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research briefs

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NWFSC Research Brief #24 - Wildfire Risk in Western Oregon and Washington

Year of Publication
2022
Product Type

The wildfires that ignited September 7-9, 2020 (collectively named the “Labor Day Fires”) on the west side of the Oregon Cascades (Westside) were a devastating reminder that these communities and forests are at risk from wildfires. The fires collectively burned more than 2.2 million acres, caused fatalities and billions of dollars in damage, placed more than 10% of the state’s residents under evacuation advisories, and created hazardous air quality conditions across the northwestern US. The fires left researchers, practitioners, and local residents questioning how to better expect and prepare for similar events in the future. The three articles summarized in this brief focused on the challenges of understanding and communicating about wildfire surprises and risk in Westside systems, and how to better predict where similar events might happen in the future. A fourth article summarizes the key meteorological drivers behind the Labor Day fires.

NWFSC Research Brief #23 - Fire and Land Cover Change in the Palouse Praire-Forest Ecotone

Year of Publication
2021
Product Type

The Palouse Prairie is a highly endangered ecosystem found along the Idaho–Washington border. The Palouse Prairie intermixes with the imperiled ponderosa pine savanna along this border, making the ecotone between these communities particularly diverse and ecologically important. Unfortunately, like many grassland and savanna communities across North America and the world, this rich prairie–pine ecotone is now highly fragmented and degraded.

NWFSC Research Brief #22 - Policy barriers & opportunities for prescribed fire application in the Western US

Year of Publication
2020
Product Type

For this study, researchers conducted 54 key informant interviews across the 11 western states to investigate policy-relatedbarriers to prescribed fire on federal lands. In particular, they examined how laws, policies, and policy implementationaffect prescribed fire application, and identified common challenges to and opportunities for increasing application.

NWFSC Research Brief #20 - Covering Wildfires: Media Emphasis and Silence

Year of Publication
2019
Product Type

In this study, researchers examined print media coverage, data of burned homes, and demographic data of towns impacted by two major wildfires in Washington State. The Carlton Complex burned over 250,000 acres and hundreds of homes in the Methow Valley in 2014, becoming the largest wildfire in Washington’s history. In 2015, the fires that made up the Okanogan Complex burned over 300,000 acres in the same part of northcentral Washington, destroying hundreds more structures and resulting in three firefighter fatalities. Researchers investigated the topics that were prominent and that were ignored in the media coverage of these two wildfires. In particular, they examined media coverage related to wildfire risk and firefighter safety, and compared the locations focused on in the media coverage of the fires in relation to the locations with the greatest damage from the fires.

NWFSC Research Brief #19 - Adjusting the lenses of past, present and future to bring into focus the role of frequent fire in dry forests

Year of Publication
2019
Product Type

In this study, the authors characterized historical fire return intervals, seasonality, and relationships with local and regional factors for 13 sites representative of southwestern Oregon dry forests on ridges and midslopes in the Rogue Basin of the Klamath Ecoregion. They used dendrochronology (cross-dated fire-scars from trees) to develop fire histories. Then using a systematic literature review, the authors were able to link local fire histories to a regional dataset and evaluate the data relative to more intensively studied conifer/hardwood forest types in California.

Science and Collaborative Processes

Year of Publication
2018
Publication Type

About Go Big or Go Home?: The goals of this research project were to analyze how public land managers and stakeholders in Oregon’s east Cascades can plan and manage at landscape scales using scientific research and participatory simulation modeling (Envision). To learn more, visit: gbgh.forestry.oregonstate.edu

Forest Service Managers' Perception of Landscapes and Computer Models

Year of Publication
2018
Publication Type

About Go Big or Go Home?: The goals of this research project were to analyze how public land managers and stakeholders in Oregon’s east Cascades can plan and manage at landscape scales using scientific research and participatory simulation modeling (Envision). To learn more, visit: gbgh.forestry.oregonstate.edu