated science framework.

We describe the development and performance of a dynamical one-dimensional (1D) model of fire spread (LIHTFire, Linear Ignition and Heat Transfer). The model resolves burning rates, heat transfer, and ignition at cm-scales with explicit accounting of heterogeneous fuels and time-varying weather. An empirical convective heating method speeds computation compared to CFD methods. Heating, drying, pyrolysis, ignition, and solid phase combustion of fuel with varying sizes and shapes is represented by a particle model that captures within-particle gradients. The heat transfer, burning behaviors, and...

Through the Missouri Outdoor Connections project, the USDA Forest Service aims to identify organizations that care for the natural resources of Missouri's central and southern regions so they can better work together. This project seeks to answer the question, “Who takes care of Missouri's natural lands and connects people to their benefits?”

User research is a cornerstone of digital technology development. User experience (UX) designers work to tailor new technologies and software to facilitate intuitive and seamless interactions with their products. With consideration for new capacities in data capture, cleaning, and visualization, the STEWMAP team sought to re-evaluate its survey methodology and digital visualization tools. By systematically engaging STEW-MAP users in our evaluation and adaptation of the project, we opened up the deployment of UX methods towards 1) more nuanced co-production of stewardship research, and 2) more ...

In a future sustainable society, everyday products and necessities—food, clothing, medicine, energy, cars, electronic devices, high-rise buildings, and more—can be made from wood or wood-based polymers and chemicals. Recognizing the potential of wood and wood polymers, U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) Forest Service scientists are developing innovative technologies to use these renewable materials in products that are essential to our daily living.

The Joint Fire Science Program (JFSP) and the Environmental Security Technology Certification Program (ESTCP) initiated the Fire and Smoke Model Experiment (FASMEE) (https://www.fasmee.net) by funding JFSP Project 15-S-01-01. This nationwide, multiagency effort identifies and collects critical measurements that will be used to advance fire and smoke science and modeling capabilities, allowing managers to 1) increase the use of managed fire, 2) improve firefighting strategies, 3) enhance smoke forecasts, 4) better assess carbon stores and fire-climate interactions and improve our understanding ...