Research Database
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Proceedings of the 3rd Human Dimensions of Wildland Fire Conference
Year: 2012
This proceedings contains articles, posters, and abstracts of presentations from the third Human Dimensions of Wildland Fire Conference held 17-19 April 2012 in Seattle Washington. The conference covered the social issues at the root of wildland fire management’s most serious challenges. Specific topics included: firefighter and public safety; shared responsibility for Community Wildland Fire Safety, public perception and management of wildland and prescribed fire smoke, social networks and communication in management of fire risk, organizational communication, preparedness to name just a few…
Publication Type: Conference Proceedings
The Drivers of Effectiveness of Prescribed Fire Treatment
Year: 2012
Prescribed burning for fuel reduction is a major strategy for reducing the risk from unplanned fire. Although there are theoretical studies suggesting that prescribed fire has a strong negative influence on the subsequent area of unplanned fire (so-called leverage), many empirical studies find a more modest influence. Here, I develop a series of simulations to explore the landscape drivers of leverage. Leverage declines with treatment level in a nonlinear, “decay” relationship, implying diminishing effectiveness. The spatial configuration of the prescribed fire treatment has a major effect:…
Publication Type: Journal Article
A Review of Recent Advances in Risk Analysis for Wildfire Management
Year: 2012
Risk analysis evolved out of the need to make decisions concerning highly stochastic events, and is well suited to analyse the timing, location and potential effects of wildfires. Over the past 10 years, the application of risk analysis to wildland fire management has seen steady growth with new risk-based analytical tools that support a wide range of fire and fuels management planning scales from individual incidents to national, strategic interagency programs. After a brief review of the three components of fire risk – likelihood, intensity and effects – this paper reviews recent advances…
Publication Type: Journal Article
Community-Based Natural Resource Management in Oregon: A Profile of Organizational Capacity
Year: 2012
Community-based organizations (CBOs) in Oregon are fostering natural resource management and economic development, particularly in public lands communities where the capacity of federal agencies, businesses, and others has dwindled. They have also become integral in reducing social conflict over land management and seeking community economic wellbeing. CBOs include non-governmental organizations and collaborative groups. These groups have broad missions that are grounded in local needs and integrate a number of priorities, but tend to have smaller staff and budgets than other groups such as…
Publication Type: Report
The Age of Western Wildfires
Year: 2012
The 2012 wildfire season isn’t over yet, but already this year is shaping up to be the one of the worst on record in the American West. According to the National Interagency Fire Center, with nearly two months still to go in the fire season, the total area already burned this year is 30 percent more than in an average year, and fires have consumed more than 8.6 million acres, an area larger than the state of Maryland. Yet, what defines a “typical” wildfire year in the West is changing. In the past 40 years, rising spring and summer temperatures, along with shrinking winter snowpack, have…
Publication Type: Report
Forest Service Spending on Large Wildfires in the West
Year: 2012
The purpose of this report is to shed light on fire suppression spending as a starting point for understanding the economic impacts of large fires. In this paper, we examined Forest Service suppression spending during and after large wildfire events to explore: (1) what the Forest Service spends money on during and after a wildfire; (2) the kinds of entities and personnel that perform that work; and (3) where funds went.
Publication Type: Report
Synthesis of Knowledge on the Effects of Fire and Fire Surrogates on Wildlife in U.S. Dry Forests
Year: 2009
Dry forests throughout the United States are fire-dependent ecosystems, and much attention has been given to restoring their ecological function. As such, land managers often are tasked with reintroducing fire via prescribed fire, wildland fire use, and fire-surrogate treatments such as thinning and mastication. During planning, managers frequently are expected to anticipate effects of management actions on wildlife species. This document represents a synthesis of existing knowledge on wildlife responses to fire and fire-surrogate treatments, presented in a useful, management-relevant format…
Publication Type: Report
The Effect of Wildland Fire on Aquatic Ecosystems in the Western USA
Year: 2003
The workshop on the Effects of Wildland Fire on Aquatic Ecosystems in the Western USA was convened in Boise, Idaho, USA in April 2002 to synthesize the emerging science and discussion relevant to such solutions. The organizing committee invited the authors in this special issue of Forest Ecology and Management to present new work or synthesize the current understanding (or lack of it) regarding the role of disturbance, fire, or fire-related management for aquatic populations, communities, or habitats and the physical and biological processes that maintain them. Scientists and managers…
Publication Type: Journal Article
Do wood-boring beetles influence the flammability of deadwood?
Year:
Global warming increases the risk of wildfire and insect outbreaks, potentially reducing the carbon storage function of coarse woody debris (CWD). There is an increasing focus on the interactive effects of wildfire and insect infestation on forest carbon, but the impact of wood-boring beetle tunnels via their effect on the flammability of deadwood remains unexplored. We hypothesized that the presence of beetle holes, at natural densities, can affect its flammability positively through increased surface area and enhanced oxygen availability in the wood. To test this, wood-boring beetle holes…
Publication Type: Journal Article