Webinar

Presentation by Dr. Carlos Carroll (Klamath Center for Conservation Research)

This webinar describes the results of a study that sought to identify barriers and opportunities to the use of scientific information about resilience for decision-making and on-the-ground management.

As you know, LANDFIRE developed state-and-transition models to represent pre-settlement reference conditions for all Ecological Systems in the United States through an expert-based model development process.

Post-fire environments are dynamic and complex and trends of recent fires within the Sierra mixed conifer type include uncharacteristically large areas of high vegetation burn severity.  These trends add to the complexity of opportunities and challenges for post-fire restoration efforts -  a key component of which is reforestation.

SageSTEP scientists have now collected 6 years of post-treatment data on 20 sites throughout the Great Basin, and now have a fairly certain understanding of short-term vegetation response to fire and mechanical treatments on at about half of those sites.

After a warm winter and dry spring, the Governors of Oregon and Washington have declared drought in parts of both states. There will be severe water shortages across the region, but the largest cities of Seattle and Portland expect to have sufficient water supply for the summer and beyond.

Ponderosa pine forests in the southwestern U.S. have increased in density over the last 100 years which has dramatically increased the size and frequency of wildfires. Although wildfires rarely kill animals, they have immediate consequences to bat populations by drastically altering vegetation and thus roosting and foraging opportunities.

Habitat Exchange is a new conservation program being developed by Environmental Defense Fund (EDF) and its partners in several states. The purpose of the Habitat Exchange is to protect, restore, and conserve habitat value for a variety of species and ecosystems.

Global climate change will lead to shifts in climate patterns and fire regimes in the Southwest over coming decades. The intent of this webinar is to summarize the current state of scientific knowledge about climate change predictions in the Southwest as well as the pathways by which fire might be affected.

Shrubs are ecosystem foundation species in most of the Great Basin's landscapes. Most of the species, including sagebrush, are poorly adapted to the changes in fire and invasive pressures that are compounded by climate change.