Copy

January 2017 Newsletter
 

In This Issue


 

Whitebark Pine Workshop Recordings Available

 
If you missed the 2016 Whitebark Pine Science and Management Workshop, September 16-18 in Whitefish, MT, you can still learn from the event.

The workshop theme was Whitebark Pine - Successes and Challenges in Managing the Jewel in the Crown of the Continent. Indoor science presentations covered the full range of whitebark pine restoration and conservation topics. Field trips on Saturday and Sunday toured portions of the Whitefish Mountain Resort and Glacier National Park and included recognition of the first "Whitebark Friendly” ski area and whitebark pine tree climbing and cone collecting demonstrations.

Recorded science presentations are now available on our past event page, and highlights from the field trip to Whitefish Mountain are captured in the field trip summary, Conserving whitebark pine in ski areas.

Cohesive Strategy Workshop

 
The National Cohesive Wildland Fire Management Strategy (NCWFMS) Workshop will be held April 25-27 in Reno, NV. The purpose of this workshop is to provide a clear understanding of the importance and role of science in Cohesive Strategy planning and implementation.

The call for proposals is now open and closes February 3, 2017. Workshop hosts, the International Association of Wildland Fire and NCWFMS, are seeking presentations with examples or case studies where research has been implemented to produce a positive outcome for one or more of the Cohesive Strategy's goals:
  • Resilient landscapes
  • Fire-adapted communities
  • Safe and effective wildfire response
For more information about the workshop, its focus, goals, and potential presentation formats, see the event website.

Sage-Grouse Habitat Burned in 2016

 
As of October 3, 2016, nearly 175,000 acres of greater sage-grouse habitat burned in Idaho, Montana, and Wyoming. The largest acreage burned by state was Idaho with almost 105,000 total acres burned, 55,000 acres of which was land managed by the Bureau of Land Management and about 24,000 of which was privately owned.

Complete details on acreage of greater sage-grouse habitats burned in the northwestern US by state and jurisdiction are available in the Wildland Fire Management Decision Support System report.

More information on these data is available in this table.

Gender Discrimination in Wildland Fire

 
The Association for Fire Ecology (AFE) recently released a position paper on sexual harassment and gender discrimination in wildland fire management. The paper analyzes current research and summarizes results of a 350-person survey of those working in the field of wildland fire. On December 1, this paper was submitted to U.S. congress' House Oversight and Government Reform Committee that addresses harassment and discrimination in the USDA and USFS.

Of the AFE survey respondents:
  • 54% observed gender discrimination of others, and 44% personally experienced discrimination
  • 64% of respondents experiencing sexual harassment and 60% experiencing gender discrimination did not report it
  • 58% of the time, those who reported sexual harassment were supported by their manager, but those who reported gender discrimination were only supported 28% of the time
Read and learn more about this issue from AFE's congressional testimony, the Washington Post article, and survey results infographic.

At a Glance - Southwestern Crown Collaborative

 
The Southwestern Crown Collaborative (SWCC), an NRFSN partner, is working to sustain and restore the Southwestern Crown landscape to provide for the full array of ecosystem services and economic and social benefits.

The SWCC landscape is 1.5 million acres and includes the southern boundary of the Bob Marshall Wilderness Complex and the lower elevation forests and communities of the Blackfoot, Clearwater, and Swan River valleys.

The SWCC has been a partner of the NRFSN on several past and upcoming projects including the Collaborative Fuels Reduction and Restoration field trip in 2014, the Landscape-Level Restoration workshop in December 2016 at the Lubrecht Experimental Forest, and the Era of Megafires presentation, which will be traveling through western Montana in late April 2017 thanks to the efforts of many partners.

National Wilderness Training Center Staff Changes

 
Connie Myers, Director of the Arthur Carhart National Wilderness Training Center (ACNWTC) has retired after 25 years of service. Connie was the founding director of the ACNWTC and its interagency mission, which she believed was best for US taxpayers and wilderness.


Acting Director, Laura Rotegard, joined the staff in October. Laura has more than 30 years experience with the National Park Service, where she was a four-time superintendent and led the Albright Training Center at the Grand Canyon.

New Lessons Learned Center Assistant Director

 
John “Alex” Viktora has been named the Assistant Director for the Wildland Fire Lessons Learned Center (LLC). He replaces David Christenson who retired in January 2014. Alex has more than 19 years of fire experience. He worked in Fire Effects, on a Type 6 Engine, and on a Fire Use Module in Zion National Park. He was the Field Operations Specialist for the Fire Use Training Academy at the National Advanced Fire and Resource Institute. Since 2013, he served as the Field Operations Specialist with the LCC.
 
WEBINARS

Jan 18
Patterns of Conifer Regeneration Following High-Severity Wildfire in Ponderosa Pine-Dominated Forests

Feb 16
A Four-Step Approach to Planning for Wildfire in the WUI

Feb 23
Next Generation Fire Modeling for Advanced Wildland Fire Training: an Introduction
Search the NRFSN Webinar Archive for recordings of past webinars
CONFERENCES / WORKSHOPS / TRAININGS

Jan 29-Feb 2
70th Annual Society for Range Management Meeting
St. George, UT

Jan 31, 4-5 pm
Fire Management Lecture with Jim Hubbard
University of Montana, Missoula

Feb 13-16
National Native Seed Conference
Washington, D.C.

Feb 15
Dimensions of Resilience Workshop
Bozeman, MT

Feb 17
Dimensions of Resilience Workshop
Missoula, MT

Mar 1-2
Idaho Forest Restoration Partnership Workshop
Boise, ID

Apr 25-27
National Cohesive Wildland Fire Management Strategy Workshop
Reno, NV

Apr 24-27
Living in the Era of Megafires Presentation
western MT

Nov 28-Dec 2
7th AFE International Fire Congress - FireVision 20/20
Orlando, FL
PUBLICATIONS / REPORTS

Search the NRFSN Research & Publications Database

Fire and Bark Beetles -
Fortifying the forest: thinning and burning increase resistance to a bark beetle outbreak and promote forest resilience

Spatial variability in tree regeneration after wildfire delays and dampens future bark beetle outbreaks

Variables associated with the occurrence of Ips beetles, red turpentine beetle and wood borers in live and dead ponderosa pines with post-fire injury

Fire Behavior / Prediction -
Burning rates of wood cribs with implications for wildland fires

Near-term probabilistic forecast of significant wildfire events for the western United States

Weather, fuels, and topography impede wildland fire spread in western US landscapes

Fire and Climate Change -
Climate change and fiscal risk: wildland fire technical supplement

Climate change and indigenous peoples: a synthesis of current impacts and experiences

Impact of anthropogenic climate change on wildfire across western US forests

Fire Effects -
Effects of prescribed fire on wildlife and wildlife habitat in selected ecosystems of North America

Positive effects of fire on birds may appear only under narrow combinations of fire severity and time-since-fire

Wildfire! Toward understanding its effects on wildlife

Fire and Harvesting Effects -
Long-term soil changes from forest harvesting and residue management in the northern Rocky Mountains

Recovery and diversity of the forest shrub community 38 years after biomass harvesting in the northern Rocky Mountains

Fire History / Fire Regimes - 
Spatial and temporal variations of fire regimes in the Canadian Rocky mountains and foothills of southern Alberta

Fire Management / Decision Support -
From ideas to action: a guide to funding and authorities for collaborative forestry

Getting ahead of the wildfire problem: quantifying and mapping management challenges and opportunities

The integrated rangeland fire management strategy actionable science plan

Fire and People -
Anthropogenic influence on wildfire activity in Alberta, Canada

The spatially varying influence of humans on fire probability in North America

Fire Severity -
Does increased forest protection correspond to higher fire severity in frequent-fire forests of the western United States?

Post-fire vegetation and fuel development influences fire severity patterns in reburns

Fuel Treatements / Restoration -
Beyond fuel treatment effectiveness: characterizing interactions between fire and treatments in the US

Landscape-level prescriptions: a new foundation for restoration planning

Protecting the source: tools to evaluate fuel treatment cost vs. water quality protection

Riparian fuel treatments in the western USA: challenges and considerations

Post-fire Management -
Rapid-response tools and datasets for post-fire remediation: linking remote sensing and process-based hydrological models

Repeat Fires -
Burn me twice, shame on who? Interactions between successive forest fires across a temperate mountain region

Repeated wildfires alter forest recovery of mixed-conifer ecosystems

Resilience -
A 20-year reassessment of the health and status of whitebark pine forests in the Bob Marshall Wilderness Complex, Montana

Assessing landscape vulnerability to wildfire in the USA

Changing disturbance regimes, ecological memory, and forest resilience

Is resilience maladaptive? Towards an accurate lexicon for climate change adaptation

Smoke & Air Quality -
Review of the health effects of wildland fire smoke on wildland firefighters and the public

Wildland Urban Interface -
Communities utilize land use planning to reduce wildfire risks and costs

Do insurance policies and rates influence home development on fire-prone lands?

Factors related to building loss due to wildfires in the conterminous United States

Forest density preferences of homebuyers in the wildland-urban interface

High resolution mapping of development in the wildland-urban interface using object based image extraction

Planning for wildfire in the wildland-urban interface: a resource guide for Idaho communities

The affluence-vulnerability interface: intersecting scales of risk, privilege, and disaster

Wildfire risk to residential structures in the Island Park Sustainable Fire Community: Caribou-Targhee National Forest

CONTACT US -- We'd like to hear your suggestions, ideas, and questions.


Vita Wright, Principal Investigator                      
vwright@fs.fed.us  |  406.396.5374                   
US Forest Service, Kalispell, Montana

Corey Gucker, Coordinator

gucker.corey@gmail.com  |  208.373.4342 
US Forest Service, Boise, Idaho


Subscribe  Unsubscribe  Update preferences   |  Visit us on the web  Follow us on Twitter


Email Marketing Powered by Mailchimp