JFSP Fire Science Exchange Network
McCaffrey (2004) investigated what types of information are most useful to increase public support concerning defensible space, prescribed burning, and thinning activities.
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This review paper describes geographical variation of mixed severity fire regimes in Pacific temperate forests and summarizes known information about fire effects and ecology in relation to the vegetation types characterized by such regimes.
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In a recent USFS publication, USGS scientist Dr. Jon Keeley led a team of scientists from various agencies and academic institutions in developing a framework that will inform fire management of ecosystems.
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There appears to be no indication that the frequency and severity of large fires have changed from historical fire regimes on landscapes as diverse as Rocky Mountain conifer forests and southern California chaparral.
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The National Fire and Fire Surrogates (FFS) study was designed to evaluate differences among alternative fuels reduction treatments in seasonally dry forests throughout the country, and to test the assumption that mechanical treatments might be used to accomplish the same stand structure and ecological goals as prescribed fire.
Read MorePost-fire fundamentals of the recovery process in California chaparral and sage scrub.
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Read MoreSatellite imagery has potential for assessing fire severity across broad landscapes and diverse vegetation types.
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This brief is based on a turn-‐of-‐the-century publication which is the first and most complete natural history of chaparral and its relationship to fire.
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Empirical analysis of fire history data by David Strauss and colleagues confirmed that a relatively small number of forest fires are responsible for a very high proportion of the total area burned.
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Chaparral plant communities recover after fire quite differently in Mediterranean-type climates versus non-Mediterranean-type climates.
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To better inform managers, there is a need for research to better explore many facets of WUI fires, including: hazard and risk assessment at small (e.g. community) scales; WUI fire behavior, including structure-to-structure spread; Structure exposure and vulnerability to both firebrands and heat; and Economic cost-benefit analyses of mitigation activities.
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A major emphasis of the review is the techniques for converting chaparral to grassland using different methods and their related effectiveness.
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Wells contended that fire was the selective force behind the convergent evolution of the obligate seeding strategy in Arctostaphylos and Ceanothus, and was accompanied by prolific speciation, due in part to a much greater number of sexual generations for seeders than for resprouters.
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The ability of chaparral species to persist following drastic removal treatments is a function of their life history characteristics and pre-‐treatment abundance.
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In this paleoecology study of sediments at Point Reyes National Seashore (PORE), Scott Anderson documented changes in vegetation resulting from climate, people and fire over the past 15,000 years.
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In southern California, research by USGS scientist Jon Keeley and published in the International Journal of Wildland Fire has shown that the anomalous annual Santa Ana wind conditions in that region override both climate and fire activity.
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Climate change in California is likely to lead to a decline in alpine/subalpine and conifer forest, woodland, and shrubland extent while promoting grassland dominance.
Read MoreLarge fire events were a normal part of southern California’s natural history based on charcoal evidence.
Read MoreStand-replacing patch size was highly variable in a high elevation mixed conifer forest in the Sierra Nevada with a range of variation dominated by many small patches < 10 acres (4 ha) and few large patches >148 acres (60 ha).
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This research brief discusses the changes in soil moisture after chaparral was removed in the long and short term.
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The California Fire Science Consortium is divided into 4 geographic regions and 1 wildland-urban interface (WUI) team. Statewide coordination of this program is based at UC Berkeley.
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This regional Fire Science Exchange is one of 15 regional fire science exchanges sponsored by Joint Fire Science Program (JFSP).
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