Network governance in the use of prescribed fire: roles for bridging organizations and other actors in the Western United States

2021 ◽  
Vol 21 (4) ◽  
Author(s):  
Heidi R. Huber-Stearns ◽  
Anna R. Santo ◽  
Courtney A. Schultz ◽  
Sarah M. McCaffrey
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Prescribed Fire ◽  
Network Governance ◽  
Western United States

scholarly journals Short-Term Benefits of Prescribed Fire to Bird Communities of Dry Forests

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Victoria A. Saab ◽  
Quresh R. Latif ◽  
William M. Block ◽  
Jonathan G. Dudley
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Prescribed Fire ◽  
Treatment Effects ◽  
Fire Regimes ◽  
Western United States ◽  
Burn Severity ◽  
Control Treatment ◽  
Conifer Forests ◽  
Short Term ◽  
Paired Control

Abstract Background: Low-severity prescribed fire is a tool used for reducing fuel loads on public lands, particularly in dry conifer forests of the western United States characterized by historically mixed- and low-severity fire regimes. Understanding the ecological effects of prescribed fire treatments is important for predicting the impacts of these management actions on wildlife communities. But few studies have estimated small landbird responses to forest treatments at spatial scales relevant to their ecology or have examined potential differences in treatment effects applied within historically mixed- vs. low-severity fire regimes. Therefore, we evaluated prescribed fire treatment effects and relationships with burn severity for avian communities in dry conifer forests dominated by ponderosa pine (Pinus ponderosa) located on seven National Forests in the interior western United States. We surveyed birds for 1–4 years and 1–3 years before and after prescribed fire treatments at mixed- and low-severity fire regime locations, respectively, following a before-after, control-impact study design – 8 paired control-treatment units in mixed-severity locations (16 total study units with 320 survey points) and 4 paired control-treatment units in low-severity locations (8 total study units with 278 survey points). Using a Bayesian hierarchical multi-species occupancy model, we analyzed occupancy patterns for 95 species.Results: We found 33 species with statistically supported treatment effects and/or burn severity relationships primarily in mixed-severity locations. The data supported positive treatment effects at mixed severity locations for 9 species (American Robin [Turdus migratorius], Western Bluebird [Sialia mexicana], Hairy Woodpecker [Dryobates villosus], Black-backed Woodpecker [Picoides arcticus], American Three-toed Woodpecker [Picoides dorsalis], House Wren [Troglodytes aedon], Dusky Flycatcher [Empidonax oberholseri], Western Wood-peewee [Contopus sordidulus], Gray Flycatcher[Empidonax wrightii]), whose occupancy shifted towards more severely burned points after treatment, and a negative effect for one species (Ruby-crowned Kinglet [Corthylio calendula]), whose occupancy shifted away from burned points. At low severity locations, only two species exhibited treatment effects, both negative (Red-faced Warbler [Cardellina rubrifrons], and Lark Sparrow [Chondestes grammacus]). We also found supported occupancy relationships with burn severity post-treatment (i.e., regardless of species distribution before treatment) for 29 species, most of which were consistent with their life histories (e.g., patterns of positive relationships for cavity-nesting, bark insectivores and negative relationships for open-nesting, foliage insectivores). Stronger responses to prescribed fire treatments at mixed-severity locations were unexpected because prescribed fire applications are more similar to historical wildfires characterizing low-severity fire regimes.Conclusions: Bird populations in historically low-severity locations may be relatively unresponsive to prescribed fire because fire there is typically more frequent, expected, and regular. By comparison, fire events are relatively rare historically in mixed severity locations, potentially eliciting more responses to an infrequent opportunity, even by species that are strongly associated with recently burned forests by wildfire. Our results suggest that fire management activities intended to reduce fuels and lower the risk of high-severity wildfire can also be effective in creating habitat for some fire specialists at least in the short term.

Policy barriers and opportunities for prescribed fire application in the western United States

2019 ◽  
Vol 28 (11) ◽  
pp. 874 ◽  
Author(s):  
Courtney A. Schultz ◽  
Sarah M. McCaffrey ◽  
Heidi R. Huber-Stearns
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Air Quality ◽  
Land Management ◽  
Prescribed Fire ◽  
Western United States ◽  
Management Tool ◽  
Major Barrier ◽  
Policy Barriers ◽  
Barriers And Opportunities

Prescribed fire is an important management tool on US federal lands that is not being applied at the necessary or desired levels. We investigated the role of policy barriers and opportunities for prescribed fire application on US Forest Service and Bureau of Land Management lands in the western United States. We conducted 54 semi-structured interviews with federal and state land managers and air quality regulators, and with several non-federal partners. We found that lack of adequate capacity and funding were the most commonly cited barriers to increasing application of prescribed fire. Interviewees also emphasised that owing to a lack of incentives and the prevalence of risk aversion at multiple agency levels, active prescribed fire programs depend on the leadership and commitment of individual decision-makers and fire managers. Successful approaches also rely on collaborative forums and positions that allow communication, problem-solving and resource sharing among federal and state partners, and that facilitate dialogue between air-quality and land managers. We did not find that air quality regulation was consistently cited as a major barrier, except in specific locations. Our findings highlight the importance of contextualised investigation into policy barriers and the role of collaborative and multilevel governance approaches for addressing complex land management challenges.

Wildfire Occurrence in Aspen in the Interior Western United States

1987 ◽  
Vol 2 (3) ◽  
pp. 73-76 ◽  
Author(s):  
Norbert V. DeByle ◽  
Collin D. Bevins ◽  
William C. Fischer
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Populus Tremuloides ◽  
Prescribed Fire ◽  
Western United States ◽  
National Forest ◽  
Quaking Aspen ◽  
Wildfire Occurrence ◽  
Management Intervention ◽  
Forest Lands

Abstract The western United States contains more than 7 million acres of quaking aspen (Populus tremuloides). On the majority of this acreage, aspen sprouted as even-aged stands after fires in the last 150 years. For several reasons, however, fire evidently is no longer playing its historic role of killing and regenerating western aspen stands. A survey was made of wildfire occurrence from 1970 through 1982 in aspen stands on National Forest lands in three Forest Service Regions. The survey data, expanded to include all aspen acreage, revealed that an average of 600 acres are annually consumed by fire. At this rate, it would require about 12,000 years to burn the entire aspen type in the West. During this time span, without management intervention, seral aspen will probably be replaced by conifers, and stable aspen stands may become all-aged and perhaps less productive. Use of prescribed fire is recommended. West. J. Appl. For. 2(3):73-76, July 1987.

Writing Time in Metaphors

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jennifer J. Smith
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
The United States ◽  
Western United States ◽  
Entire System ◽  
Language And Culture ◽  
Space Race ◽  
Do So

Coherence of place often exists alongside irregularities in time in cycles, and chapter three turns to cycles linked by temporal markers. Ray Bradbury’s The Martian Chronicles (1950) follows a linear chronology and describes the exploration, conquest, and repopulation of Mars by humans. Conversely, Louise Erdrich’s Love Medicine (1984) jumps back and forth across time to narrate the lives of interconnected families in the western United States. Bradbury’s cycle invokes a confluence of historical forces—time as value-laden, work as a calling, and travel as necessitating standardized time—and contextualizes them in relation to anxieties about the space race. Erdrich’s cycle invokes broader, oppositional conceptions of time—as recursive and arbitrary and as causal and meaningful—to depict time as implicated in an entire system of measurement that made possible the destruction and exploitation of the Chippewa people. Both volumes understand the United States to be preoccupied with imperialist impulses. Even as they critique such projects, they also point to the tenacity with which individuals encounter these systems, and they do so by creating “interstitial temporalities,” which allow them to navigate time at the crossroads of language and culture.

Characterizing fire behavior from laboratory burns of multi-aged, mixed-conifer masticated fuels in the western United States

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Faith Ann Heinsch ◽  
Pamela G. Sikkink ◽  
Helen Y. Smith ◽  
Molly L. Retzlaff
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Fire Behavior ◽  
Western United States ◽  
Mixed Conifer
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