Severe drought drives pulse of snags and fuel loads
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This study analyzes tree death in Yosemite National Park and Sequoia/Kings Canyon National Park following the 2012-2016 drought.
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Prescribed fire and mastication reduced bark-beetle-caused pine mortality
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This study analyzes data from a mixed-severity fire in the northern range of coast redwood to create a model for predicting postfire response of four redwood community plants.Mastication, thinning, and prescribed fire can help shift fire-prone forests to a structure more resilient to fire and other disturbances. However, the ability to evaluate treatment effectiveness requires long-term monitoring of forest responses to disturbances and assessing changes in fuel loadings and structure. Researchers from Michigan State University and the USFS Fire Behavior Assessment Team remeasured a ponderosa pine forest 13 years after a combination of treatments were implemented: no treatment/control (C), mastication (M), mastication + burn (MB), and mastication + pull back of surface fuels + burn (MPB).
Read MoreHeading fires consume more fuels than backing fires
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Researchers from Michigan State University and the USFS Fire Behavior Assessment Team used 15 years of immediate pre- and post-fire fuel and wildfire behavior data to identify the role of fire advancement mode and pre-fire environmental drivers (e.g., topography, fire weather, and fuel loadings) on fuel consumption and fire effects in California mixed-conifer forests.
Read MoreFire and fuels management in coast redwood forests
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This report compiles research on fuel conditions, fire history, and fire effects data from contemporary wildfires to provide context for the future management of old growth coast redwood stands and restoration of old growth attributes in second growth forests. The report also investigates fire hazards present in redwood forests and their fire management implications.
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Read MoreShaded fuel breaks create wildfire-resilient forest stands in the Sierra Nevada
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This study leveraged data collected from 20-year-old forest monitoring plots within fuel treatment units that captured a range of wildfire occurrence (i.e., not burned, burned once, or burned twice) following application of initial thinning treatments and prescribed fire.
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Read MoreGrazing for Fuel Reduction and Resilience in Forested Ecosystems: Research Synthesis
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This synthesis summarizes the relevance of targeted grazing for fuel reduction and ecosystem resilience and discusses some of its primary applications and limitations.
Read MoreThe 2020 fire season: an eye-opener but not a fluke: Research Brief
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This paper summarizes important outcomes of the 2020 fire year in California and discusses what we can learn from them.
Read MorePolicy Reforms for Prescribed Fire Liability Relief and Catastrophe Funds: Research Brief
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This paper argues that the expansion of prescribed fire will require new public policies that both protect burn practitioners from liability and compensate for losses from potential fire escapes.
Read MoreWhat is forest resilience and how do we measure it? Research Brief
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In dry frequent-fire forests of the western US, forest restoration goals are often focused on promoting resilience to disturbances. This brief highlights ways to manage dry western forests for improved resilience.
Read MoreWinter burning opportunities in the Sierra Nevada: Research Brief
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With narrowing and potentially non-existent opportunities during other times of year, winter may currently be the most realistic and advantageous time to conduct prescribed burns. This study evaluated the effectiveness and feasibility of winter burning to demonstrate its potential utility in mixed conifer forests.
Read MoreManaging fuel profiles in high severity burns: Research Brief
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This study measured wildland fuels (shrubs, downed logs, and fine woody debris) eleven years after high-severity fire converted a Sierra mixed-conifer forest to shrub-dominant vegetation. The findings of this study suggest that site preparation and vegetation control is an effective tool to reduce fuel loads and continuity of live and downed woody fuels in early seral environments created by high-severity fire.
Read MoreUsing pyrosilviculture to make forests inclusive of fire at larger scales: Research Brief
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This paper suggests pyrosilviculture, a combination of mechanical treatments and prescribed fire and/or managed wildfire, can be used strategically to modify future wildfires at larger spatial scales.
Read MoreCalifornia’s 1-million-acre goal: tracking our progress: Research Brief
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In this study, the authors integrated archival federal (FACTS) and state (CAL FIRE) forest activity databases dating from 1984 to 2019, analyzed current and historic management trends, and evaluated the archival record’s spatial accuracy against remotely sensed data. California’s progress toward the 1-million-acres of annually treated land is currently at 30%.
Read MoreForest Restoration and Fuels Reduction: Convergent or Divergent? Research Brief
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Do fuel reduction treatments result in restored conditions that align with those found in historically frequent-fire forests of the west? A recent paper sets out to answer that question by examining the principles behind fuel reduction and forest restoration projects and identifying situations where the two approaches align and where they may diverge.
Read MoreDrought and bark beetle induced tree mortality elevates wildfire severity of California’s Sierra Nevada forests: Research Brief
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This article uses field data from two wildfires (the 2015 Rough Fire and 2016 Cedar Fire) that burned in areas of recent severe tree mortality to examine whether and under what conditions the pre-fire tree mortality affected wildfire severity.
Read MoreCosts of alternative fuel reduction treatments: Research Brief
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This study compares the costs of prescribed fire and thinning treatments while putting treatment costs in the context of treatment effectiveness.
Read MoreLonger-term impacts of fuels reduction treatments in the Lake Tahoe Basin: Research Brief
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Employing a robust before-after-control-impact (BACI) study design, researchers assessed how thinning in forests altered forest structural conditions in the short- and longer-term in the Sierra Nevada.
Read MoreInteractions Between Fire and Climate in the California Sierra Nevada: Research Synthesis
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Given the changing disturbance regimes and climate, there is a critical need to take decisive and extensive actions in the next 1-2 decades to conserve Sierra Nevada forests. This synthesis provides a summary of how climate change and fire are impacting our Sierra Nevada Mixed Conifer forests and how active management can help mitigate some of these impacts.
Read MoreHow Sierra Nevada Tree Mortality changed with Management, Precipitation and Forest Density: Research Brief
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This paper compares tree mortality patterns in treated (thinned and/or burned) forested stands to untreated stands and how these treatments affect forest response to drought.
Read MoreTreating Forests more strategically to Reduce Fire Severity and Carbon Loss: Research Brief
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Locating forest treatments in the right places can make them as or more effective than treating everywhere, shows new research out by Krofcheck et al. 2018. The authors found that restoring less acres strategically can have the same impacts as treating more area indiscriminately in terms of reducing high severity wildfire risk and carbon instability.
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