Topic: Fire Effects

An increase in the occurrence of large, high severity wildfires in the western Pacific Northwest (PNW), USA, has created an urgent need for science to better inform forest management and policy decisions to maintain source water quality in the region. The western PNW faces similar challenges to…

Aim

Climate-driven fire increases could be modified by fire-fuel feedback, as recent fires reduce burnable fuels for future fires. Knowing the effects of fire-fuel feedback is essential for more accurate projection of fire activity, which, however, has often…

Mature and old-growth forests (MOG) provide essential ecosystem services, yet they face increasing threats. Currently, high-intensity, high-severity wildfires are the main driver for loss of MOG on federally managed forests across the United States. Quantifying MOG forests with greatest exposure…

Accurate prediction of forest fire spread is a critical management and scientific challenge as the world adapts to rapidly changing fire regimes. We reconstructed 5,400 daily burned area progression maps for 196 U.S. Northern Rocky Mountain wildfires (2012–2021) and used machine learning to…

Background

Post-wildfire debris flows (PFDFs) frequently threaten life, property and infrastructure in California. To date, there is no comprehensive assessment of their spatial distribution, seasonality, atmospheric drivers and interannual variability across the state.…

This study investigates the key drivers influencing prescribed fire effects across 16 sites in northern and central California, with particular emphasis on how operational decisions by fire practitioners shape burn outcomes. Data from the California Prescribed Fire Monitoring Program revealed…

Background

Increasing wildfire area burned has left millions of hectares in the western United States (US) in need of reforestation. Recent federal legislation allows for increased investments in tree planting to address the backlog of planting needs in previously…

Concepts and models of fire refugia are increasingly important components of forest management and adaptation discussions in the context of wildland fire, forest and habitat conservation, and global change. Recent stand-replacing fires in mature and old-growth forests of the Pacific Northwest (…

Managers grappling with questions about dead wood in productive, often high-volume, westside Pacific Northwest forests seek to balance wildlife habitat quality and fire hazard reduction, especially following wildfires which can both consume and generate exceptional quantities of dead wood.…

Background

Phenological correction of pre- and post-fire imagery is used to improve remotely sensed burn severity evaluations. Unburned offset values standardize greenness between image pairs; however, efficacy across diverse scenarios remains underexplored.

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