Research Database
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Perspectives: Six opportunities to improve understanding of fuel treatment longevity in historically frequent-fire forests
Year: 2025
Fuel-reduction and restoration treatments (“treatments”) are conducted extensively in dry and historically frequent-fire forests of interior western North America (“dry forests”) to reduce potential for uncharacteristically severe wildfire. However, limited understanding of treatment longevity and long-term treatment effects creates potential for inefficient treatment maintenance and inaccurate forecasting of wildfire behavior. In this perspectives paper, we briefly summarize current understanding of long-term effects of three common treatment types (burn-only, thin-only, and thin-plus-burn)…
Publication Type: Journal Article
Trees in Fire-Maintained Forests Have Similar Growth Responses to Drought, but Greater Stomatal Conductance Than Trees in Fire-Excluded Forests
Year: 2025
In the western US, increased tree density in dry conifer forests from fire exclusion has caused tree growth declines, which is being compounded by hotter multi-year droughts. The reintroduction of frequent, low-severity wildfire reduces forest density by removing fire-intolerant trees, which can reduce competition for water and improve tree growth response to drought. We assessed how lower forest density following frequent, low-severity wildfire affected tree stomatal conductance and growth response to drought by coring and measuring competition surrounding ponderosa pines (Pinus…
Publication Type: Journal Article
Evidence for strong bottom-up controls on fire severity during extreme events
Year: 2025
BackgroundRecord fire years in recent decades have challenged post-fire forest recovery in the western United States and beyond. To improve management responses, it is critical that we understand the conditions under which management can mitigate severe wildfire impacts, and when it cannot. Here, we evaluated the influence of top-down and bottom-up fire severity forcings on 17 wildfires occurring during two consecutive record-setting years in the eastern Cascade Mountains of Washington State. Despite much of the area having been burned after an extended period of fire…
Fire Effects and Fire Ecology, Fire History, Fuels and Fuel Treatments, Restoration and Hazardous Fuel Reduction
Publication Type: Journal Article