Impact of Short Interval Fires in Shrublands: Research Brief
/Fire in chaparral is a natural process, but only when it occurs within the range of conditions represented by its fire regime.
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Immaturity Risk from Frequent Fire in Knobcone Pine: Research Brief
/Here, Jon Keeley and his colleagues document an example of immaturity risk for population decline in knobcone pine (Pinus attenuate), a rare, serotinous, obligate-seeding pine species.
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Hydrologic Changes After 40 Years of Type Conversion: Research Brief
/Four decades after being type converted to a non native grassland, the soil and hydrology of the USFS San Dimas Experimental Forest in southern California was compared to the adjacent, natural chaparral.
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Human Influence on California Fire Regimes: USGS Research Brief
/Researchers studied the human influence on fire regimes at the WUI using California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection (CDF) data from a majority of counties in the state, coupled with associated housing and other human infrastructure data.
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How Pinyon Thinning Treatments Affect Wildfire Fuel Loads: USGS Research Brief
/At two sites in Mono County, California, two thinning treatments were compared: machine mastication versus cut/pile/burn by hand crews using chain saws.
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How Much Defensible Space is Needed to Reduce Home Losses in Chaparral? Research Brief
/Syphard, Brennan and Keeley asked how the size of the defensible space zone affected fire outcomes using a dataset of 687,869 homes with their property boundaries.
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How can we span the boundaries between wildland fire science and management in the United States? Research Brief
/The Fire Science Exchange Network was initiated by the Joint Fire Science Program. Guidelines to be effective "boundary organizations" are discussed.
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How are forests structured under an active-fire regime? Research Brief
/The authors sought to determine how mixed conifer forests under an active fire regime differ from forests under fire suppression.
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Hot fire, cool soils in a Mediterranean shrubland: Research Brief
/Stoof et al. discusses a prescribed fire experiment in Portugal on soil characteristics.
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Historical fire regimes: spatial patterns and controls: Research Brief
/This paper offers a reconstruction of historic fire regimes and forest age structures in a mixed-‐ conifer forest in the Klamath Mountains of northern California, demonstrating the historic importance of temporal and spatial controls on fire in the area, and providing critical context for current restoration and management activities.
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High-severity wildfire effects on carbon stocks and emissions in fuels treated and untreated forest: Research Brief
/North and Hurteau (2011) investigated the forest carbon tradeoffs of wildfire in treated and untreated mixed-‐conifer forests, as well as the carbon cost of implementing fuels reduction treatments.
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Grazing Keeps the Chaparral Out: Research Brief
/Here, Walter Johnson observes the effects of 20 years of grazing and browsing by cattle and deer on chaparral re-‐growth in the Sierra Nevada foothills
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Grassland-Shrubland-Woodland Mosaic Shifts: Research Brief
/Callaway and Davis were able "to quantify dynamic chaparral in vegetation patterns and the relative importance of fire, livestock grazing, topography, and substrate in grassland, coastal sage scrub, chaparral, and oak woodland distribution in central coastal California.”
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Goals & obstacles of WUI mitigation programs in the US: Research Brief
/The authors surveyed administrators of regulatory and voluntary wildfire reduction programs in 25 US states to gain information on how they are organized, what they are trying to accomplish, what obstacles existed in their implementation, and how well they may be working.
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Global Climate Connections to Fire Occurrence: Research Brief
/This paper uses tree ring data to develop climate and fire chronologies connections.
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Fuel treatment effectiveness in California yellow pine and mixed conifer forests: Research Brief
/Management strategies to reduce fire spread and severity typically involve targeted reduction of forest fuels through some combination of mechanical, hand, and/or burning treatments. A 2012 study by Safford et al. evaluates the effectiveness of such forest fuel treatments in mixed conifer and yellow pine forests in the California National Forests.
Read MoreFuel Modification Impacts on Nonnative Plant Invasion (overview): USGS Research Brief
/In the April issue of Ecological Applications, USGS scientists Kyle Merriam (currently with the USFS) and Dr. Jon Keeley and USFS colleague Dr. Jan Beyers report that an unintended result of these fuel modification programs can be the introduction and spread of nonnative invasive plant species.
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Fuel Break Effectiveness in Southern California Depends on Firefighter Access: USGS Research Brief
/Two studies led by USGS and the Conservation Biology Institute have examined the factors affecting fuel break effectiveness in national forests.
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Fuel Age and Fire Spread in Chaparral Ecosystems: USGS Research Brief
/In a paper published in Fire Management Today, USGS scientist Jon Keeley coauthors a paper with colleagues from the California Chaparral Institute that analyzes weather and fuel factors in a case study of a critical part of the 2003 Cedar Fire perimeter in San Diego County.
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