Research Database
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Correlations between components of the water balance and burned area reveal insights for predicting forest fire area in the southwest United States
Year: 2014
We related measurements of annual burned area in the southwest United States during 1984–2013 to records of climate variability. Within forests, annual burned area correlated at least as strongly with spring–summer vapour pressure deficit (VPD) as with 14 other drought-related metrics, including more complex metrics that explicitly represent fuel moisture. Particularly strong correlations with VPD arise partly because this term dictates the atmospheric moisture demand. Additionally, VPD responds to moisture supply, which is difficult to measure and model regionally due to complex…
Publication Type: Journal Article
Stewarding Forests and Communities: Final Report of the Dry Forest Zone Project
Year: 2014
During the past two decades, land managers and community leaders in the West have adopted sustainable land management methods to make forests healthier, and to maintain profitable local businesses that are beneficial to their communities. However their efforts were often siloed and were not making a big enough impact to offset the vast threat of wildfire and the effects of climate change that are increasingly pressing the region. Nor were these singular efforts being presented to federal lawmakers or agencies that have the need and ability to implement policies to replicate these successes…
Publication Type: Report
Dry Forest Zone Maps
Year: 2014
The Dry Forest Zone (DFZ) is a five-year project to address common natural resource-based economic development challenges through increased networking and capacity building at a regional scale. Sustainable Northwest leads this project in partnership with Wallowa Resources in northeastern Oregon, the Watershed Research and Training Center in northern California, and the Ecosystem Workforce Program at the University of Oregon. The central components of the DFZ strategy are: 1) To build strong local nonprofit organizations and collaborative processes to achieve forest and economic resilience, 2…
Publication Type: Map