In a collaborative project funded by the non-profit Desert Tortoise Council with Natural Resource Conservation LLC, the authors synthesized published literature and practitioner’s experiences to develop best-management practices for habitats of desert tortoises.
Read MoreCollaboratively with the National Park Service, the authors performed a study along Northshore Road in Lake Mead National Recreation Area (eastern Mojave Desert, Nevada) to develop biocrust restoration strategies. Results and management recommendations for the most effective restoration methods are discussed.
Read MoreIn the early 20th century, there was an intense controversy over systematic “light burning, the practice of using cool fire as a management tool (similar to what we call prescribed fires today). These practices for fire control were highly debated before fire suppression policies overwhelmingly prevailed. Presented here is a series of research briefs that review publications from this controversy at this interesting look into history.
Read MoreThis research brief discusses the lessons learned from the costly fires of 2003 in Southern California. Recommendations on future fuel reduction strategies and placement are discussed.
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Read MoreOld-growth chaparral systems are biodiversity hotspots that need to be protected for legal, functional, and ethical reasons. This learning module describes these Mediterranean Type Climate systems from a global perspective so that we can better protect them.
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Read MoreIn northern, southern, coastal, and interior California, examples exist of paired sibling Arctostaphylos subspecies exhibiting two alternate life strategies for surviving disturbance: resprouting and obligate seeding. This is a wonderful opportunity to observe how natural selection might favor one life strategy type over another, particularly in “an era of rapid climate change."
Read MoreThe authors examined the relationship between fuels and fire behavior by examining how fire suppression has affected fire severity in different forest ecosystems in California. The authors tested the hypothesis that fire behavior is limited by fuel availability in some California forests where climatic conditions during the fire season are nearly always conducive to burning and the primary limiting factor for fire ignition and spread is the presence of sufficient fuel.
Read MoreIn many past and present ecosystems, changes in animal, plant, and human communities have been more influential in rapid local fire regime disruption than climate. The good news is that, unlike climate change, these direct, proximate community causes can be practically addressed by fire and resource managers.
Read MoreResprouting plants are common throughout the world and resprouting is a familiar response to any kind of disturbance that kills living tissue. Resprouting is a seemingly simple trait that has complex underlying morphological and anatomical origins among diverse evolutionary lineages.
Read MoreSome shrub species are obligate resprouters, some are obligate seeders, and others are facultative seeders, combining both resprouting and postfire seeding to various degrees. How could this diversity in fire response have evolved and how does it coexist?
Read MoreThis brief discusses how to improve forage for the threatened desert tortoise through increasing abundance of native plant forage species.
Read MoreThis brief discusses the findings from an in-depth synthesis of animal responses to fires in California shrubland systems.
Read MoreData Product and Research Brief
Read MoreResearch Brief/Management Consideration. One topic that is generating a great deal of interest among fire management professionals as California enters the fall prescribed fire season is whether we should be burning during this fourth year of drought. This brief discusses what managers should consider before doing a prescribed burn.
Read MoreThe six features of effective federal fire management plans are: consistent and compatible,
collaborative, clear and comprehensive, spatially and temporally scalable, informed by the best
available science, flexible and adaptive. Additional tools and strategies are discussed.
Meyer, M. D., Roberts, S. L., Wills, R., Brooks, M., & Winford, E. M.. 2015. Principles of effective USA federal fire management plans. Fire Ecology 11(2): 59–83. doi: 10.4996/fireecology.1102059.
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In this study, the average core area of the owls’ pre-fire forest habitat was 106 ha with a greater proportion of hardwoods compared to an average core area of 180 ha in the Sierra in which conifers dominate.
Read MoreThis ambitious four-year study assessed fire effects on the diversity of ten carnivore species and frequency of the three most common carnivore species after a 5670- ha fire in 2007.
Read MoreIn this 5-year study, the post-fire populations and microhabitat preferences of four small mammal species were compared. The study analyzed preferences in unburned, moderate and high-severity fire in mixed conifer forest.
Read MoreHotter, drier climates resulting from climate change will reduce the ability of woody plants to recover after fire. When combined with shorter fire return intervals, the resulting “interval squeeze” increases the risk for individual species extirpation.
Read MoreThe authors surveyed understory vegetation across a gradient of increasing canopy loss, ranging from unmanaged forest to fuel treatments, fuel treatments followed by low-moderate severity wildfire, and high-severity wildfire only.
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The California Fire Science Consortium is divided into 4 geographic regions and 1 wildland-urban interface (WUI) team. Statewide coordination of this program is based at UC Berkeley.
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This regional Fire Science Exchange is one of 15 regional fire science exchanges.
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