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  1. Article: Integrating ecosystem services modeling and efficiencies in decision-support models conceptualization for watershed management

    Pascual, Adrián / Giardina, Christian P. / Povak, Nicholas A. / Hessburg, Paul F. / Asner, Gregory P.

    Ecological modelling. 2022 Apr., v. 466

    2022  

    Abstract: Decision-making resource stewardship models rely on statistical relationships between management actions and ecosystem services provisioning. The operationalization of management actions benefits from models capable to isolate synergic statistical ... ...

    Abstract Decision-making resource stewardship models rely on statistical relationships between management actions and ecosystem services provisioning. The operationalization of management actions benefits from models capable to isolate synergic statistical relationships from trade-offs. We showcase two existing watershed planning studies requiring spatiotemporal operationalization to better schedule management actions. The study in Hawai'i Island (USA) focused on invasive species while another in Babeldaob Island (Republic of Palau) tackled wildfire management. Both planning exercises relied on Ecosystem Management Decision Support to populate hydrologically defined management units for supporting water resource decision-making. In this viewpoint we identify shortcomings and potential future directions aligned with shaping stewardship responses to the interactive constraints of climate mitigation and management costs within a very needed optimization framework capable to operationally support landscape managers and drive solutions on ES management and valuation.
    Keywords Hawaii ; climate ; decision making ; ecosystem management ; ecosystems ; hydrology ; invasive species ; landscapes ; watershed management ; watersheds ; wildland fire management ; Palau
    Language English
    Dates of publication 2022-04
    Publishing place Elsevier B.V.
    Document type Article
    ZDB-ID 191971-4
    ISSN 0304-3800
    ISSN 0304-3800
    DOI 10.1016/j.ecolmodel.2022.109879
    Database NAL-Catalogue (AGRICOLA)

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  2. Article: Predicting future patterns, processes, and their interactions: Benchmark calibration and validation procedures for forest landscape models

    Furniss, Tucker J. / Hessburg, Paul F. / Povak, Nicholas A. / Salter, R. Brion / Wigmosta, Mark S.

    Ecological modelling. 2022 Nov., v. 473

    2022  

    Abstract: Process-based Forest Landscape Models (FLMs) rely on first principles to simulate ecological patterns and processes, making them uniquely powerful for forecasting ecological dynamics under unprecedented climatic and disturbance regimes. Persistent ... ...

    Abstract Process-based Forest Landscape Models (FLMs) rely on first principles to simulate ecological patterns and processes, making them uniquely powerful for forecasting ecological dynamics under unprecedented climatic and disturbance regimes. Persistent challenges with any ecological forecasting model are calibration (“tuning” the model) and validation (“proofing” the model). As no actual future data exist from which to conduct a formal model validation, model credibility is established through numerous tests against empirical datasets and comparisons with other types of models. The purpose of this study was to establish more consistent and generalizable standards for calibrating and validating LANDIS-II, a widely used, open-source FLM. We reviewed methods gleaned from a wide variety of previous FLM studies and advance some new techniques for evaluating the credibility of the model outputs. We used publicly available data with full coverage for the United States (US) so that our methods will be generalizable to other landscapes in the US, and we developed an ecologically meaningful set of validation metrics for evaluating the credibility of new applications. We found that LANDIS-II could be calibrated to reliably simulate empirical vegetation-disturbance-climate dynamics in diverse, mountainous terrain and fire-prone landscapes of the eastern Cascade Mountains. We performed an inter-model validation between LANDIS-II and the Forest Vegetation Simulator (FVS), demonstrating consistent projections of biomass dynamics for all tree-dominated ecoregions in the study domain. Similarly, simulated fires reliably approximated the empirical fire event size and severity patch size distributions based on observed fire activity from 1984 to 2019. By establishing rigorous, transparent, and repeatable standards for calibrating and validating FLM dynamics, we sought to remove some of the barriers to adapting LANDIS-II to new landscapes and climates, facilitate further validation of existing models, and aid independent assessment of the credibility of forest landscape models.
    Keywords biomass ; data collection ; forest vegetation simulator ; forests ; landscapes ; model validation ; mountains
    Language English
    Dates of publication 2022-11
    Publishing place Elsevier B.V.
    Document type Article
    ZDB-ID 191971-4
    ISSN 0304-3800
    ISSN 0304-3800
    DOI 10.1016/j.ecolmodel.2022.110099
    Database NAL-Catalogue (AGRICOLA)

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  3. Article: Optimizing invasive species management using mathematical programming to support stewardship of water and carbon-based ecosystem services

    Pascual, Adrián / Giardina, Christian P. / Povak, Nicholas A. / Hessburg, Paul F. / Heider, Chris / Salminen, Ed / Asner, Gregory P.

    Elsevier Ltd Journal of environmental management. 2022 Jan. 01, v. 301

    2022  

    Abstract: Invasive species alter hydrologic processes at watershed scales, with impacts to biodiversity and the supporting ecosystem services. This effect is aggravated by climate change. Here, we integrated modelled hydrologic data, remote sensing products, ... ...

    Abstract Invasive species alter hydrologic processes at watershed scales, with impacts to biodiversity and the supporting ecosystem services. This effect is aggravated by climate change. Here, we integrated modelled hydrologic data, remote sensing products, climate data, and linear mixed integer optimization (MIP) to identify stewardship actions across space and time that can reduce the impact of invasive species. The study area is the windward coast of Hawai'i Island (USA) across which non-native strawberry guava occurrence varies from extremely dense stands in lower watershed reaches, to low densities in upper watershed forests. We focused on the removal of strawberry guava, an invader that exerts significant impacts on watershed condition. MIP analyses spatially optimized the assignment of effective management actions to increase water yield, generate revenue from enhanced freshwater services, and income from removed biomass. The hydrological benefit of removing guava, often marginal when considered in isolation, was financially quantified, and single- and multiobjective MIP formulations were then developed over a 10-year planning horizon. Optimization resulted in $2.27 million USD benefit over the planning horizon using a payment-for-ecosystem-services scheme. That value jumped to $4.67 million when allowing work schedules with overnight camping to reduce costs. Pareto frontiers of weighted pairs of management goals showed the benefit of clustering treatments over space and time to improve financial efficiency. Values of improved land-water natural capital using payment-for-ecosystem-services schemes are provided for several combinations of spatial, temporal, economical, and ecosystem services flows.
    Keywords Hawaii ; Psidium cattleyanum ; biodiversity ; biomass ; climate change ; coasts ; ecosystems ; environmental management ; freshwater ; guavas ; hydrologic data ; income ; invasive species ; meteorological data ; natural capital ; space and time ; water yield ; watersheds
    Language English
    Dates of publication 2022-0101
    Publishing place Elsevier Ltd
    Document type Article
    ZDB-ID 184882-3
    ISSN 1095-8630 ; 0301-4797
    ISSN (online) 1095-8630
    ISSN 0301-4797
    DOI 10.1016/j.jenvman.2021.113803
    Database NAL-Catalogue (AGRICOLA)

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  4. Article ; Online: Assessing impacts of sulfur deposition on aquatic ecosystems: A decision support system for the Southern Appalachians

    Reynolds, Keith M. / Hessburg, Paul F. / Lakicevic, Milena / Povak, Nicholas A. / Salter, R. Brion / Sullivan, Timothy J. / McDonnell, Todd C. / Cosby, Bernard J. / Jackson, William

    Ecosphere. 2023 May, v. 14, no. 5 p.e4507-

    2023  

    Abstract: With climate change and ongoing impacts from human development and resource extraction, US federal land management agencies are acutely concerned with managing for healthy aquatic ecosystems in the Southern Appalachian Mountain (SAM) Region. Here, we ... ...

    Abstract With climate change and ongoing impacts from human development and resource extraction, US federal land management agencies are acutely concerned with managing for healthy aquatic ecosystems in the Southern Appalachian Mountain (SAM) Region. Here, we describe development of a spatial decision support application to assess the biological and ecological impacts of atmospheric S and N deposition on aquatic ecosystems of the region. We first summarize foundational published work to predict continuous maps of surface water acid neutralizing capacity (ANC) and soil base cation weathering (BCw). We use the predicted ANC and BCw maps to estimate steady‐state critical loads (CLs) of atmospheric S and N deposition. We included estimated CLs of atmospheric N to get a complete picture of CLs and potential exceedances. We then present a logic‐based decision support model for assessing effects of S and N deposition based on statistically modeled stream ANC and CL exceedance. The model is easily modified for continuous monitoring of CL exceedance patterns as new S and N deposition and ANC data become available. We present mapped model results for the SAM study area and an important subset of the region, the Great Smoky Mountains National Park. ANC modeling results revealed that predicted acid sensitivity was spatially variable, with areas of relatively low stream ANC (<50 μeq · L⁻¹) and soil BCw (<50 meq · m⁻² · year⁻¹) predominantly found in certain critical areas. Within the Great Smoky Mountains National Park, evidence for S CL exceedance based on an ANC criterion of 50 μeq · L⁻¹ was strong at locations where ambient S deposition was at least two times the CL. We also predicted likely impacts of CL exceedances on aquatic insect species richness and native fish abundance. Responses for insect species richness and fish impact showed variability similar to CL exceedance, with increasing impact positively correlated with elevation. Finally, we discuss ways that the decision support system can be used to prioritize management across the region.
    Keywords aquatic insects ; cations ; climate change ; decision support systems ; fish ; human development ; indigenous species ; land management ; models ; national parks ; soil ; species richness ; streams ; sulfur ; surface water
    Language English
    Dates of publication 2023-05
    Publishing place John Wiley & Sons, Inc.
    Document type Article ; Online
    Note JOURNAL ARTICLE
    ZDB-ID 2572257-8
    ISSN 2150-8925
    ISSN 2150-8925
    DOI 10.1002/ecs2.4507
    Database NAL-Catalogue (AGRICOLA)

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  5. Article: Fuel treatment effectiveness in the context of landform, vegetation, and large, wind-driven wildfires.

    Prichard, Susan J / Povak, Nicholas A / Kennedy, Maureen C / Peterson, David W

    Ecological applications : a publication of the Ecological Society of America

    2020  Volume 30, Issue 5, Page(s) e02104

    Abstract: Large wildfires (>50,000 ha) are becoming increasingly common in semiarid landscapes of the western United States. Although fuel reduction treatments are used to mitigate potential wildfire effects, they can be overwhelmed in wind-driven wildfire events ... ...

    Abstract Large wildfires (>50,000 ha) are becoming increasingly common in semiarid landscapes of the western United States. Although fuel reduction treatments are used to mitigate potential wildfire effects, they can be overwhelmed in wind-driven wildfire events with extreme fire behavior. We evaluated drivers of fire severity and fuel treatment effectiveness in the 2014 Carlton Complex, a record-setting complex of wildfires in north-central Washington State. Across varied topography, vegetation, and distinct fire progressions, we used a combination of simultaneous autoregression (SAR) and random forest (RF) approaches to model drivers of fire severity and evaluated how fuel treatments mitigated fire severity. Predictor variables included fuel treatment type, time since treatment, topographic indices, vegetation and fuels, and weather summarized by progression interval. We found that the two spatial regression methods are generally complementary and are instructive as a combined approach for landscape analyses of fire severity. Simultaneous autoregression improves upon traditional linear models by incorporating information about neighboring pixel burn severity, which avoids type I errors in coefficient estimates and incorrect inferences. Random forest modeling provides a flexible modeling environment capable of capturing complex interactions and nonlinearities while still accounting for spatial autocorrelation through the use of spatially explicit predictor variables. All treatment areas burned with higher proportions of moderate and high-severity fire during early fire progressions, but thin and underburn, underburn only, and past wildfires were more effective than thin-only and thin and pile burn treatments. Treatment units had much greater percentages of unburned and low severity area in later progressions that burned under milder fire weather conditions, and differences between treatments were less pronounced. Our results provide evidence that strategic placement of fuels reduction treatments can effectively reduce localized fire spread and severity even under severe fire weather. During wind-driven fire spread progressions, fuel treatments that were located on leeward slopes tended to have lower fire severity than treatments located on windward slopes. As fire and fuels managers evaluate options for increasing landscape resilience to future climate change and wildfires, strategic placement of fuel treatments may be guided by retrospective studies of past large wildfire events.
    MeSH term(s) Fires ; Retrospective Studies ; Treatment Outcome ; Washington ; Wildfires ; Wind
    Language English
    Publishing date 2020-04-02
    Publishing country United States
    Document type Journal Article ; Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't
    ZDB-ID 1074505-1
    ISSN 1939-5582 ; 1051-0761
    ISSN (online) 1939-5582
    ISSN 1051-0761
    DOI 10.1002/eap.2104
    Database MEDical Literature Analysis and Retrieval System OnLINE

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  6. Article: Wildfire and climate change adaptation of western North American forests: a case for intentional management.

    Hessburg, Paul F / Prichard, Susan J / Hagmann, R Keala / Povak, Nicholas A / Lake, Frank K

    Ecological applications : a publication of the Ecological Society of America

    2021  Volume 31, Issue 8, Page(s) e02432

    Abstract: Forest landscapes across western North America (wNA) have experienced extensive changes over the last two centuries, while climatic warming has become a global reality over the last four decades. Resulting interactions between historical increases in ... ...

    Abstract Forest landscapes across western North America (wNA) have experienced extensive changes over the last two centuries, while climatic warming has become a global reality over the last four decades. Resulting interactions between historical increases in forested area and density and recent rapid warming, increasing insect mortality, and wildfire burned areas, are now leading to substantial abrupt landscape alterations. These outcomes are forcing forest planners and managers to identify strategies that can modify future outcomes that are ecologically and/or socially undesirable. Past forest management, including widespread harvest of fire- and climate-tolerant large old trees and old forests, fire exclusion (both Indigenous and lightning ignitions), and highly effective wildfire suppression have contributed to the current state of wNA forests. These practices were successful at meeting short-term demands, but they match poorly to modern realities. Hagmann et al. review a century of observations and multi-scale, multi-proxy, research evidence that details widespread changes in forested landscapes and wildfire regimes since the influx of European colonists. Over the preceding 10 millennia, large areas of wNA were already settled and proactively managed with intentional burning by Indigenous tribes. Prichard et al. then review the research on management practices historically applied by Indigenous tribes and currently applied by some managers to intentionally manage forests for resilient conditions. They address 10 questions surrounding the application and relevance of these management practices. Here, we highlight the main findings of both papers and offer recommendations for management. We discuss progress paralysis that often occurs with strict adherence to the precautionary principle; offer insights for dealing with the common problem of irreducible uncertainty and suggestions for reframing management and policy direction; and identify key knowledge gaps and research needs.
    MeSH term(s) Climate Change ; Fires ; Forests ; North America ; Trees ; Wildfires
    Language English
    Publishing date 2021-08-25
    Publishing country United States
    Document type Journal Article ; Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't ; Research Support, U.S. Gov't, Non-P.H.S.
    ZDB-ID 1074505-1
    ISSN 1939-5582 ; 1051-0761
    ISSN (online) 1939-5582
    ISSN 1051-0761
    DOI 10.1002/eap.2432
    Database MEDical Literature Analysis and Retrieval System OnLINE

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  7. Article: Fuel treatment effectiveness in the context of landform, vegetation, and large, wind‐driven wildfires

    Prichard, Susan J / Povak, Nicholas A / Kennedy, Maureen C / Peterson, David W

    Ecological applications. 2020 July, v. 30, no. 5

    2020  

    Abstract: Large wildfires (>50,000 ha) are becoming increasingly common in semiarid landscapes of the western United States. Although fuel reduction treatments are used to mitigate potential wildfire effects, they can be overwhelmed in wind‐driven wildfire events ... ...

    Abstract Large wildfires (>50,000 ha) are becoming increasingly common in semiarid landscapes of the western United States. Although fuel reduction treatments are used to mitigate potential wildfire effects, they can be overwhelmed in wind‐driven wildfire events with extreme fire behavior. We evaluated drivers of fire severity and fuel treatment effectiveness in the 2014 Carlton Complex, a record‐setting complex of wildfires in north‐central Washington State. Across varied topography, vegetation, and distinct fire progressions, we used a combination of simultaneous autoregression (SAR) and random forest (RF) approaches to model drivers of fire severity and evaluated how fuel treatments mitigated fire severity. Predictor variables included fuel treatment type, time since treatment, topographic indices, vegetation and fuels, and weather summarized by progression interval. We found that the two spatial regression methods are generally complementary and are instructive as a combined approach for landscape analyses of fire severity. Simultaneous autoregression improves upon traditional linear models by incorporating information about neighboring pixel burn severity, which avoids type I errors in coefficient estimates and incorrect inferences. Random forest modeling provides a flexible modeling environment capable of capturing complex interactions and nonlinearities while still accounting for spatial autocorrelation through the use of spatially explicit predictor variables. All treatment areas burned with higher proportions of moderate and high‐severity fire during early fire progressions, but thin and underburn, underburn only, and past wildfires were more effective than thin‐only and thin and pile burn treatments. Treatment units had much greater percentages of unburned and low severity area in later progressions that burned under milder fire weather conditions, and differences between treatments were less pronounced. Our results provide evidence that strategic placement of fuels reduction treatments can effectively reduce localized fire spread and severity even under severe fire weather. During wind‐driven fire spread progressions, fuel treatments that were located on leeward slopes tended to have lower fire severity than treatments located on windward slopes. As fire and fuels managers evaluate options for increasing landscape resilience to future climate change and wildfires, strategic placement of fuel treatments may be guided by retrospective studies of past large wildfire events.
    Keywords Washington (state) ; autocorrelation ; burn severity ; climate change ; fire severity ; fire spread ; fire weather ; landforms ; landscapes ; vegetation ; wildfires
    Language English
    Dates of publication 2020-07
    Publishing place John Wiley & Sons, Ltd
    Document type Article
    Note NAL-AP-2-clean ; JOURNAL ARTICLE
    ZDB-ID 1074505-1
    ISSN 1939-5582 ; 1051-0761
    ISSN (online) 1939-5582
    ISSN 1051-0761
    DOI 10.1002/eap.2104
    Database NAL-Catalogue (AGRICOLA)

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  8. Article: Wildfire and climate change adaptation of western North American forests: a case for intentional management

    Hessburg, Paul F. / Prichard, Susan J. / Hagmann, R. Keala / Povak, Nicholas A. / Lake, Frank K.

    Ecological applications. 2021 Dec., v. 31, no. 8

    2021  

    Abstract: Forest landscapes across western North America (wNA) have experienced extensive changes over the last two centuries, while climatic warming has become a global reality over the last four decades. Resulting interactions between historical increases in ... ...

    Abstract Forest landscapes across western North America (wNA) have experienced extensive changes over the last two centuries, while climatic warming has become a global reality over the last four decades. Resulting interactions between historical increases in forested area and density and recent rapid warming, increasing insect mortality, and wildfire burned areas, are now leading to substantial abrupt landscape alterations. These outcomes are forcing forest planners and managers to identify strategies that can modify future outcomes that are ecologically and/or socially undesirable. Past forest management, including widespread harvest of fire‐ and climate‐tolerant large old trees and old forests, fire exclusion (both Indigenous and lightning ignitions), and highly effective wildfire suppression have contributed to the current state of wNA forests. These practices were successful at meeting short‐term demands, but they match poorly to modern realities. Hagmann et al. review a century of observations and multi‐scale, multi‐proxy, research evidence that details widespread changes in forested landscapes and wildfire regimes since the influx of European colonists. Over the preceding 10 millennia, large areas of wNA were already settled and proactively managed with intentional burning by Indigenous tribes. Prichard et al. then review the research on management practices historically applied by Indigenous tribes and currently applied by some managers to intentionally manage forests for resilient conditions. They address 10 questions surrounding the application and relevance of these management practices. Here, we highlight the main findings of both papers and offer recommendations for management. We discuss progress paralysis that often occurs with strict adherence to the precautionary principle; offer insights for dealing with the common problem of irreducible uncertainty and suggestions for reframing management and policy direction; and identify key knowledge gaps and research needs.
    Keywords forest management ; forests ; insects ; issues and policy ; landscapes ; lightning ; mortality ; paralysis ; precautionary principle ; uncertainty ; wildfires ; North America
    Language English
    Dates of publication 2021-12
    Publishing place John Wiley & Sons, Ltd
    Document type Article
    Note JOURNAL ARTICLE
    ZDB-ID 1074505-1
    ISSN 1939-5582 ; 1051-0761
    ISSN (online) 1939-5582
    ISSN 1051-0761
    DOI 10.1002/eap.2432
    Database NAL-Catalogue (AGRICOLA)

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  9. Article: Post-fire landscape evaluations in Eastern Washington, USA: Assessing the work of contemporary wildfires

    Churchill, Derek J. / Jeronimo, Sean M.A. / Hessburg, Paul F. / Cansler, C. Alina / Povak, Nicholas A. / Kane, Van R. / Lutz, James A. / Larson, Andrew J.

    Forest ecology and management. 2022 Jan. 15, v. 504

    2022  

    Abstract: In the western US, wildfires are modifying the structure, composition, and patterns of forested landscapes at rates that far exceed mechanical thinning and prescribed fire treatments. There are conflicting narratives as to whether these wildfires are ... ...

    Abstract In the western US, wildfires are modifying the structure, composition, and patterns of forested landscapes at rates that far exceed mechanical thinning and prescribed fire treatments. There are conflicting narratives as to whether these wildfires are restoring landscape resilience to future climate and wildfires. To evaluate the landscape-level work of wildfires, we assessed four subwatersheds in eastern Washington, USA that experienced large wildfires in 2014, 2015, or 2017 after more than a century of fire exclusion and extensive timber harvest. We compared pre- and post-fire landscape conditions to an ecoregion-specific historical (HRV) and future range of variation (FRV) based on empirically established reference conditions derived from a large dataset of historical aerial photo imagery. These four wildfires proved to be a blunt restoration tool, moving some attributes towards more climate-adapted conditions and setting others back. Fires reduced canopy cover and decreased overall tree size and canopy complexity, which moved them into, or slightly outside, the FRV ranges. Moderate- and low-severity fire generally shifted closed-canopy forest structure to open-canopy classes. Patches of high-severity fire shifted patterns of forest, woodland, grassland, and shrubland towards or beyond the HRV ranges and within the FRV ranges by increasing the total area and size of non-forest patches. However, large patches of high-severity fire in dry and moist mixed-conifer forests homogenized landscape patterns beyond FRV ranges towards simplified conditions dominated by non-forest vegetation types. Fires realigned and reconnected landscape patterns with the topo-edaphic template in some cases, but pre-existing fragmentation and spatial mismatches were compounded in many others. Patches of large-tree, closed-canopy forest were reduced by high-severity fire, and the potential to restore more climate-adapted large-tree, open-canopy forest was lost. Re-establishing landscape patterns with desired patch sizes of forest, in particular patches with large trees, will take many decades to centuries and may not occur in drier locations or where seed trees are no longer present. While large wildfires burning during extreme fire weather conditions can move some attributes towards HRV and FRV ranges, intentionally planned mechanical and prescribed-fire treatments that are integrated with strategic wildfire response will better prepare and adapt landscapes for future wildfires and climate.
    Keywords administrative management ; aerial photography ; canopy ; climate ; data collection ; fire weather ; forest ecology ; forests ; grasslands ; landscapes ; prescribed burning ; shrublands ; subwatersheds ; wildfires ; woodlands
    Language English
    Dates of publication 2022-0115
    Publishing place Elsevier B.V.
    Document type Article
    ZDB-ID 751138-3
    ISSN 0378-1127
    ISSN 0378-1127
    DOI 10.1016/j.foreco.2021.119796
    Database NAL-Catalogue (AGRICOLA)

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  10. Article: Tamm Review: Ecological principles to guide post-fire forest landscape management in the Inland Pacific and Northern Rocky Mountain regions

    Larson, Andrew J. / Jeronimo, Sean M.A. / Hessburg, Paul F. / Lutz, James A. / Povak, Nicholas A. / Cansler, C. Alina / Kane, Van R. / Churchill, Derek J.

    Elsevier B.V. Forest ecology and management. 2022 Jan. 15, v. 504

    2022  

    Abstract: Post-fire landscapes are the frontline of forest ecosystem change. As such, they represent opportunities to foster conditions that are better adapted to future climate and wildfires with post-fire management. In western US landscapes, post-fire ... ...

    Abstract Post-fire landscapes are the frontline of forest ecosystem change. As such, they represent opportunities to foster conditions that are better adapted to future climate and wildfires with post-fire management. In western US landscapes, post-fire management has been mostly defined by short-term emergency mitigation measures, salvage harvest to recover economic value, and replanting to achieve full stocking.These approaches are largely incongruent with ecologically based forest management due to their limited scope and objectives. Here, we develop a framework for ecologically based post-fire management. Post-fire management principles are to (i) protect large-diameter trees and fire refugia; (ii) anticipate future fuel accumulation from post-fire tree mortality; (iii) reinitiate and maintain stabilizing fire-vegetation feedbacks; (iv) differentiate between climate- and dispersal-mediated transitions to non-forest; and (v) align species composition and structure with future fire regimes and climate. Stand-scale management strategies to implement these principles include (i) maintain or enhance forest resilience; (ii) restore forest conditions and resist transition to non-forest; and (iii) accept or facilitate transition to non-forest. Determining where and over what extent to deploy these stand-scale strategies in large, burned landscapes is informed by a post-fire landscape evaluation, and expressed with a landscape prescription. A post-fire landscape evaluation is a data-driven characterization of current vegetation conditions, including the immediate changes caused by wildfire, and includes a departure analysis—an evaluation of current conditions against reference conditions. The landscape prescription provides guidance about the distribution of different successional patches and their sizes across the topographic template and identifies priority areas for different post-fire treatments. We develop a geospatial framework to integrate ecological principles with a post-fire landscape evaluation that can be readily applied to management planning after wildfire. We illustrate application of these principles through the development of landscape prescriptions for two watersheds, each burned in a recent large fire, in northeast Washington, USA. Use of ecologically based post-fire management principles and landscape evaluations can help shift often contentious debates over salvage harvesting towards a more productive dialogue around how to best adapt landscapes to future conditions.
    Keywords climate ; economic valuation ; forest ecosystems ; forest management ; forests ; landscape management ; landscapes ; refuge habitats ; species diversity ; tree mortality ; wildfires
    Language English
    Dates of publication 2022-0115
    Publishing place Elsevier B.V.
    Document type Article
    ZDB-ID 751138-3
    ISSN 0378-1127
    ISSN 0378-1127
    DOI 10.1016/j.foreco.2021.119680
    Database NAL-Catalogue (AGRICOLA)

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