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Scientists have spent decades trying to understand how to best promote resilient forests and reduce fuels. A golden endeavor certainly. Is the best approach using a series of prescribed burns? Or is it mechanically cutting trees? Or does the…
Author(s): Kirsten Healey, Sharon M. Hood, Justin S. Crotteau, Cory Cleveland
Year Published:

Increased understanding of how mechanical thinning, prescribed burning, and wildfire affect subsequent wildfire severity is urgently needed as people and forests face a growing wildfire crisis. In response, we reviewed scientific literature for the…
Author(s): Kimberly T. Davis, Jamie L. Peeler, Joseph E Fargione, Ryan D. Haugo, Kerry L. Metlen, Marcos D. Robles, Travis J. Woolley
Year Published:

Background Linear fuel breaks are being implemented to moderate fire behavior and improve wildfire containment in semiarid landscapes such as the sagebrush steppe of North America, where extensive losses in perennial vegetation and ecosystem…
Author(s): Matthew J. Germino, Samuel Price, Susan J. Prichard
Year Published:

Background: Sagebrush ecosystems are experiencing increases in wildfire extent and severity. Most research on vegetation treatments that reduce fuels and fire risk has been short term (2–3 years) and focused on ecological responses. We review…
Author(s): Jeanne C. Chambers, Eva K. Strand, Lisa M. Ellsworth, Claire Tortorelli, Alexandra K. Urza, Michele R. Crist, Richard F. Miller, Matthew C. Reeves, Karen C. Short, Claire Williams
Year Published:

Background: Climate change is a strong contributing factor in the lengthening and intensification of wildfire seasons, with warmer and often drier conditions associated with increasingly severe impacts. Land managers are faced with challenging…
Author(s): Haley K. Skinner, Susan J. Prichard, Alison Cullen
Year Published:

Trees use nonstructural carbohydrates (NSCs) to support many functions, including recovery from disturbances. However, NSC’s importance for recovery following fire and whether NSC depletion contributes to post-fire delayed mortality are largely…
Author(s): Charlotte C. Reed, Sharon M. Hood
Year Published:

Quaking aspen (Populus tremuloides Michx.) stands throughout the western United States provide valuable ecosystem services but can be lost via succession from aspen to conifer. Forest managers are cutting conifers, but disposal of cut wood can be…
Author(s): John-Pascal Berrill, Christa M. Dagley, Yoon G. Kim, J. Morgan Varner
Year Published:

Fuel treatments are commonly applied to increase resilience to wildfire in dry and historically frequent-fire forests of western North America. The long-term effects of fuel treatments on forest structure, fuel profiles (amount and configuration of…
Author(s): Don C. Radcliffe, Jonathan D. Bakker, Derek J. Churchill, Ernesto Alvarado, David L. Peterson, Madison M. Laughlin, Brian J. Harvey
Year Published:

Background: The capacity of forest fuel treatments to moderate the behavior and severity of subsequent wildfires depends on weather and fuel conditions at the time of burning. However, in-depth evaluations of how treatments perform are limited…
Author(s): Emily G. Brodie, Eric E. Knapp, Wesley R. Brooks, Stacy Drury, Martin W. Ritchie
Year Published:

Fuel and restoration treatments seeking to mitigate the likelihood of uncharacteristic high-severity wildfires in forests with historically frequent, low-severity fire regimes are increasingly common, but long-term treatment effects on fuels,…
Author(s): Sharon M. Hood, Justin S. Crotteau, Cory Cleveland
Year Published:

Background Prescribed fire is a critical tool for building resilience to changing fire regimes. Policymakers can accelerate the development of effective, adaptation-oriented fire governance by learning from other jurisdictions. Aims We analyse…
Author(s): Phillipa C. McCormack, Rebecca K. Miller, Jan McDonald
Year Published:

Wildland fire incident commanders make wildfire response decisions within an increasingly complex socio-environmental context. Threats to human safety and property, along with public pressures and agency cultures, often lead commanders to emphasize…
Author(s): Molly C. Daniels, Kristin H. Braziunas, Monica G. Turner, Ting-Fung Ma, Karen C. Short, Adena R. Rissman
Year Published:

The use of masticated tree debris to protect burned soil from post-fire erosion is not common and very little is known about its effectiveness in reducing the risk of erosion after fire. The main objective of this research was to assess the effects…
Author(s): Cristina Fernández
Year Published:

Background: Wildland firefighters have physically and psychologically demanding jobs that can result in social, economic and health-related stress. Previous studies have examined the physiological and physical effects of a career in wildland fire,…
Author(s): Rachel M. Granberg, Ting Shen, Seth W. Pearson, Robin M. Verble
Year Published:

Background Sagebrush shrublands in the Great Basin, USA, are experiencing widespread increases in wildfire size and area burned resulting in new policies and funding to implement fuel treatments. However, we lack the spatial data needed to optimize…
Author(s): Jeanne C. Chambers, Jessi L. Brown, Matthew C. Reeves, Eva K. Strand, Lisa M. Ellsworth, Claire Tortorelli, Alexandra K. Urza, Karen C. Short
Year Published:

For the past 20 to 30 years, a wildfire crisis has been building in the West as wildfires have grown in size, duration, and destructivity despite highly effective suppression responses by the USDA Forest Service and others in the wildland fire…
Author(s): Hutch Brown
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:

Prescribed fall burning is commonly used worldwide on rangeland sites to enhance vegetation resources and restore disturbed ecosystems, but little is known about how it may alter microbial communities and insect activities. We used two site…
Author(s): Deborah S. Page-Dumroese, Stephen Cook, Bradford M. Kard, Martin F. Jurgensen, Chris A. Miller, Joanne M. Tirocke
Year Published:

Fire management aims to change fire regimes. However, the challenge is to provide the optimal balance between the mitigation of risks to life and property, while ensuring a healthy environment and the protection of other key values in any given…
Author(s): Hamish G. Clarke, Brett Cirulis, Nicolas Borchers-Arriagada, Michael A. Storey, Mark K. J. Ooi, Katharine Haynes, Ross A. Bradstock, Owen F. Price, Trent D. Penman
Year Published:

The influence of forest treatments on wildfire effects is challenging to interpret. This is, in part, because the impact forest treatments have on wildfire can be slight and variable across many factors. Effectiveness of a treatment also depends on…
Author(s): Anthony Vorster, Camille Stevens-Rumann, Nicholas Young, Brian Woodward, Christopher Tsz Hin Choi, Marin Chambers, Anthony S. Cheng, Michael D. Caggiano, Courtney Schultz, Matthew P. Thompson, S. Michelle Greiner, Gregory H. Aplet, Rob Addington, Michael A. Battaglia, Daniel Bowker, Ethan Bucholz, Brian Buma, Paul Evangelista, David W. Huffman, Stephanie E. Mueller, Charles C. Rhoades, William H. Romme, Andrew Sanchez Meador, Wade T. Tinkham, Matt Tuten, Amanda West
Year Published: