Science You Can Use

The Wildfire Research (WiRē) team, supported by USDA Forest Service, Rocky Mountain Research Station, is no stranger to engaging with residents and communities in fire-prone areas. They've been at it for over a decade - regularly refining their approach to reach the most people. Still, midway through a project in Lake County, Colorado, the WiRē team received almost no survey responses from households in three mobile home communities.

Music courtesy of Souvenir Thread.

Read the Science You Can Use and access related content on Treesearch.

In forests across the western United States, large, severe wildfires are creating treeless patches that are unlikely to reforest naturally due to a lack of seed sources and a warming climate. Active reforestation through tree planting has the potential to help forest ecosystems recover after wildfire.

Music courtesy of Souvenir Thread.

Read the Science You Can Use and access related content on Treesearch.

Mature forest cover for nesting and roosting currently plays a starring role in California spotted owl (Strix occidentalis occidentalis) habitat management, but spotted owls also depend on access to nearby mixed-age forest stands that support one of their main food sources, the dusky-footed woodrat (Neotoma fuscipes).

Music courtesy of Souvenir Thread.

Read the Science You Can Use and access related content on Treesearch.

Historical and contemporary policies and practices, including the suppression of lightning-ignited fires and the removal of intentional fires ignited by Indigenous peoples, have resulted in over a century of fire exclusion across many of the USA's landscapes. Within many designated wilderness areas, this intentional exclusion of fire has clearly altered ecological processes and thus constitutes a fundamental and ubiquitous act of trammeling. Through a framework that recognizes four orders of trammeling, we demonstrate the substantial, long-term, and negative effects of fire exclusion on the natural conditions of fire-adapted wilderness ecosystems. In order to untrammel more than a century of fire exclusion, the implementation of active programs of intentional burning may be necessary across some wilderness landscapes. We also suggest greater recognition and accommodation of Indigenous cultural burning, a practice which Tribes used to shape and maintain many fire-adapted landscapes for thousands of years before Euro-American colonization, including landscapes today designated as wilderness. Human-ignited fire may be critical to restoring the natural character of fire-adapted wilderness landscapes and can also support ecocultural restoration efforts sought by Indigenous peoples.

Music courtesy of Souvenir Thread.

Read the Science You Can Use and access related content on Treesearch.

Evolutionary niches are great for species survival, but when humans get stuck arguing from viewpoint niches, it can mean bad news for ecosystem resilience. The Utah Forest Restoration Working Group, a collaborative partnership of agencies and stakeholders, operates beyond niches and uses group consensus. Their approach has resulted in a big first: agreement among divergent stakeholders on a step-by-step protocol for deciding how to restore and protect riparian forests in Utah.

Music courtesy of Souvenir Thread.

Read the Science You Can Use and access related content on Treesearch.

What plants can survive fire, can displace native plants, and are difficult to manage? Among others are these eight nonnative species in the western United States: buffelgrass, cutleaf blackberry, diffuse knapweed, Himalayan blackberry, Sahara mustard, spotted knapweed, ventenata, and yellow starthistle. Unfortunately, one of the reasons that invasive plants are so hard to manage is because there is no one-size-fits-all approach—each species has its own tricks enabling it to thrive and wreak havoc.

Music courtesy of Souvenir Thread.

Read the Science You Can Use and access related content on Treesearch.

The Landscape Fire and Resource Management Planning Tools program (LANDFIRE) is a multi-agency (U.S. Department of Agriculture Forest Service and U.S. Department of the Interior) national geospatial suite of datasets. Born from the Congressional National Fire Plan in support of the National Cohesive Wildland Fire Management Strategy, LANDFIRE's prototype was launched in 2002. Chartered by the Wildland Fire Leadership Council in 2004, this year the program celebrates 20 years of applied science.

Music courtesy of Souvenir Thread.

Read the Science You Can Use and access related content on Treesearch.

An extreme multi-year drought with extensive bark beetle outbreaks in California from 2012 to 2016 killed an estimated 147 million trees. This included ponderosa pine, incense cedar, white fir, and pinyon pine, rapidly changing forests over vast areas. Recently published work by Rocky Mountain Research Station (RMRS) researchers Sharon Hood and Charlotte Reed found that major tree mortality events like these increase surface and canopy fuels - dead needles, branches, and logs - which may result in more extreme forest fires and increased emissions when these areas burn. Drought often triggers bark beetle outbreaks in forests, where low moisture can stress trees and make it easier for beetles to kill them.

Music courtesy of Souvenir Thread.

Read the Science You Can Use and access related content on Treesearch.

Rangelands worldwide are essential for carbon sequestration, water retention, and habitat to name a few critical benefits. Prescribed fire is used to benefit vegetation and soil and reduce fuels on rangeland sites. What hasn't been clear is how burning on rangelands may affect microbes in the soil, which are responsible for breaking down woody material. Also missing was an understanding of how the insects that typically call rangelands home respond to these burns.

Music courtesy of Souvenir Thread.

Read the Science You Can Use and access related content on Treesearch.

Livestock grazing is a common use of rangelands that can be managed to support rangeland health, including the wide array of ecosystem services that benefit society from public lands and private lands. This requires careful allocation of naturally occurring forage on large landscapes for both domestic and wild herbivores. Managers know grazing can sustain rangeland health as long as they time it right and balance the duration, frequency, and intensity of the grazing. However, forage production on a single area or landscape varies significantly from year to year, which, until recently, has limited the accuracy of data available to managers when they make decisions about grazing.

Music courtesy of Souvenir Thread.

Read the Science You Can Use and access related content on Treesearch.