Prioritizing land management efforts at a landscape scale: a case study using prescribed fire inWisconsin

Abstract

One challenge in the effort to conserve biodiversity is identifying where to prioritize resources for active land management. Cost-benefit analyses have been used successfully as a conservation tool to identify sites that provide the greatest conservation benefit per unit cost. Our goal was to apply cost-benefit analysis to the question of how to prioritize land management efforts, in our case the application of prescribed fire to natural landscapes in Wisconsin, USA. We quantified and mapped frequently burned communities and prioritized management units based on a suite of indices that captured ecological benefits, management effort, and the feasibility of successful long-term management actions. Data for these indices came from LANDFIRE, Wisconsin's Wildlife Action Plan, and a nationwide wildland-urban interface assessment. We found that the majority of frequently burned vegetation types occurred in the southern portion of the state. However, the highest priority areas for applying prescribed fire occurred in the central, northwest, and northeast portion of the state where frequently burned vegetation patches were larger and where identified areas of high biological importance area occurred. Although our focus was on the use of prescribed fire in Wisconsin, our methods can be adapted to prioritize other land management activities. Such prioritization is necessary to achieve the greatest possible benefits from limited funding for land management actions, and our results show that it is feasible at scales that are relevant for land management decisions.

A granular view of the traits controlling soil bacterial community reconstruction following a prescribed burn

“…Prescribed burns, which are carried out in order to reduce the risk of uncontrolled wildfires 7,8 or for ecosystem restoration or management 9 , offer a way to study the microbial ecology of soil in a controlled and reproducible manner. Additionally, since prescribed burns are carried out in service of ecosystem management, it is of inherent interest how prescribed burns affect soil microbiomes and, hence, soil health.…”

Effects of accelerated wildfire on future fire regimes and implications for the United States federal fire policy

“…BLM = Bureau of Land Management, USFS = U.S. Forest Service. account for and mitigate the increased uncertainty and risks from fire events (Hill 2000, Wonkka et al 2015, Hmielowski et al 2016, which include unwanted aesthetics in amenity dependent communities, smoke production, and related health impacts. Numerous recent fires in the western U.S. have been managed in part or in whole for ecological benefit (henceforth "restoration fires"), including over 12 fires in 2017 totaling more than 60,000 ha of burned area (Forest Service Fire and Aviation Management, personal communication).…”

The Best Way to Spend an Hour: Reviewing LANDFIRE Ecosystem Descriptions and Models

“…), to prioritize fire management activities (Hmielowski et al. ) and to evaluate the potential ecological benefits of fire (Keane and Karau ).…”