Research Database
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Long-Term Effects of Fire on Vegetation Structure and Predicted Fire Behavior in Wyoming Big Sagebrush Ecosystems
Year: 2018
Fire historically occurred across the sagebrush steppe, but little is known about how patterns of post-fire fuel accumulation influence future fire in Wyoming big sagebrush (Artemisia tridentata ssp. wyomingensis) communities. To quantify change in fuel composition and structure in intact sagebrush ecosystems, we sampled 17 years following prescribed fire in eight approximately 400 ha plots (4 burned, 4 unburned control) at Hart Mountain National Antelope Refuge, OR, USA. Fuels data were used to model potential fire behavior in burn and control plots across four environmental scenarios that…
Publication Type: Journal Article
Rapid growth of the US wildland-urban interface raises wildfire risk
Year: 2018
The wildland-urban interface (WUI) is the area where houses and wildland vegetation meet or intermingle, and where wildfire problems are most pronounced. Here we report that the WUI in the United States grew rapidly from 1990 to 2010 in terms of both number of new houses (from 30.8 to 43.4 million; 41% growth) and land area (from 581,000 to 770,000 km2; 33% growth), making it the fastest-growing land use type in the conterminous United States. The vast majority of new WUI areas were the result of new housing (97%), not related to an increase in wildland vegetation. Within the perimeter of…
Publication Type: Journal Article