Fuel treatments to preserve old forest structure can reduce WUI fire risk: Research Brief
/Research Brief
Read MoreFuel 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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Frequent Burning to Control "Invasive" Chaparral: Research Brief
/Resource managers in the 1950's believed that “brush removal” optimized the production value of acreage.
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Five Historic Fire Regimes in the Monterey Bay Region: Research Brief
/Jason Greenlee and Jean Langenheim combined fire scar dating, historical documents and fire behavior modeling to reconstruct fire regimes for the major vegetation types around the Monterey Bay area from pre-‐11,000 BP to 1979.
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Fire-Scar Record in a Higher Elevation Chaparral Tree: Research Brief
/Keith Lombardo and his colleagues attempted to fill a void in the fire history knowledge for pre-Euro-American chaparral fire regimes by selecting an endemic tree commonly associated with chaparral at higher elevations.
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Fire, Spatial Structure, and Heterogeneity in Sierra Nevada Forests: Research Brief
/A 2013 study by Kane and others demonstrates that structural variation is significantly enhanced in the fire-frequent Sierra Nevada forests with the use of predominantly low- to moderate-severity fires.
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Fire Temperature Patterns and Effects on Annual Plants in the Mojave Desert: USGS Research Brief
/In a recent issue of the journal Ecological Applications, USGS scientist Dr. Matthew Brooks reports new information on temperature patterns during experimental fires, and the effects of these variable fire temperatures on annual plants in the Mojave Desert.
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Fire Suppression is Necessary in California Chaparral: Research Brief
/It is concluded that there is a wealth of information on factors affecting fire size in southern California that make it unnecessary to base fire management in the region on questionable comparisons with Baja California.
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Fire Severity and Ecosystem Responses: USGS Research Brief
/Two important questions about fire severity that are investigated are: to what extent can fire severity be measured by remote sensing indices, and do fire severity measurements predict ecosystem responses in vegetation recovery.
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Fire Regimes in the "Two Californias": Research Brief
/According to a recent statewide FRID (fire return interval departure) analysis for USFS and some NPS lands, there are two distinct California fire regimes.
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Fire Regimes Can Inform Control Strategies for Invasive Alien Plants: USGS Research Brief
/Temporal and spatial patterns of burning can affect the invasion risk and prevalence of alien plants in California as explained in a book chapter in The Landscape Ecology of Fire.
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Fire Protection Inequality in Urban and Suburban LA: Research Brief
/Davis' 1995 review is a colorfully written historical account of two different Los Angeles experiences with repeated fires between 1930 and 1993.
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Fire Mosaics in Southern California and Baja California: Research Brief
/In a comparative study of fire sizes north and south of the U.S./Mexican border Minnich (1983) demonstrated differences during a nine year period in non-‐forested landscapes that included chaparral, sage scrub and annual grassland.
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Fire Management Impacts on Invasive Plants: USGS Research Brief
/In the April issue of Conservation Biology, Keeley considers the impact of six fire management practices on alien invasions: fire suppression, forest fuel reduction, prescription burning in crown fire ecosystems, fuel breaks, targeting noxious aliens, and postfire rehabilitation.
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Fire Management and Invasive Plants: A Handbook for Land Managers: USGS Research Brief
/USGS research botanist Matt Brooks and National Wildlife Refuges invasive species coordinator Michael Lusk have compiled a handbook titled Fire Management and Invasive Plants, with support from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service National Refuge System, USGS and the Joint Fire Science Program.
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Fire Intensity and Fire Severity Terminology: USGS Research Brief
/This paper evaluated the current usage of the terms "fire frequency" and "fire intensity" and agrees the terminology requires clarification but advocates retention of these terms.
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Fire Induced Changes in Mice and Vole Populations: Research Brief
/Cook used the 1953 wildfire in Berkeley, CAas an opportunity to research the effects of fire on rodent populations in California grasslands and “brushlands.”
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