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In the face of changing climatic regimes and increases in extreme fire events, many western forests are poised to burn, not only once but multiple times, sometimes in short succession. As such, land managers have limited opportunities to effectively…
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Wildfires are modifying the structure and composition of forests at rates that far exceed mechanical thinning and prescribed fire treatments. We responded to this by analyzing recent wildfires to understand drivers of fire-severity and post-fire…
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ePDFPDF PDF Tools Share Abstract Every year, the four federal agencies that manage designated wilderness in the United States receive proposals to implement small‐ and large‐scale ecological restorations within the National Wilderness Preservation…
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Ecological droughts are deficits in soil–water availability that induce threshold-like ecosystem responses, such as causing altered or degraded plant-community conditions, which can be exceedingly difficult to reverse. However, 'ecological drought'…
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The destructive wildfires that occurred recently in the western US starkly foreshadow the possible future of forest ecosystems and human communities in the region. With increases in the area burned by severe wildfire in seasonally dry forests…
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Researchers are increasingly examining patterns and drivers of postfire forest recovery amid growing concern that climate change and intensifying fires will trigger ecosystem transformations. Diminished seed availability and postfire drought have…
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Prescribed burning is an effective method to reduce hazardous fuels and restore ecological conditions across a variety of ecosystems. Twenty-one states have laws or policies that direct state agencies to oversee formal training programs to certify…
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Many large fires have burned in recent decades across western North America, and this trend is projected to continue as conditions become warmer and drier. Recovery processes have been studied more thoroughly 1-2 years post fire than in the longer…
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As the climate warms, drought will increasingly occur under elevated temperatures, placing forest ecosystems at growing risk of extensive dieback and mortality. In some cases, increases in tree density following early 20th-century fire suppression…
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Legacy effects from one disturbance may influence successional pathways by amplifying or buffering forest regeneration after the next disturbance. We assessed vegetation and tree regeneration in non-serotinous Sierra lodgepole pine (Pinus contorta…
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Climate change is causing increased wildfire activity across the western US and creating post-fire conditions that are warmer and drier than they were in the past. Scientists and managers are concerned with the potential for post-fire tree…
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Background: Prairie-forest ecotones are ecologically important for biodiversity and ecological processes. While these ecotones cover small areas, their sharp gradients in land cover promote rich ecological interaction and high conservation value.…
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This review is focused on tree seedling regeneration for several reasons. First, a high mortality event, like a high- severity wildfire, kills the mature trees needed to maintain forest cover. When fire-caused mortality is minimal, we are less…
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Boreal peatlands represent a significant global store of soil carbon, which are subject to increasing natural and anthropogenic disturbance. Wildfire is the single largest disturbance to boreal forest and wetlands annually. Critical to the long‐term…
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Large wildfires (>50,000 ha) are becoming increasingly common in semi‐arid landscapes of the western United States. Although fuel reduction treatments are used to mitigate potential wildfire effects, they can be overwhelmed in wind‐driven…
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After generations of fire-suppression policy, Indigenous fire management (IFM) is being reactivated as one way to mitigate wildfire in fire-prone ecosystems. Research has documented that IFM also mitigates carbon emissions, improves livelihoods and…
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Research Highlights: This experiment compares a range of combinations of harvest, prescribed fire, and wildfire. Leveraging a 30-year-old forest management-driven experiment, we explored the recovery of woody species composition, regeneration of the…
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Crested wheatgrass (Agropyron cristatum [L] Gaertm. and Agropyron desertorum [Fisch.] Schult.), an introduced bunchgrass, has been seeded on millions of hectares of sagebrush steppe. It can establish near-monocultures; therefore, reestablishing…
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To better understand the implications of the word resilience for western forest and fire management, this study explores its emerging use in a large body of policy and management documents produced between 1980 and 2016. We performed a computer-…
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In subalpine forests of the western United States that historically experienced infrequent, high‐severity fire, whether fire management can shape 21st‐century fire regimes and forest dynamics to meet natural resource objectives is not known. Managed…
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