Multi-scaled drivers of severity patterns vary across land ownerships for the 2013 Rim Fire, California

Povak, Nicholas A.; Kane, Van R.; Collins, Brandon M.; Lydersen, Jamie M.; Kane, Jonathan T.

doi:10.1007/s10980-019-00947-z

Cited by 39 publications

(41 citation statements)

References 109 publications

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“…Similarly, Yocom Kent et al (2015) found that moderate-and high-severity effects in the Rodeo-Chediski Fire, which burned under extreme fire weather, were reduced from 76% in untreated areas to 57% in prescribed fire, and 38% in thin and burn treatments. Likewise, Povak et al (2020) presented evidence that some treated areas experienced lower severity fire even under the most extreme fire growth period of the 2013 Rim Fire. Past wildfires also acted as short-term barriers to fire spread and mitigated fire severity in mixed-conifer forests of the interior western United States (Parks et al 2015a, Stevens-Rumann et al 2016.…”

Section: "Do Fuel Treatments Work Under Extreme Fire Weather?"mentioning

confidence: 96%

“…In fire-excluded forest landscapes, forest surface and canopy fuels tend to be highly elevated, and despite active fire suppression, forests may eventually burn under extreme fire weather, which is becoming more frequent as the climate warms. For example, Povak et al (2020) found fire severity during the 2013 Rim Fire was higher in the Stanislaus National Forest, much of which had not burned for >80 years, compared to Yosemite National Park where past burn mosaics existed. High-severity burn patches in fires that escaped suppression are larger and less complex than in fires managed with less aggressive suppression tactics (Stevens et al 2017), and seed sources for forest regeneration are more often distant, yielding sparse or non-existent tree regeneration (Shive et al 2018, Korb et al 2019, Stevens-Rumann and Morgan 2019.…”

Section: "Can Wildfires -On Their Own -Do the Work Of Fuel Treatments?"mentioning

confidence: 99%

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Adapting western North American forests to climate change and wildfires: 10 common questions

Prichard

Hessburg

Hagmann

et al. 2021

Ecological Applications

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162

126

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We review science-based adaptation strategies for western North American (wNA) forests that include restoring active fire regimes and fostering resilient structure and composition of forested landscapes. As part of the review, we address common questions associated with climate adaptation and realignment treatments that run counter to a broad consensus in the literature. These include: (1) Are the effects of fire exclusion overstated? If so, are treatments unwarranted and even counterproductive? (2) Is forest thinning alone sufficient to mitigate wildfire hazard? (3) Can forest thinning and prescribed burning solve the problem? (4) Should active forest management, including forest thinning, be concentrated in the wildland urban interface (WUI)? ( 5) Can wildfires on their own do the work of fuel treatments? (6) Is the primary objective of fuel reduction treatments to assist in future firefighting response and containment? (7) Do fuel treatments work under extreme fire weather? (8) Is the scale of the problem too great -can we ever catch up? (9) Will planting more trees mitigate climate change in wNA forests? and (10) Is post-fire management needed or even ecologically justified? Based on our review of the scientific evidence, a range of proactive management actions are justified and necessary to keep pace with changing climatic and wildfire regimes and declining forest successional heterogeneity after severe wildfires. Science-based adaptation options include the use of managed wildfire, prescribed burning, and coupled mechanical thinning and prescribed burning as is consistent with land management allocations and forest conditions. Although some current models of fire management in wNA are averse to short-term risks and uncertainties, the long-term environmental, social, and cultural consequences of wildfire management primarily grounded in fire suppression are well documented, highlighting an urgency to invest in intentional forest management and restoration of active fire regimes.

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Section: "Do Fuel Treatments Work Under Extreme Fire Weather?"mentioning

confidence: 96%

Section: "Can Wildfires -On Their Own -Do the Work Of Fuel Treatments?"mentioning

confidence: 99%

Adapting western North American forests to climate change and wildfires: 10 common questions

Prichard

Hessburg

Hagmann

et al. 2021

Ecological Applications

Self Cite

162

126

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…2017, Povak et al. 2020), which all found that high severity fire resulted in further high severity in subsequent fires. The resulting high severity fires have been associated with structural changes to the vegetation after the initial fires (Holden et al.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 98%

“…2017, Povak et al. 2020). A study in mixed‐conifer and mixed‐evergreen forests in the Siskiyou Mountains, Oregon, also found a similar positive relationship between fires (Thompson et al.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Patterns of flammability after a sequence of mixed‐severity wildfire in dry eucalypt forests of southern Australia

Barker

Price

Jenkins³

2021

Ecosphere

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Fire severity is the impact of a fire on the landscape, particularly the physical impact on vegetation. Previous studies have established that the severity of a fire can be influenced by the severity of previous fires. Many of these studies were conducted in mixed‐conifer forests, while little is known of this process in temperate eucalypt forests. Barker and Price in their 2018 publication (“Positive severity feedback between consecutive fires in dry eucalypt forests of southern Australia,” Ecosphere 9:e02110) found that high severity fire promotes high severity fire in eucalypt forests, but how is the severity of a fire in these systems affected by the severity of two sequential previous fires? This was investigated using remotely sensed and mapped fire severity data. We found that high severity fire is more likely after at least one previous high severity fire, regardless of its position in the sequence. A sequence of low or moderate severity fire followed by low severity fire resulted in the lowest proportion of high severity in the response fire. Our results suggest that low severity fire maintains the structure of forest fuels, so flammability remains relatively constant. A single high severity fire drives change, altering the structure and flammability of the vegetation and promoting more severe fire. However, the effects were small, so a cycle of high severity fire may be easily broken due to the influence of other variables, such as weather. Repeated high severity fire may also result in a decline in the ability of plants to recover from fire, leading to a compositional and structural change and potentially reducing the flammability of a forest.

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“…Variation in fire activity may have second order ecological impacts across scales through "bottom up" interactions between fire, ecological features and processes and feedbacks (Heyerdahl et al, 2001;Holling, 2001). Varying weather, terrain, and vegetation results in varying fire behavior and severity within individual fire events (Catchpole, 2002;Hammill and Bradstock, 2009;Povak et al, 2020). Subhourly, diurnal, and synoptic scale variation in fire weather (including shifting wind direction) within the duration of an individual fire contributes to variation in fire intensity and spread direction within fires at spatial scales from meters to kilometers.…”

Section: Ecological Impacts Of Firementioning

confidence: 99%

Atmospheric Cascades Shape Wildfire Activity and Fire Management Decision Spaces Across Scales − A Conceptual Framework for Fire Prediction

Taylor

2020

Front. Environ. Sci.

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This study uses an interdisciplinary approach to investigate variability in fire weather, fire activity and fire management decision spaces in western Canada from three separate perspectives. We used time series analysis to identify periodic and quasi-periodic components of fire weather measures at second, hourly, daily, yearly, and multi-decadal resolution in 3 ecozones. Examples of relationships between scales of fire weather and fire activity were taken from the literature. Through interviews with and observation of Canadian wildland fire management agencies we identified 20 typical decision problems which we mapped to 16 spatio-temporally cohesive decision spaces extending from incident to national levels and immediate to multi-decadal time spans. To connect these domains, we propose that space time cascades of atmospheric kinetic energy are reflected in an inverse cascade of wildfire activity, and shape the spatio-temporal dimensions of decision spaces and the pace of fire management decisions.

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Multi-scaled drivers of severity patterns vary across land ownerships for the 2013 Rim Fire, California

Cited by 39 publications

References 109 publications

Adapting western North American forests to climate change and wildfires: 10 common questions

Adapting western North American forests to climate change and wildfires: 10 common questions

Patterns of flammability after a sequence of mixed‐severity wildfire in dry eucalypt forests of southern Australia

Atmospheric Cascades Shape Wildfire Activity and Fire Management Decision Spaces Across Scales − A Conceptual Framework for Fire Prediction

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