October 19, 2011: Fuel Treatment Effectiveness on the Wallow Fire

Presenters: Jim Pitts and Judy Palmer (USFS) A small team was assembled to work with the Apache-Sitgreave National Forest and local partners to assess the effects of the fuel treatments and compile a report with the findings. The report “How Fuel Treatments Saved Homes from the 2011 Wallow Fire” was the product of this effort. …

March 18, 2012: Fire Regime Condition Class Mapping Tool

Presenters: Steve Barrett & Jeff Jones (NIFTT University of Idaho) The FRCC Mapping Tool quantifies the departure of vegetation conditions and fire regimes from a set of reference conditions representing the historical range of variation. The tool, which operates from an ArcGIS platform, derives several metrics of departure (e.g., vegetation composition and structure, fire severity, …

March 2010: Ecological Impact of Mastication

Mike Battaglia (USFS RMRS) presented results from the Joint Fire Science Project on the Ecological Impact of Mastication. Mike reported on the impact of mastication on the chemical and physical conditions of the forest floor, vegetation regrowth, and fuel development. The study included 18 sites across four ecosystems of the southern Rocky Mountains and the …

July 28, 2010: A Synthesis of the Science on Forests and Carbon for U.S. Forests

Dr. Mike Ryan, USDA Forest Service Research Forest Ecologist, presented a scientific synthesis of the forest carbon cycle. The synthesis covers the entire US, but Dr. Ryan focused on the western US for this webinar. Forests play a key role in the carbon cycle and their growth and harvested wood products currently offsets 12-19% of …

April 18, 2012: First Order Fire Effects Model (FOFEM)

Presenter: Duncan Lutes (RMRS Fire Modeling Institute, Missoula, MT) FOFEM is a computer program for predicting first order fire effects including tree mortality, fuel consumption, smoke production, and soil heating caused by prescribed fire or wildfire. In this webinar you will learn about the FOFEM algorithms, how to prepare the input data, run the tool …

March 21, 2012: LANDFIRE Total Fuel Change Tool

Presenters: Tobin Smail & Charley Martin, (US Geological Survey). The LANDFIRE Total Fuel Change Tool (LFTFC) allows users to edit LANDFIRE fuels attributes and associated layers directly with an ArcMap Toolbar. This webinar provides an overview of LFTFC’s capabilities to edit and add rule sets for changing fuel attributes based on existing vegetation type (EVT), …

February 15, 2012: LANDFIRE Data Access Tool

Presenters: Chris Toney (US Forest Service, RMRS/LANDFIRE Project) Jeff Jones (RMRS Wildland Fire Management RD&A, Whitefish, MT) The LANDFIRE Data Access Tool (LFDAT) allows users to download LANDFIRE layers from the data distribution site directly into ArcMap. The download extent is defined by the user within ArcMap. The tool allows the user to: Re‐project LANDFIRE data …

January 18, 2012: Hydrologic Impacts of High Severity Wildfire: Learning from the Past and Preparing for the Future

Presenter: Dan Neary (USFS RMRS) Fires are increasing in size, frequency, and severity. Simultaneously, development continues in the wildland-urban interface and the number of people living in or visiting forest areas is growing. Understanding the post-fire hydrologic response of watersheds as observed on the Schultz Fire of 2010, is paramount for effective risk management and …

May 18, 2011: Fuels Treatment Practices for Mixed Conifer Forests in the Southwest

Presenter: Alexander Evans (Forest Guild) The webinar covered the guide’s definition of mixed conifer, past land use and management activities, fire regimes and historic conditions, and impact of altered fire regimes in mixed conifer forests of the southwest. Since Euro-American settlement, many mixed conifer forests have become more homogeneous and can therefore facilitate larger, higher-severity …

April 20, 2011: Southwest Climate Change Initiative

Marcos Robles of the The Nature Conservancy presented information from the Southwest Climate Change Initiative. The Initiative is a collaborative effort started by The Nature Conservancy in 2008 to provide climate science information to natural resource managers in Arizona, New Mexico, Colorado and Utah so that they can begin responding to climate change. First, Marcos …