In the eastern U.S., a long absence of fire has shifted forests towards trees adapted to moist conditions, and away from fire-tolerant species that were historically dominant. Forest Service scientists are co-authors on a recent study to see how fire affects soils in pine barrens. The team found that repeated prescribed fire encourages drier soils that favor fire-tolerant trees. Additional management that clears other vegetation is also helpful.
Continue ReadingFire Research
This page features regionally relevant fire science news, publications, and resources. You can search for even more fire science publications in the SFE Regional Fire Science Publication Database (RFSPD).
LANDFIRE Feedback Survey
| The LANDFIRE Team is pausing to listen to our user community. We have designed a 12-question, 4-minute survey that includes questions ranging from product and data quality to outreach and delivery. The LANDFIRE Program is taking a proactive approach to internal and external growth – we want to know our weaknesses so we can make improvements while simultaneously developing and multiplying our strengths. We will carefully evaluate every piece of feedback. Please take a moment to interact with us in this completely anonymous format. The LANDFIRE team appreciates your candidness and support! |
Recent Prescribed Fire Science Publications for Training and Education
A selection of recent prescribed fire science publications has been compiled by NC State Extension Forestry, Southern Fire Exchange, and the Consortium of Appalachian Fire Managers and Scientists with input from researchers from around the region. These publications are particularly useful to include the most current prescribed fire science in training events such as RT-130 Annual Refreshers. Those with questions can contact Laurel Kays, lekays@ncsu.edu.
Continue ReadingFifth National Climate Assessment Public Engagement Workshops
The U.S. Global Change Research Program is pleased to announce a series of public engagement workshops to help inform the Fifth National Climate Assessment.
The virtual workshops, which are free and open to the public, will be held in January and February 2022. The information gathered will help the authors determine which topics to cover in their chapters of the Fifth National Climate Assessment.
More details, including the full schedule and registration links, can be found on USGCRP’s website.
Continue ReadingFLN Networker December 1, 2021
The latest FLN Networker includes a number of items relevant to the South:
Indigenous Voices: There were two announcements from the federal government on November 15: The White House Office of Science and Technology Policy and the White House Council on Environmental Quality jointly released a new memorandum that commits to elevating Indigenous traditional ecological knowledge in federal scientific and policy processes (press release). And the departments of Agriculture and the Interior issued a joint Secretarial Order to strengthen tribal co-stewardship of public lands and waters (press release).
Smoke: The Fire Adapted Communities Learning Network Smoke Learning Group has collected some highlights from its learning, including a two-pager on HEPA filter programs and another summarizing a conversation about smoke with social scientist Sarah McCaffrey.
Inequality & Risk Response: The authors of the article “Inequality Hinders Group Efforts to Avoid Environmental Disasters” experimentally explored how people’s contributions to a common solution were affected by differences in (experimental) wealth and probability of risk. “As inequality increases, much depends on the rich, who do not necessarily cooperate.”
Continue ReadingChance to Join SECASC Blueprint Indicator Teams – Southeast Grasslands and Longleaf Pine
We’re making good progress on the new approach for the 2022 Southeast Conservation Blueprint. A big focus right now is on expanding and improving indicators for use in the new Blueprint. For some indicators, we’re only working directly with data providers and a select group of experts. With others, we’re also opening up the review teams to anyone who’s interested. The first two of those are indicator teams for Southeast grasslands and longleaf pine.
The overall commitment for each team is 1-2 online meetings (1 hr each). The calls will likely happen in January.
Longleaf pine
Thanks to some big progress in longleaf mapping throughout the range, it looks like we can combine work from Florida and in states throughout the longleaf range into a decent indicator. This team will review some options based on those data.
- Sign up for the longleaf pine indicator team (https://forms.office.com/Pages/ResponsePage.aspx?id=urWTBhhLe02TQfMvQApUlMsSMhhZgj5LtUzvT7wy35tUQ05JWUoyMFNVWjUwV0lTVjNJV1E5NENHWS4u)
Southeast grasslands indicator
There’s also some excellent work on current and historic grasslands now. As you probably know, grassland mapping is really tough, but things seem far enough along for a larger Southeast grasslands indicator.
- Sign up for the Southeast grasslands indicator team (https://forms.office.com/Pages/ResponsePage.aspx?id=urWTBhhLe02TQfMvQApUlMsSMhhZgj5LtUzvT7wy35tUMFlPUERPWEdXQ0RWV0RPSko0MFcxNjNYSC4u)
Prescribed Burn Geodatabase for the Southeastern United States
Tall Timbers Research Station is undertaking a project that aims to do the following:
1) Survey Southeastern states to understand their prescribed fire permitting systems.
2) Develop minimum attribution for geodatabase (specific to prescribed fire)
3) Create a geodatabase to include how permit location is tracked, what attributes are collected, spatial characteristics, period of record and data stewardship.
4) Generate a formal updating process for each state.
View a storymap about the project here.
Continue ReadingU.S. Forest Service R&D News: November 2021
Reuters Special Report: Firefighter Burnout Rising
With climate change fueling lengthier wildfire seasons and mega-blazes devour forests and rural communities, researchers have documented increasing mental health struggles among those on the front lines.
Continue ReadingFEMA Funds Research Study on Cancer Risk for Wildland Firefighters
A $1.5 million grant from the Federal Emergency Management Agency is funding a study at the University of Arizona Mel and Enid Zuckerman College of Public Health that will evaluate cancer risks among wildland firefighters with the goal of finding ways to reduce those risks.
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