Postdoc announcement: fire ecology, fuels measurement, and prescribed fire support

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Postdoctoral position: Development of 3-D Fuels for California and Application to Prescribed Fire Planning

Position in the lab of Dr. Hugh Safford, University of California, Davis

The Safford lab at UC Davis (https://safford.faculty.ucdavis.edu/) is recruiting a postdoctoral scholar to lead the field component of a two-year project focused on developing three-dimensional fuel models for California and a suite of related decision support tools for prescribed fire planners and implementers. The project is a collaboration between fire researchers, modelers, and prescribed fire experts at a number of research and fire management institutions, including UC San Diego, UC Berkeley, UC Davis, and CAL FIRE.

Click here for more information!

Thinning and prescribed fire treatments in Virtual Reality

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Thinning and prescribed fire treatments in Virtual Reality

Penn State University and the U.S. Forest Service Pacific Southwest Research Station recently created a Virtual Reality field tour to help audiences visualize what different types of thinning and prescribed fire treatments look like in an immersive way. Before full release, this tour is now being tested. Users are encouraged to fill out an optional short (less than 10 minute) questionnaire.

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Building Bridges and Solutions: Partners in Facing Fire-Science Challenges

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This Summit is for invited participants only and will assemble scientists and fire professionals/leaders to work together toward actionable science solutions to key fire challenges in the Southwest (CA, NV, AZ). Please register by February 17, 2020. Come prepared to network and discuss/share potential solutions to fire challenges.

View Draft Agenda PDF >

Resources for those affected by the 2017 wildfire season in California

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Resources for those affected by the 2017 wildfire season in California

The University of California, Center for Fire Research and Outreach has put together a great list of resources for before, during, and after a wildfire event. We hope these will be of help to anyone who is concerned with a future wildfire risk or to those who have been affected by the fire events.

View webpage with resource list >

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New Resource from UCANR: Recovering from Wildfire: A Guide for California's Forest Landowners

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New Resource from UCANR: Recovering from Wildfire: A Guide for California's Forest Landowners

University of California Agriculture and Natural Resources (UCANR) has a new UC peer-reviewed publication on what private forest landowners can do after a wildfire. This guide explains fire effects, post-fire management concerns, and has numerous resources to assist you with your fire recovery.

View UCANR Guide PDF >

 

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New Research Brief: Pyrodiversity Promotes Avian Diversity in Semi-Arid Forests

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New Research Brief: Pyrodiversity Promotes Avian Diversity in Semi-Arid Forests

Overall, the results of this study add support to the existing theory that diverse fire increases biodiversity in certain ecosystems. Specifically, this study showed that higher diversity of fire severity patterns within a fire lead to more bird diversity, especially in the fire prone semi-arid forests of the Sierra Nevada.

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EPA and FEMA requesting letters of interest from "regional" partners in California that are interested in receiving technical assistance to build resilience to natural disasters.

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The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and FEMA Region IX are seeking proposals from regional partners in California that are interested in receiving technical assistance to build resilience to natural disasters.

View more information in this PDF >

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New Research Brief: Ecological Correlates With Resprouting and Seeding

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New Research Brief: Ecological Correlates With Resprouting and Seeding

In northern, southern, coastal, and interior California, examples exist of paired sibling Arctostaphylos subspecies exhibiting two alternate life strategies for surviving disturbance: resprouting and obligate seeding. This is a wonderful opportunity to observe how natural selection might favor one life strategy type over another, particularly in “an era of rapid climate change."

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New Research Brief: What affects fire behavior more, climate or fuels?→

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The authors examined the relationship between fuels and fire behavior by examining how fire suppression has affected fire severity in different forest ecosystems in California. The authors tested the hypothesis that fire behavior is limited by fuel availability in some California forests where climatic conditions during the fire season are nearly always conducive to burning and the primary limiting factor for fire ignition and spread is the presence of sufficient fuel.

View Research Brief PDF >

View Full Article PDF >

Steel, Z. L., H. D. Safford, and J. H. Viers. 2015. The fire frequency-severity relationship and the legacy of fire suppression in California forests. Ecosphere 6(1):8. http://dx.doi.org/10.1890/ES14-00224.1