Forest Biology Commons^™

Fire Regimes Of Montane Grasslands Of The Valles Caldera National Preserve, New Mexico, Donald A. Falk, Craig D. Allen, Robert Parmenter, Thomas Swetnam, Clifford Dils

Joint Fire Science Program Research Project Reports

Montane grasslands are an important ecosystem type in Southwestern landscapes, occurring from the forest borders of piñon-juniper woodland to high elevation subalpine and alpine ecosystems. Thus, they often represent a mosaic element embedded in the forest landscape matrix, playing key roles in processing water and nutrients, and providing habitat for unique suites of species, often at higher levels of diversity than those found in surrounding uplands. Soils, local temperature and moisture gradients, and disturbance all play roles in determining the distribution and extent of montane grasslands. Of these factors, fire plays the most dynamic role in regulating the location and …

Fuel Reduction Treatment Longevity And Crown Response In Interior Ponderosa Pine Forests Of Northern California, Martin W. Ritchie, Carl N. Skinner, Jianwei Zhang

Joint Fire Science Program Research Project Reports

With increasing interest in fuels treatments to address the high risk of severe fires in the western United States, there is an attendant need to quantify the effectiveness of such treatments. In addition to the immediate effect of reducing levels of combustible material and the attendant impact on fire intensity, resource managers also need to quantify or forecast the longevity of such treatments. Treatments that produce significant, but short-lived reductions in risk of severe wildfire may not be meeting the goals and objectives of managers. This temporal component needs further study and is the subject of this proposal. There are …

Fuel Treatments In Mixed-Pine Forests In The Great Lakes Region: A Comprehensive Guide To Planning And Implementation, Eric Toman, Stanley Gehrt, Charles Goebel, David M. Hix, Roger Williams, Robyn Wilson, Sarah Mccaffrey

Joint Fire Science Program Research Project Reports

Fuel management decisions are made within a larger context of resource management characterized by multiple objectives including ecosystem restoration, wildlife management, commodity production (from timber to less traditional forest products), and provision of recreation opportunities and amenity values. Implementation of fuel treatments is strongly influenced by their perceived influence on and compatibility with overarching management objectives. In some cases these objectives may be complementary while in others they may involve difficult tradeoffs. Such tradeoffs are only further complicated by institutional mandates, limited availability of information, and complex ownership patterns. Like natural resource managers across the U.S., those in the Great …

Cooper’S Hawk Nest Site Characteristics In The Pineywoods Region, Richard R. Schaefer, D. Craig Rudolph, Josh B. Pierce, Jesse F. Fagan

Faculty Publications

Early accounts describe the Cooper’s Hawk (Accipiter cooperi) as a species in decline in much of North America during the early twentieth century (Bent 1937), particularly when in close proximity to humans (Eaton 1914). This decreasing population trend continued to be recognized later in the century in both Texas (Oberholser 1974) and Louisiana (Lowery 1974). Shooting and trapping during the first half of the 1900s, and pesticide use (especially DDT) after World War II are suggested as primary causes of the decline (Henny and Wight 1972, Bednarz et al. 1990). The Migratory Bird Treaty Act of 1972 and the ban …

Traditional Plant Use Of The Raglay In Cãu Gãy Village, Núi Chúa National Park, Alex Greene

Independent Study Project (ISP) Collection

Members of the Raglay community of Cãu Gãy Village were interviewed to determine the extent and nature of their traditional reliance on plants. This community, located in the buffer zone of Núi Chúa National Park, was found to utilize 64 plant species for a wide variety of uses. Botanical specimens and photographs were used to identify 42 plants to species level, 13 to genus level, and 6 to family level, while 3 remained unidentified. For each plant, the Raglay name, local Vietnamese name, use, specific application, and preparation were documented, as well as any details of ritual or commercial significance. …

Fire: Ecology & Prevention, Justin R. Frey

Social Sciences

No abstract provided.

Distribution Of Dioecious Eastern Red Cedar (Juniperus Virginiana) Along An Environmental Gradient In Ogallala, Ne, Taylor Sloey

Department of Environmental Studies: Undergraduate Student Theses

Abstract

The purpose of this research was to study the sex distribution and energy allocation of dioecious Eastern Red Cedars (Juniperus virginiana) along an environmental resource gradient. The trees surveyed were growing in a canyon located at the University of Nebraska’s Cedar Point Biological Research Station in Ogallala, Nebraska. Due to the geography of this canyon, environmental factors necessary for plant growth should vary depending on the tree’s location within the canyon. These factors include water availability, sun exposure, ground slope, and soil nitrogen content, all of which are necessary for carbon acquisition.

Juniperus virginiana is a dioecious conifer. Dioecious …

Predicting Global Change Effects On Forest Biomass And Composition In South-Central Siberia, Eric J. Gustafson, Anatoly Z. Shvidenko, Brian R. Sturtevant, Robert M. Scheller

Environmental Science and Management Faculty Publications and Presentations

Multiple global changes such as timber harvesting in areas not previously disturbed by cutting and climate change will undoubtedly affect the composition and spatial distribution of boreal forests, which will, in turn, affect the ability of these forests to retain carbon and maintain biodiversity. To predict future states of the boreal forest reliably, it is necessary to understand the complex interactions among forest regenerative processes (succession), natural disturbances (e.g., fire, wind, and insects), and anthropogenic disturbances (e.g., timber harvest). We used a landscape succession and disturbance model (LANDIS-II) to study the relative effects of climate change, timber harvesting, and insect …

Research Poster: Eco-Hydrological Pathways Inferred From Stable Isotopes In A Pinus Ponderosa And Pinus Monophylla Woodland Of The Sheep Range, Southern Great Basin, Usa, Kelli Hoover, Simon Poulson, Franco Biondi, Jeffrey Underwood

2010 Annual Nevada NSF EPSCoR Climate Change Conference

Research poster

Research Poster: Tree Population Dynamics At Ash Meadows National Wildlife Refuge: Influences Of Environmental Stress And Disturbance, Sarah L. Karam, Peter J. Weisberg, Stephanie O. Sunderman

2010 Annual Nevada NSF EPSCoR Climate Change Conference

Research poster

Comparison Of Carbon Stocks & Importance Values In Correlation With Past Land Use In The Gordon Natural Area, Timothy Hoffer, Steffen Lubbe

Forest Carbon Storage Study Documents

No abstract provided.

Forest Analysis Of The Gordon Natural Area Focusing On Carbon Stock, Forest Structure, And Forest Composition, R. Dicce, D. Drake, D. Mackey, P. Avery

Forest Carbon Storage Study Documents

No abstract provided.

The Communicative Construction Of Safety In Wildland Firefighting, Jody Jahn, Linda Putnam, Anne Black

Joint Fire Science Program Research Project Reports

This document is a summary of a mixed methods dissertation that examined the communicative construction of safety in wildland firefighting. For the dissertation, I used a twostudy mixed methods approach, examining the communicative accomplishment of safety from two perspectives: high reliability organizing (Weick, Sutcliffe, & Obstfeld, 1999), and safety climate (Zohar, 1980). In Study One, 27 firefighters from two functionally similar wildland firefighting crews were interviewed about their crew-level interactions involved in implementing safety rules and firefighting tasks. These critical incident narratives (Flanagan, 1954; Gremler, 2004) were compared to extract workgroup level similarities and differences in interaction patterns relating to …

The Role Of Adaptive Capacity In Creating Fire-Adapted Human Communities, Pamela J. Jakes, Matthew S. Carroll, Travis B. Paveglio, Soren Newman

Joint Fire Science Program Research Project Reports

In this research we sought answers to the question: What are the social characteristics and conditions of human communities that promote adaptive capacity for wildfire? The Quadrennial Fire Review (USDA and USDI 2009) promotes a goal of “achieving fire-adapted communities” in the wildland urban interface (WUI), and identifies metrics for determining whether a community is fire-adapted. While these metrics address some of the biophysical conditions necessary for fire-adapted human communities, they offer little insight into the social elements that promote or sustain adaptive capacity. Adaptive capacity refers to the individual and collective resources, capabilities, and actions that alleviate the risk …

2010 Western Mensurationists’ Conference, David Affleck, John Goodburn, Christopher Keyes, Renate Bush

Joint Fire Science Program Research Project Reports

The 2010 Western Mensurationists’ Conference in Missoula, MT, drew together forest scientists and land managers with primary expertise in the measurement and modeling of forest resources. The meeting provided an opportunity to focus the collective technical expertise of this group on crossdisciplinary conifer crown modeling issues that are of increasing importance to existing and emerging forest management strategies in western North America. Thus, a special invited session on conifer crown modeling results and opportunities was added to the conference agenda together with a participatory workshop on crown modeling needs and challenges. Funding was provided by the Joint Fire Science Program …

A Proposal To Improve Performance Of The Forest Vegetation Simulator - Fire And Fuels Extension, Dave C. Cawrse, Michael G. Van Dyke, Nicolas Nicholas L. Crookston, Donald Robinson, Sarah Beukema

Joint Fire Science Program Research Project Reports

The Forest Vegetation Simulator (FVS) and its associated Fire and Fuels Extension (FFE) have been used to provide information required by larger software systems like the Interagency Fuels Treatment - Decision Support System (IFT-DSS). Interacting with FVS in an automated fashion has been difficult, and simulations with very large numbers of stands, such as those necessary for landscape analyses for fire planning, could take a significant amount of time to process. This project was designed to: (A) develop a requirements document considering Service Oriented Architecture and how that may apply to FVS, and how FVS will be used interactively; (B) …

Assessment Of Canopy Fuel Loading Across A Heterogeneous Landscape Using Lidar, Kenneth L. Clark, Nicholas Skowronski, Michael Gallagher, Nicholas Carlo, Michael Farrell, Melanie R. Maghirang

Joint Fire Science Program Research Project Reports

Our research used light detection and ranging (LiDAR) systems coupled with sequential harvesting of Pitch pine (Pinus rigida Mill.) to quantify canopy fuels in three dimensions across a large, heterogeneous landscape impacted by multiple wildfires, prescribed burns and insect defoliation events. We used a three-tiered approach; 1) calibration of upward sensing profiling LiDAR data with sequential harvesting of 20 x 20 meter plots to quantify the mass of foliage, branches and stems in Pitch pine canopies in 1-meter height layers, 2) scaling results to the landscape scale using previously-published relationships between upward sensing and downward sensing scanning LiDAR systems in …

Annual Brome Biocontrol After Wildfire Using A Native Fungal Seed Pathogen, Susan E. Meyer, Phil S. Allen, Julie Beckstead, Michael Gregg, Heidi Newsome, Kathleen Harcksen, Gary Kidd, Glenn Paulsen, Karen Prentice, Dana Quinney, David Wilderman, Stephanie Carlson, Suzette Clement, Duane Smith, Thom Stewart, Katie Merrill, Keith Merrill, Kedra Foote, Stephen Harrison, Kelly Bergen, Brian Connelly, Trevor Davis, Sandra Dooley, Michael Huck, Laura Street, Lauren Miller

Joint Fire Science Program Research Project Reports

A major problem in post-fire restoration of semi-arid shrublands dominated by annual bromes is the presence of carryover seed banks that cannot be controlled using conventional methods. These seeds can provide significant competition for seeded species in the years following treatment. We investigated the feasibility of using a naturally occurring seed pathogen, the ascomycete Pyrenophora semeniperda, as a biocontrol organism for eliminating this carryover seed bank. We carried out the necessary technology development to create and apply field inoculum to cheatgrass- or red brome-infested areas (both burned and unburned) at six sites located in three states across two years of …

Changes In Vegetation And Fuels Due To The Warm Fire On The Kaibab National Forest, Melissa A. Mcmaster, Andrea Thode, Brian Brost, Matthew Williamsen, Ethan Aumack, Dave Mertz

Joint Fire Science Program Research Project Reports

Fire is a significant and essential disturbance in ponderosa pine ecosystems but the management and the re-introduction of fire across the landscape is a difficult task for land managers. In this study we worked with land managers, stakeholders and researchers to examine the effects of a large wildfire on the Kaibab Plateau in northern Arizona. We analyzed litter and duff depth, downed woody debris and understory vegetation responses to low and high burn severity and assessed the response of the understory vegetation to seeding with Lolium perenne ssp. multiflorum in high severity burn areas. To assist land managers in future …

Continued Evaluation Of Post-Fire Recovery And Treatment Effectiveness For Validation Of The Ermit Erosion Model, Peter R. Robichaud, William J. Elliot, Joseph W. Wagenbrenner, Sarah A. Lewis, Louise E. Ashmun, Peter M. Wohlgemuth, Robert E. Brown

Joint Fire Science Program Research Project Reports

The use and cost of post-fire emergency stabilization treatments continues to grow. To help maximize the impact of these treatments, many assessment teams use the Erosion Risk Management Tool (ERMiT) erosion model to predict postfire erosion and mitigation effects. However, despite several completed JFSP projects, the long-term effects of these treatments remain unknown, and the ERMiT model has not been validated. Long-term post-fire erosion and runoff data on a variety of mulches and erosion barriers were collected using 12 existing sites throughout the Western U.S. The agricultural straw and wood strand mulch treatments were very effective at reducing erosion and …

Effectiveness Of Fuel Treatments For Mitigating Wildfire Severity: A Manager‐Focused Review And Synthesis, Philip N. Omi, Erik J. Martinson Mr.

Joint Fire Science Program Research Project Reports

The 2008 Request for Applications from the Joint Fire Science Program called for a synthesis of the extant literature that addresses the effectiveness of fuel treatments. We employed a four‐pronged approach to address this task, including several scoping exercises with land managers, a literature review, a meta‐analysis, and development of an online pictorial database.

An Enhanced Online Piled Fuels Biomass Calculator, Clinton S. Wright, Paige C. Eagle

Joint Fire Science Program Research Project Reports

A web-programming project was undertaken to allow users of the online Hand-piled Fuels Biomass Calculator to also estimate the volume, biomass and potential emissions of mechanically piled fuels. Machine pile calculations encoded in the decision support software CONSUME 3.0 were added to the online Calculator to achieve this objective. In addition, the ability to batch process piled fuels data was added to the online Calculator to ease data input for large analysis projects. A stand-alone version of the Calculator was developed for users without access to the Internet. As it is executed within a standard web browser (e.g., Microsoft Internet …

Evaluating The Effects Of Pinyon Thinning Treatments At A Wildland Urban Interface, J. R. Matchett, Matthew L. Brooks, Anne Halford, Dale Johnson, Helen Smith

Joint Fire Science Program Research Project Reports

This study evaluated the short-term effects of thinning methods for pinyon pine woodlands at two sites in the southwestern Great Basin. Both cut/pile/burn and mastication treatments were equally effective at reducing the target fuels which were mature, live pinyon trees. Application costs though differed substantially, with the cut/pile/burn technique being less expensive. Thinning treatments increased the abundance of herbaceous vegetation, although in some cases the strength of the increase was constrained by the level of pre-treatment tree dominance. Increases in perennial grass cover and density in response to thinning were usually greatest at lower levels of pre-treatment pinyon dominance, whereas …

Exploring The Traditional Use Of Fire In The Coastal Mountains Of Central California, Brent E. Johnson, Rand R. Everett, Kent G. Lightfoot, Charles J. Stiplen

Joint Fire Science Program Research Project Reports

This study brought together a team of ecologists, archaeologists, environmental historians, indigenous peoples, and land managers within a research framework combining an ethnographic investigation of traditional practices with cutting-edge paleoecological techniques to answer questions about Indian utilization of fire as an ecological and cultural landscape management tool in Central Coastal California. The study was designed around four key elements: (1) examining fire regimes for research sites using a combination of fire scar dendrochronology, phytoliths, archaeology, historical information, and traditional ecological knowledge; (2) attempting to formalize a methodology for using phytoliths to estimate the fire return interval and intensity in grassland …

Fire Regimes Of The Southern Appalachian Mountains: Temporal And Spatial Variability Over Multiple Scales And Implications For Ecosystem Management, Charles W. Lafon, Henri D. Grissino-Mayer, Sally P. Horn, Robert N. Klein

Joint Fire Science Program Research Project Reports

Information about historic fire regimes and the departure of current fire regimes from historic conditions is essential for guiding and justifying management actions, such as prescribed burning programs for ecosystem process restoration and fuel reduction. Such information is noticeably lacking for the southern Appalachian Mountains, where human populations are encroaching onto wildland areas, and where decades of fire exclusion have contributed to the decline of fire-associated communities and also to altered fuel loads. We address this knowledge gap via a multi-scale investigation of the variability in fire regimes over time and space using tree-ring reconstructions of fire history and stand …

Fuel Consumption And Smoke Emissions From Landscape-Scale Burns In Eastern Hardwoods, Matthew Dickinson, Ann Acheson, Robert Kremens

Joint Fire Science Program Research Project Reports

Our project used remotely-sensed infrared radiation measurements to estimate fuel consumption in eastern mixed-oak forests and facilitated the development of smoke management expertise and processes for complying with EPA regulations in Ohio and Kentucky. As a result of two workshops, Ohio developed a Smoke Management Plan designed to ensure that best management practices were being used across land ownerships and to facilitate mandated information sharing with the Ohio EPA and US EPA. Ohio also established a Prescribed Fire Council as a result of this process. Kentucky opted for a less formal response to EPA regulations, establishing a Prescribed Fire Council …

Developing And Using Fire Scar Histories In The Southern And Eastern United States, Richard P. Guyette, Martin Spetich, Daniel C. Dey

Joint Fire Science Program Research Project Reports

Land managers developing fire management plans in the eastern and southern United States lack quantitative information on historic fire regimes. Twelve new fire histories were developed from dated fire scars on trees from regions where no fire scar history data had existed before in the states of Alabama, Louisiana, Kentucky, Iowa, Wisconsin, and Michigan. Sites represent highly variable climates from extreme cold (with long snow cover duration) to subtropical. All sites utilized oak or pine recorder species that were collected from closed forest to open savanna structures. Pre-industrial mean fire intervals ranged from 3 to more than 35 years at …

Do Annual Prescribed Fires Enhance Or Slow The Loss Of Coastal Marsh Habitat At Blackwater National Wildlife Refuge?, Donald R. Cahoon, Glenn Guntenspergen, Suzanne Baird

Joint Fire Science Program Research Project Reports

The rate of estuarine marsh loss at Blackwater NWR has been high (up to 2,000 ha) during the past 80 years because the vertical buildup of the marsh surface has lagged behind the local rate of relative sea-level rise. In this mineral sediment-poor estuary, marsh vertical development is driven primarily by the accumulation of plant matter in the soil (roots and rhizomes). Thus any activity that affects plant productivity can affect the ability of these marshes to keep pace with sea-level rise. Blackwater NWR has employed an annual prescribed fire regime since the 1970’s to achieve multiple management objectives. However, …

Do Fuel Treatments Reduce Fire Severity? Evaluating Treatment Effectiveness In The 2006 Tripod Complex Fires, Susan J. Prichard, David L. Peterson

Joint Fire Science Program Research Project Reports

The 2006 Tripod Complex fires burned over 70,000 ha of dry mixed conifer forests in north-central Washington State. Recent fuel treatments burned in the wildfire offered an opportunity to quantitatively evaluate if fuel treatment effectively mitigated fire severity. We quantified the relative effect of two common fuel treatments: mechanical thinning only (thin) and mechanical thinning followed by prescribed burning (thinRx). Fire severity was markedly different between the two treatments. Over 57% of trees survived in thinRx units versus 19% in thin and 14% in control units. Considering only large-diameter trees (> 20 cm dbh), 73% survived in thinRx units versus …

Effect Of Season And Interval Of Prescribed Burns In A Ponderosa Pine Ecosystem On Tree Growth And Understory Vegetation., W. G. Thies, Becky K. Kerns, Douglas J. Westlind

Joint Fire Science Program Research Project Reports

After decades of fire exclusion many stands now have historically unprecedented (high) levels of fuels and overstocking. As a result these stands have developed a variety of health issues. In response to these problems land managers are using prescribed fire to restore fuel loads and stand stocking to pre-fire exclusion levels. The impacts of season of prescribed burn as well as burn interval are not well understood. Managers need the ability to better predict these impacts on such things as tree mortality from fire, associated insect attack and disease development, tree growth, and plant communities. The “Season of Burn” study …