September 2015 Newsletter
 

In This Issue

Join Us in Yellowstone - October 1-2 

Join us in Yellowstone for field tours, discussions, networking, and an overnight stay in Gardiner, Montana.

Field tours of forests in Yellowstone will examine fire and vegetation history of the Park and post-fire regeneration and stand conditions following the 1988 fires.

Attendees will visit paleofire sites providing long-term fire histories important in understanding the historical context of the 1988 fires and sites where the 1988 fires changed successional and structural trajectories. 

Field discussions to include -

• Long-term fire history of the region
• Fire regime differences across forest and fuel types
• Ecological recovery following fire
• Factors influencing different post-fire trajectories
• Projections for future fire activity
• Possible ecological consequences related to future fire predictions
• Sensitivity and complacency of fire regimes in response to climate

Experimental Forests and Demonstration Areas

Check out our new web pages featuring the experimental forests and demonstration areas of the Northern Rockies. These learning and teaching settings have been, and continue to be, critical to the ecological understanding and informed management of the region's ecosystems. 

2015 JFSP Funded Projects in the N. Rockies 
 

Congratulations to those involved with projects funded by the Joint Fire Science Program in 2015. The following funded projects will be directly relevant to the Northern Rockies - 

• AIRPACT - Fire for enhanced communication of human health risk with improved wildfire smoke modeling. Joseph K. Vaughan et al., Washington State University

• US smoke hazard warning system: prototype and enhancements to operational systems. Narasimhan K. Larkin et al., USFS - PNW

• Multi-scale study of ember production and transport under multiple environmental and fuel conditions. David L. Blunck et al., Oregon State University

• Impacts of vegetation feedbacks on fire regime regulation under future climate scenarios in Yellowstone. Daniel B. Tinker et al., University of Wyoming

• Fire history and fire-climate interactions in high-elevation whitebark pine-dominated forests. Alan H. Taylor et al., Pennsylvania State University

• Changes in forest vegetation and fuel conditions 15 years after prescribed fire. Malcolm P. North et al., USFS - PSW

• Lick Creek Demonstration-Research Forest: 25-year fire and cutting effects on vegetation and fuels. Christopher R. Keyes et al., University of Montana

2016 JFSP Funding Opportunities 

The Joint Fire Science Program (JFSP) is now accepting proposals for funding for the 2016 fiscal year.

Many of the funding opportunity notices have potential for Northern Rockies region research:

• Implications of changing ecosystems in selected regions
• Social and regulatory barriers and facilitators to implementing prescribed fire
• Effects of fire on tree mortality
• Post-fire landscape management
• Ecological and social dimensions of resilient landscapes - A new science initiative
• Graduate research innovation (GRIN) awards

• Fuels and consumption
• Fire behavior and energy
• Plume development and meteorology
• Smoke emissions, chemistry, and transport
• Modeling

2015 Fire Season - Numbers to Date

This table shows the number of fires and acres burned to date for our region as reported by land protection agencies (BIA, BLM, FS, NPS, Idaho Department of Lands, and Montana Counties and Department of Natural Resources and Conservation) and compiled by the Northern Rockies Coordination Center (NRCC).

Numbers for the 10-year average (2005-2014) fire seasons are provided as a comparison for the 2015 fire season to date.

For more information on this fire season, past fire seasons, and current fire incidents, visit the NRCC website.