Skip to main content

Search by keywords, then use filters to narrow down results by type, year, topic, or ecosystem.

Displaying 1 - 20 of 96

Background: Current guidance for implementation of United States federal wildland fire policy charges agencies with restoring and maintaining fire-adapted ecosystems while limiting the extent of wildfires that threaten life and property, weighed…
Author(s): Bradley Pietruszka, Jesse Young, Karen C. Short, Lise A. St. Denis, Matthew P. Thompson, David E. Calkin
Year Published:

In December 2022, twenty-one experts from land management agencies, Tribes, and organizations from across the country convened at the Wilderness and Fire Workshop in Gunnison, Colorado to consider the effects of over a century of fire exclusion on…
Author(s): Center for Public Lands Western Colorado University, USFS Aldo Leopold Wilderness Research Institute,
Year Published:

This is a summary from the Selway-Bitterroot and Frank Church-River of No Return Wilderness Fire Science Workshop held June 27-28, 2023. It summarizes discussion points from the first day's breakout groups as well as some key discussion points from…
Year Published:

Ambient wildfire smoke in the American West has worsened considerably in recent decades, while the number of individuals recreating outdoors has simultaneously surged. Wildfire smoke poses a serious risk to human health, especially during long…
Author(s): Matthew Clark, Alexander Killion, Matthew A. Williamson, Vicken Hillis
Year Published:

Wilderness areas are important natural laboratories for scientists and managers working to understand fire. In the last half-century, shifts in the culture and policy of land management agencies have facilitated the management practice of letting…
Author(s): Mark R. Kreider, Melissa Jaffe, Julia Berkey, Sean A. Parks, Andrew J. Larson
Year Published:

This is a synthesis of the research priorities from the 2023 Selway-Bitterroot and Frank Church-River of No Return Wilderness Fire Science Workshop as identified by participants. 
Year Published:

Wildfire activity is increasing in the western United States at a time when outdoor recreation is growing in popularity. Because peak outdoor recreation and wildfire seasons overlap, fires can disrupt recreation and expose people to poor air quality…
Author(s): Jacob Gellman, Margaret Walls, Matthew J. Wibbenmeyer
Year Published:

here is increasing discussion in the academic and agency literature, as well as popular media, about the need to address the existing deficit of beneficial fire on landscapes. One approach allowable under United States federal wildland fire policy…
Author(s): Stephen D. Fillmore, Sarah M. McCaffrey, Alistair M. S. Smith
Year Published:

Western North American sagebrush shrublands and steppe face accelerating risks from fire-driven feedback loops that transition these ecosystems into self-reinforcing states dominated by invasive annual grasses. In response, sagebrush conservation…
Author(s): Thomas J. Rodhouse, Jeffrey Lonneker, Lisa Bowersock, Diana Popp, Jamela C. Thompson, Gordon H. Dicus, Kathryn M. Irvine
Year Published:

National forests in the western United States are divided roughly in half between lands without roads managed for wilderness characteristics and lands with an extensive road system managed for multiple uses including resource extraction. We…
Author(s): James D. Johnston, John B. Kilbride, Garrett W. Meigs, Christopher J. Dunn, Robert E. Kennedy
Year Published:

Suppression of most wildland fire ignitions has defined fire management in the United States since 1935. These past suppression activities, along with climate change impacts and other factors, have resulted in longer fire seasons and increased…
Author(s): Julia Berkey, Carol Miller, Andrew J. Larson
Year Published:

Managed wildfires, naturally ignited wildfires that are managed for resource benefit, have the potential to reduce fuel loads and minimize the effects of future wildfires, but have been utilized mainly in remote settings. A new policy federal…
Author(s): Jose M. Iniguez, Andrea E. Thode, Sarah M. McCaffrey, Alexander M. Evans, Marc D. Meyer, Shaula J. Hedwall
Year Published:

One of Jonathan Coop's first vivid memories as a child was watching the flames of the 1977 La Mesa Fire in north-central New Mexico. The human-caused fire burned more than 15,000 acres of pine forests in the Bandelier National Monument and areas…
Year Published:

The Lion Fire 2011 (LF11) and Lion Fire 2017 (LF17) were similar in size, location, and smoke transport. The same locations were used to monitor both fires for ground level fine particulate matter (PM2.5). Ground level PM2.5 is used to determine the…
Author(s): Don Schweizer, Ricardo Cisneros, Kathleen M. Navarro
Year Published:

Public opinion of wildfire is often perceived to be negative and in support of fire suppression, even though research suggests public opinions have become more positive over the past few decades. However, most prior work on this topic has focused on…
Author(s): Alexandra Weill, Lauren M. Watson, Andrew Latimer
Year Published:

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…
Author(s): Peter Landres, Beth Hahn, Eric Biber, Daniel T. Spencer
Year Published:

This study contributes to the understanding of the relationship between crisis management procedures and local resilience responses. Utilizing the context of the 416 wildfire in southwest Colorado during the summer of 2018, this study proposes that…
Author(s): Elizabeth A. Cartier, Lorraine L. Taylor
Year Published:

The 2001 Forest Service Roadless Rule prohibits roadbuilding in forests across an area equivalent to the combined states of New York and Maine (236 000 km2). There have been recent assertions that roads are needed to prevent fire and to keep forests…
Author(s): Sean P. Healey
Year Published:

There is limited research on recreationists’ responses to changes in resource conditions after wildfire. Existing studies often rely on presenting visitors with hypothetical wildfire scenarios or simulated changes in conditions. We completed a quick…
Author(s): Eric M. White, Terry R. Bergerson, Elliot T. Hinman
Year Published:

Nearly a century of fire suppression in most forested land of the United States has limited researchers’ ability to construct and rigorously test conceptual models of forest structural development in mixed-conifer ecosystems. As a result, land…
Author(s): Julia Berkey, R. Travis Belote, Colin T. Maher, Andrew J. Larson
Year Published: