Fuels and Fuel Treatments

The stability of seasonally dry Western mixed-conifer forests is threatened by the history of fire suppression, logging, and now increasing climate-driven aridity. Durable aboveground carbon storage in living trees–a key ecosystem service of these fire-adapted forests–is at risk due to the disruption of natural fire cycles.

Managers grappling with questions about dead wood in productive, often high-volume, westside Pacific Northwest forests seek to balance wildlife habitat quality and fire hazard reduction, especially following wildfires which can both consume and generate exceptional quantities of dead wood.

Background

Prevailing American wildland fire modelling systems fail to predict fire growth in urban areas due to the absence of burnable urban fuels.

Aims

This research aims to identify fuel models that optimise fire spread in urban areas relative to a hypothetical fire spread model derived from observations of recent urban fires.

As wildfires in the western United States grow in frequency and severity, forest fuels treatment has been increasingly recognized as essential for enhancing forest resilience and mitigating wildfire risks. However, the economic valuation of the treatment's co-benefits remains underexplored, limiting integration into financial and policy decision making.

Background

Wildfire suppression is shaped by a complex interplay of environmental conditions, resource allocation and management strategies.

Aims

Biological legacies (i.e., materials that persist following disturbance; “legacies”) shape ecosystem functioning and feedbacks to future disturbances, yet how legacies are driven by pre-disturbance ecosystem state and disturbance severity is poorly understood—especially in ecosystems influenced by infrequent and severe disturbances.

Background

Restoring a low-intensity, frequent-fire regime in fire-prone forests offers a promising natural climate solution. Management interventions that include prescribed fire and/or mechanical treatments have effectively reduced fire hazards in the Western United States, yet concerns remain regarding their impact on forest carbon storage.

A key tenet of contemporary management in dry, fire-adapted forests of western North America is the reintroduction of a frequent and low- to moderate-severity fire regime.

Background