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Articles 901 - 930 of 1224

Full-Text Articles in Other Forestry and Forest Sciences

Fire And Fuels Management In Coast Redwood Forests, Steven P. Norman, J. Morgan Varner, Leonel Arguello, Stephen Underwood, Bradley Graham, Greg Jennings, Yana Valachovic, Christopher Lee Jan 2009

Fire And Fuels Management In Coast Redwood Forests, Steven P. Norman, J. Morgan Varner, Leonel Arguello, Stephen Underwood, Bradley Graham, Greg Jennings, Yana Valachovic, Christopher Lee

Joint Fire Science Program Research Project Reports

Coast redwood forests rank among the most significant natural features of North America, yet our understanding of how they came to be and how we might sustain them has been beset by scientific and management uncertainty for decades. A key part of this controversy has been the historical importance of fire given the mild coastal climate and small number of lightning ignitions. In the northern part of the coast redwood range, past research found that fire was uncommon, but results conflicted with others that found fire to be as frequent as in any dry forest of western North America. We …

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A Chronosequence Feasibility Assessment Of Emergency Fire Rehabilitation Records Within The Intermountain Western United States, Kevin C. Knutson, David A. Pyke, Troy A. Wirth, David S. Pilliod, Matthew L. Brooks, Jeanne C. Chambers Jan 2009

A Chronosequence Feasibility Assessment Of Emergency Fire Rehabilitation Records Within The Intermountain Western United States, Kevin C. Knutson, David A. Pyke, Troy A. Wirth, David S. Pilliod, Matthew L. Brooks, Jeanne C. Chambers

Joint Fire Science Program Research Project Reports

Department of the Interior (DOI) bureaus have invested heavily (for example, the U.S. Bureau of Land Management (BLM) spent more than $60 million in fiscal year 2007) in seeding vegetation for emergency stabilization and burned area rehabilitation of non-forested arid lands over the past 10 years. The primary objectives of these seedings commonly are to (1) reduce the post-fire dominance of non-native annual grasses, such as cheatgrass (Bromus tectorum) and red brome (Bromus rubens); (2) minimize the probability of recurrent fire; and (3) ultimately produce desirable vegetation characteristics (for example, ability to recover following disturbance [resilience], resistance to invasive species, …

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Extending The Reach Of The Fire Effects Planning Framework By Taking A Critical Approach To Science Delivery And Application, Anne E. Black, Carol Miller, Vita Wright, Kate Walker, Carolyn Ballard, Paula Nasiatka, Brett Fay, Linda Chappell, Dave Calkin Jan 2009

Extending The Reach Of The Fire Effects Planning Framework By Taking A Critical Approach To Science Delivery And Application, Anne E. Black, Carol Miller, Vita Wright, Kate Walker, Carolyn Ballard, Paula Nasiatka, Brett Fay, Linda Chappell, Dave Calkin

Joint Fire Science Program Research Project Reports

The Fire Effects Planning Framework (FEPF), developed under JFSP project (99-1-3-16) “Wildland fuels management: evaluating and planning risks and benefits,” was formally completed in June 2004. FEPF is a logical framework that uses available data (e.g., local, LANDFIRE data) and existing software (e.g., GIS, Farsite, FlamMap, expert knowledge) to produce maps of probable fire effects during the pre-season or in advance of a fire front. The initial project included significant technology transfer activities. As that project concluded, however, we continued to receive requests for assistance from field managers (District, Forest and Regional Forest Service offices), international organizations (Interior West Fire …

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In Plantations Or Natural Stands: Ponderosa Is Programmed To Partner With Fire, Marjie Brown Jan 2009

In Plantations Or Natural Stands: Ponderosa Is Programmed To Partner With Fire, Marjie Brown

Joint Fire Science Program Briefs (2007-2012)

Ponderosa pine plantation forests cover nearly 400,000 acres of California’s National Forests. Fire hazard is extreme both within and adjacent to many of these areas which has led to extensive fuel reduction plans for plantations and other forests on federal public lands. Although fuels treatments have been implemented on a limited basis in California’s plantations, the effectiveness of varying methods has only recently received scientifi c attention. This project analyzed the effectiveness of individual and combination treatments to provide science-based guidance for fi re hazard reduction in these areas. Prescribed understory fi re, both alone and combined with pre-burn mastication, …

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Fire Returns To Southern Appalachian Forests, Elise Lequire Jan 2009

Fire Returns To Southern Appalachian Forests, Elise Lequire

Joint Fire Science Program Briefs (2007-2012)

In the Daniel Boone National Forest (DBNF) in eastern Kentucky, controlled experiments are shedding light on the role of fi re in meeting an urgent need: encouraging regeneration of oak in the forest. Though mature oak dominates the canopy in much of the forest, competition from species that tolerate shade has jeopardized the ability of oak to successfully regenerate. Since 1995, researchers have been collaborating with Forest Service managers, with funding from the Joint Fire Science Program (JFSP), to document the multiple effects of prescribed fi re on canopy opening, seedling recruitment, damage to mature trees, fuel loading, and effects …

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Angle Of Repose: Testing Erosion And Prescribed Fire In Eastern Oregon And Washington’S Blue Mountains, Lisa-Natalie Anjozian Jan 2009

Angle Of Repose: Testing Erosion And Prescribed Fire In Eastern Oregon And Washington’S Blue Mountains, Lisa-Natalie Anjozian

Joint Fire Science Program Briefs (2007-2012)

Some forest lands in the United States are overgrown with small trees and thick with fuels. Prescribed fire has been used in many forests and woodlands to reduce fuel loads and the risk of wildfi re. But forests are unique, with different soils, plants, weather, and topography. While erosion from prescribed fi re would seem to be less severe than from a wildfire, prior to this study, little data existed on erosion rates and the infl uence of prescribed fi re on erosion in the Blue Mountains of eastern Oregon and Washington. This study showed that hillslope erosion in the …

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Do Fence Me In: Cattle Enlisted In The Great Basin To Reverse The Cheatgrass/Wildfire Cycle, Elise Lequire Jan 2009

Do Fence Me In: Cattle Enlisted In The Great Basin To Reverse The Cheatgrass/Wildfire Cycle, Elise Lequire

Joint Fire Science Program Briefs (2007-2012)

Cheatgrass and cattle have co-existed in the Great Basin since the late 19th century, when both were introduced by settlers of the western territories. Unchecked grazing of the sagebrush-steppe community decimated the native perennial grasses in some areas and gave cheatgrass, a nonnative annual, permanent inroads into the ecosystem. Cheatgrass is generally palatable and nutritious for cattle in spring, but dries quickly in the hot, dry summers typical of the Great Basin, becoming a flashy fuel that carries fire quickly. The invasion has drastically shortened the fire return interval and led to increasingly intense and fast spreading wildfi res, which …

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Wildland Fire Use: Managing For A Fire-Smart Landscape, Gail Wells Jan 2009

Wildland Fire Use: Managing For A Fire-Smart Landscape, Gail Wells

Joint Fire Science Program Digests

The promise of wildland fire use (WFU) is that, over time, the fires will play a more natural role, creating a jigsaw-puzzle pattern of burned and regrowing patches over a landscape and gradually moving it closer to the stand structure and species composition that prevailed before fire exclusion became the policy.

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Letter From The Dean, Lalit Verma Jan 2009

Letter From The Dean, Lalit Verma

Discovery, The Student Journal of Dale Bumpers College of Agricultural, Food and Life Sciences

No abstract provided.

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Managing Gambel Oak In Southwestern Ponderosa Pine Forests: The Status Of Our Knowledge, Scott R. Abella Nov 2008

Managing Gambel Oak In Southwestern Ponderosa Pine Forests: The Status Of Our Knowledge, Scott R. Abella

Public Policy and Leadership Faculty Research

Gambel oak (Quercus gambelii) is a key deciduous species in southwestern ponderosa pine (Pinus ponderosa) forests and is important for wildlife habitat, soil processes, and human values. This report (1) summarizes Gambel oak’s biological characteristics and importance in ponderosa pine forests, (2) synthesizes literature on changes in tree densities and fire frequencies since Euro-American settlement in pine-oak forests, (3) suggests management prescriptions for accomplishing various oak management objectives (for example, increasing diameter growth or acorn production), and (4) provides an appendix containing 203 Gambel oak literature citations organized by subject. Nine studies that reconstructed Gambel oak density changes since settlement …

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Gambel Oak Growth Forms: Management Opportunities For Increasing Ecosystem Diversity, Scott R. Abella Sep 2008

Gambel Oak Growth Forms: Management Opportunities For Increasing Ecosystem Diversity, Scott R. Abella

Public Policy and Leadership Faculty Research

Gambel oak (Quercus gambelii) clones have several different growth forms in southwestern ponderosa pine (Pinus ponderosa) forests, and these growth forms each provide unique wildlife habitat and resource values. The purposes of this note are to review published growth-form classifications for Gambel oak, provide examples of ecological effects of different growth forms, and summarize management strategies for promoting desired growth forms. Four different growth-form classifications have been published, which generally recognize variants of three basic forms: shrubby thickets of small-diameter stems, pole-sized clumps, and large trees. These growth forms exemplify ecological and management tradeoffs. For example, shrubby forms provide browse …

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Changes In Gambel Oak Densities In Southwestern Ponderosa Pine Forests Since Euro-American Settlement, Scott R. Abella, Peter Z. Fule Sep 2008

Changes In Gambel Oak Densities In Southwestern Ponderosa Pine Forests Since Euro-American Settlement, Scott R. Abella, Peter Z. Fule

Public Policy and Leadership Faculty Research

Densities of small-diameter ponderosa pine (Pinus ponderosa) trees have increased in southwestern ponderosa pine forests during a period of fire exclusion since Euro-American settlement in the late 1800s. However, less well known are potential changes in Gambel oak (Quercus gambelii) densities during this period in these forests. We reviewed published literature to summarize changes in oak density in ponderosa pine forests over the past 140 years and evaluated the possibility that large-diameter oaks have decreased in density. All nine studies examining oak density changes found that densities of small-diameter oaks have escalated. Increases ranged from 4- to more than 63-fold. …

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Estimating Soil Seed Bank Characteristics In Ponderosa Pine Forests Using Vegetation And Forest-Floor Data, Scott R. Abella, Judith D. Springer Sep 2008

Estimating Soil Seed Bank Characteristics In Ponderosa Pine Forests Using Vegetation And Forest-Floor Data, Scott R. Abella, Judith D. Springer

Public Policy and Leadership Faculty Research

Soil seed banks are important for vegetation management because they contain propagules of species that may be considered desirable or undesirable for site colonization after management and disturbance events. Knowledge of seed bank size and composition before planning management activities facilitates proactive management by providing early alerts of exotic species presence and of abilities of seed banks to promote colonization by desirable species. We developed models in ponderosa pine (Pinus ponderosa) forests in northern Arizona to estimate the size and richness of mineral soil seed banks using readily observable vegetation and forestfloor characteristics. Regression models using three or fewer predictors …

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Big Changes In The Great Basin, Gail Wells Jun 2008

Big Changes In The Great Basin, Gail Wells

Joint Fire Science Program Digests

Joint Science Fire Program (JFSP)-funded researchers are exploring the ecological functioning of sagebrush-steppe communities in the Great Basin and other places in the dry Intermountain West. Their work is helping managers effectively use tools such as tree mastication and prescribed fire to help these communities become more resilient in the face of invasive weeds. Other research is finding ways to reestablish native vegetation on sites where weedy invaders have pushed the community past the point where it can recover on its own.

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Granivores And Restoration: Implications Of Invasion And Considerations Of Context-Dependent Seed Removal, Steven M. Ostoja May 2008

Granivores And Restoration: Implications Of Invasion And Considerations Of Context-Dependent Seed Removal, Steven M. Ostoja

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

Granivores are important components of sagebrush communities in western North America. These same regions are being altered by the invasion of the exotic annual Bromus tectorum (cheatgrass) that alters physical and biological dynamics in ways that appear to promote its persistence. This research directly relates to the restoration of B. tectorum-dominated systems in two inter-related ways. First, because these landscapes have large quantities of seeds applied during restoration, it is important to determine the major granivore communities in intact sagebrush communities and in nearby cheatgrass-dominated communities. Second, it is important to develop an understanding of patterns of seed harvest …

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Timber Industry, Susie Van Kirk Apr 2008

Timber Industry, Susie Van Kirk

Susie Van Kirk Papers

Extensive newspaper references on logging, mills and the industry in Humboldt County. Overall date range spanning 1898-1988 with bulk dates spanning 1939-1960.

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Fire Effects On Gambel Oak In Southwestern Ponderosa Pine-Oak Forests, Scott R. Abella, Peter Z. Fule Apr 2008

Fire Effects On Gambel Oak In Southwestern Ponderosa Pine-Oak Forests, Scott R. Abella, Peter Z. Fule

Public Policy and Leadership Faculty Research

Gambel oak (Quercus gambelii) is ecologically and aesthetically valuable in southwestern ponderosa pine (Pinus ponderosa) forests. Fire effects on Gambel oak are important because fire may be used in pine-oak forests to manage oak directly or to accomplish other management objectives. We used published literature to: (1) ascertain historical fire regimes in pine-oak forests, (2) discern prescribed burning effects on Gambel oak survival and diameter growth, and (3) provide suggestions for using fire to manage oak. Frequent fire is part of Gambel oak’s historical environment, as historical fire return intervals often averaged less than 10 years in pine-oak forests. More …

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The Rothermel Fire-Spread Model: Still Running Like A Champ, Gail Wells Mar 2008

The Rothermel Fire-Spread Model: Still Running Like A Champ, Gail Wells

Joint Fire Science Program Digests

In 1972, aeronautical engineer Richard C. Rothermel, of the USDA Fire Sciences Lab at Missoula, Montana, developed a method for modeling the spread of wildfire. The model became widely used, and although the ensuing years have brought many technological innovations, it is still the engine of the predictive tools used by fire behavior officers today. The Joint Science Fire Program (JFSP) is pleased to offer Dick Rothermel’s story as a tribute to a significant accomplishment, and also to showcase some of the current work at the Fire Sciences Lab.

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From Debate To Design: Issues In Clean Energy And Climate Change Law And Policy, Leslie Parker, Jennifer Ronk, Rachel Maxwell, Bradford Gentry, Marijn Wilder, James Cameron Jan 2008

From Debate To Design: Issues In Clean Energy And Climate Change Law And Policy, Leslie Parker, Jennifer Ronk, Rachel Maxwell, Bradford Gentry, Marijn Wilder, James Cameron

Yale School of the Environment Publications Series

A report on the work of the REIL Network 2007-2008

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Sagebrush Steppe: A Story Of Encroachment And Invasion Jan 2008

Sagebrush Steppe: A Story Of Encroachment And Invasion

Joint Fire Science Program Briefs (2007-2012)

Sagebrush steppe has been rapidly changing into woodlands of western juniper and pinyon pine since Euroamerican settlement of the West in the middle of the nineteenth century. The change from the dry scattered shrub and grasslands to woodlands has changed more than plants—it has also changed the fi re regime. Studies have revealed a threshold at which understory plants may not rebound after a disturbance—when trees have reached 40- to 50-percent cover. Disturbance—by fi re and overgrazing—also makes resources such as nutrients and soil water available for weeds to exploit, allowing invasives such as cheatgrass to establish and expand into …

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Testing The Conventional Wisdom: Fuel Management Approaches For The Central Hardwood Region, Jake Delwiche Jan 2008

Testing The Conventional Wisdom: Fuel Management Approaches For The Central Hardwood Region, Jake Delwiche

Joint Fire Science Program Briefs (2007-2012)

It’s not for nothing that Missouri calls itself the “Show Me State.” The name implies a common-sense insistence on seeing the evidence, an interest in seeing the proof. Thus, it is appropriate that an important long-term forestry research project is taking place in Southeastern Missouri. The goal is to test widely held opinions on the role and effectiveness of various forest fuel management strategies. Research results continue to be collected on the effects of overstory thinning and prescribed burning on forest fuelloads, and on using these tools to change the permanent character of the forest itself. The project began in …

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Forecast For The Southern Boreal Forest: An Increasing Incidence Of Severe Disturbance, Elise Lequire Jan 2008

Forecast For The Southern Boreal Forest: An Increasing Incidence Of Severe Disturbance, Elise Lequire

Joint Fire Science Program Briefs (2007-2012)

On Independence Day, 1999, a storm system that originated over the Gulf of Mexico and passed through North Dakota dealt a severe blow to nearly half a million acres of the Superior National Forest in northern Minnesota. The blowdown, or derecho, packed winds exceeding 90 miles per hour and left in its wake downed and damaged trees and a dangerously high fuel load. Nearly half a million acres of forest were affected, primarily in the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness (BWCAW) and the Gunfl int Trail Corridor, a strip of land in public and private ownership that supports a thriving …

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Pentimento: Fuels Reduction And Restoration In The Bosque Of The Middle Rio Grande, Lisa-Natalie Anjozian Jan 2008

Pentimento: Fuels Reduction And Restoration In The Bosque Of The Middle Rio Grande, Lisa-Natalie Anjozian

Joint Fire Science Program Briefs (2007-2012)

The Middle Rio Grande of New Mexico is the most extensive, remaining bosque, or cottonwood forest in the southwest. Alterations caused by humans—damming and channeling the river, controlling floods, and planting non-native trees—have disrupted the cycles of the earlier ecosystem. Without periodic flooding, native cottonwoods cannot regenerate. Invasive exotic plants such as Tamarisk, also known as salt cedar, and Russian olive have filled in the gaps and open spaces, increased fuel loads, and continue to replace native trees and shrubs after wildfires. Cottonwoods, not a fire-adapted species, are now at risk from wildfire and replacement by invasive plants. An array …

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Behavior Modification: Tempering Fire At The Landscape Level, Lisa-Natalie Anjozian Jan 2008

Behavior Modification: Tempering Fire At The Landscape Level, Lisa-Natalie Anjozian

Joint Fire Science Program Briefs (2007-2012)

With a history of management choices that have suppressed fire in the West, ecosystems in which fire would play a vital role have developed tremendous fuel loads. As a result, conditions are prime for fires to grow large, escape attack measures, and become catastrophic conflagrations that damage watersheds, forest resources, and homes. With a quiver of treatment options, land managers have successfully used prescribed burning and thinning to modify landscapes at the stand level. But planning treatments to modify fuel build up on a patch of forest is vastly different than planning treatments that could modify fire’s spread over larger …

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Fire And Climate In The Inland Pacific Northwest: Integrating Science And Management, Rachel Clark Jan 2008

Fire And Climate In The Inland Pacific Northwest: Integrating Science And Management, Rachel Clark

Joint Fire Science Program Briefs (2007-2012)

Climate is a vital force shaping much of life on Earth. People have long suspected a link between climate and susceptibility of forests to fire. But measuring such a relationship has been challenging without tools capable of taking into account climate, forest structure through space and time, and other variables. Managers and planners who make decisions to maintain forest health need an accurate understanding of how climate is linked to fire regimes, as well as tools to help them do it. Such tools would take complex information and allow it to be accessed in a straightforward and effective way. Don …

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Taking The Guesswork Out Of Lightning-Caused Wildfire, Marjie Brown Jan 2008

Taking The Guesswork Out Of Lightning-Caused Wildfire, Marjie Brown

Joint Fire Science Program Briefs (2007-2012)

Lightning is a natural source of wildfi re ignitions and causes a substantial portion of large wildfi res across the globe. Simple predictions of lightning activity don’t accurately determine fi re ignition potential because fuel conditions must be considered in addition to the fact that most lightning is accompanied by signifi cant rain. Fire operations managers need improved tools for prediction of widespread dry thunderstorms, which are those that occur without signifi cant rainfall reaching the ground. It is these dry storms that generate lightning most likely to result in multiple fi re ignitions, often in remote areas. In previous …

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How Does A Sierran Forest Grow? Fire, Thinning, And Regenerating Trees, Lisa-Natalie Anjozian Jan 2008

How Does A Sierran Forest Grow? Fire, Thinning, And Regenerating Trees, Lisa-Natalie Anjozian

Joint Fire Science Program Briefs (2007-2012)

Excluding fi re over the last century has allowed canopy cover to burgeon, to thicken, along with litter depth (dead needles and leaves accumulated on the forest fl oor), and tree density in western forests. These changes have altered the small scale (microsite) conditions that affect the ability of tree seedlings to establish. This study in a mixed-conifer forest in the Sierra Nevada revealed relationships between established understory trees and microsite quality, and examined the effect of fi re, thinning, and shrub cover on seedling establishment. Most of the conifer species grew on microsites with relatively high soil moisture and …

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Fire Is For The Birds In Northern Mixed-Grass Prairie, Marjie Brown Jan 2008

Fire Is For The Birds In Northern Mixed-Grass Prairie, Marjie Brown

Joint Fire Science Program Briefs (2007-2012)

Roughly 25,000 acres of grassland in the National Wildlife Refuges of North Dakota and eastern Montana are treated every year with prescribed fi re, mostly on northern mixed-grass prairie. Although this shrinking ecosystem is fi readapted, there have been very few studies of the effects of prescribed fi re on wildlife, introduced and native plants, and wildlife-habitat relationships in this delicate ecosystem. For this project, researchers documented short- and long-term fi re effects on abundance, productivity, nest site selection and nest predation in migratory birds, especially grassland songbirds. They also measured the impacts of encroaching woody shrubs and trees on …

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Something In The Air: Climate, Fire, And Ponderosa Pine In Southwestern Colorado, Lisa-Natalie Anjozian Jan 2008

Something In The Air: Climate, Fire, And Ponderosa Pine In Southwestern Colorado, Lisa-Natalie Anjozian

Joint Fire Science Program Briefs (2007-2012)

Strong, abrupt climate changes on a time scale of annual to decadal length, can have widespread and long-lasting effects on forest communities. Climate affects forests by creating conditions that kill trees through severe drought, or that promote tree establishment during rainy periods that foster seedlings and saplings. Climate also affects disturbance events that produce the conditions that allow, or limit, fi re occurrence. In studying a ponderosa pine forest in southwestern Colorado, scientists found few trees older than a regional “megadrought” that lasted over two decades in the late 1500s. In the 1600s, a long rainy period allowed trees to …

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Searching, Witnessing, Testing: Plants And Fire In Southern California, Lisa-Natalie Anjozian Jan 2008

Searching, Witnessing, Testing: Plants And Fire In Southern California, Lisa-Natalie Anjozian

Joint Fire Science Program Briefs (2007-2012)

Scant knowledge exists on how threatened, endangered, and sensitive (TES) plants on wildlands in southern California respond to fire. With little information to go on, land managers face diffi culties in deciding when to apply prescribed fire as a fuel reduction tool in sensitive habitats. By looking at the postfire landscape of the Manter Fire in the southern Sierra Nevada, which shares rare species with mountains farther south, scientists found the dramatic and dynamic effect of fire on short term recovery. Profuse wildflower displays and other annuals thrived in the first two years postfire, then diminished. Perennials persisted, including previously …

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