After the Fire: Learning from Burned Areas in the Southwest

In the spring of 2019, several partners teamed up with the Burned Area Learning Network to visit coordinate a series of three field trips across the Southwest. Scientists, researchers, and land managers came together to visit burned areas of the Boundary Fire (2017) and Pumpkin Fire (2000) in Arizona, the Las Conchas Fire (2011) in …

Evaluating Change in Bird Communities from Wildfire in the Arizona Sky Islands

Date: June 17, 11am AZ/12pm MDT Presenter:  Jamie Sanderlin, USDA Forest Service Rocky Mountain Research Station The avifauna within the Sky Islands of southeastern Arizona includes species found nowhere else in the United States, in part due to the availability of diverse habitats created by the mixing of Madrean and Cordilleran ecosystems. Neotropical migratory bird species …

Fire and Soils in Frequent-Fire Landscapes of the Southwest

Working Paper 43 by Dan Binkley, Adjunct Faculty, School of Forestry, Northern Arizona University Forests and soils interact so strongly that any major change in one of them leads to a reshaping of the other. Fires consume fuels in a few hours that it took vegetation years or decades to produce. Forest soils are both …

Oct 16, 2019: Contributions of fire refugia to resilient ponderosa pine and dry mixed-conifer forest landscapes

Presenter: Jonathan Coop, Western Colorado University Date: October 16, 2019 11am AZ/12pm MDT In western North America, ponderosa pine and dry mixed-conifer forest types appear increasingly vulnerable to wildfire-catalyzed conversion to alternate and non-forest vegetation types. However, unburned or only lightly impacted forest stands that persist within burn mosaics—termed fire refugia—may sustain a range critical …

May 22, 2019: Do trends in climate influence the increase in high-severity wildfire in the southwestern US from 1984 to 2015?

Presenter: Stephanie Mueller, Northern Arizona University Date: May 22, 2019 12pm Mountain Daylight Time (11am AZ time) Over the last 30 years, in woodland and forested ecosystems across the southwestern US, there has been an increasing trend in fire activity. Altered land use practices and more recent changes in precipitation patterns and warmer temperatures are …

May 2, 2019: New reforestation practices for post-wildfire landscapes- building early resilience

Presenter: Jens Stevens, PhD, US Geological Survey Date: May 2, 2019 11am AZ/12pm MDT The increasing frequency and severity of fire and drought events have negatively impacted the capacity and success of reforestation efforts in many dry, western forests. Challenges to reforestation include the size, cost, and safety concerns of replanting large areas with standing …

April 9, 2019: Use of the Target Plant Concept to Promote Successful Post-Fire Forest Restoration

Presenters: Owen Burney, PhD, Associate Professor and Superintendent John T. Harrington Forestry Research Center, New Mexico State University Date: April 9, 2019 11am AZ/12pm MDT Restoration of severely burned forest lands is limited in the southwestern US primarily due to a lack of research and resources. For those areas that have been reforested, there has been …

September 26, 2018: Use and benefits of NASA’s RECOVER for post-fire decision support

Date: Wednesday, September 26, 2018 12pm MDT (11am AZ) Presenters: William Toombs and Keith Weber, GIS Training and Research Center, Idaho State University Today’s extended fire seasons and large fire footprints have prompted state and federal land-management agencies to devote increasingly large portions of their budgets to wildfire management. As fire costs continue to rise, timely and comprehensive …