FIREss: Fire, Invasives, and Rehabilitation of Shrub-Steppe Rangelands
The USGS FIREss team produces basic and applied scientific information needed to manage semiarid landscapes for resistance and resilience to wildfire, exotic plant invasions, and drought. These stressors impact ecosystem productivity and pose costly risks to health, safety, and economic wellbeing in the vast rangelands, protected areas, and military installations of the Western United States. We partner with federal, state, tribal, and private land managers to identify the most cost-efficient and effective solutions to these threats, including monitoring and evaluating remedial treatment outcomes over millions of acres. Our science is also used to help inform more efficient regulations and show return on investments for management actions.
Our team of plant-soil specialists has expertise and ongoing projects on soil stabilization and health, control of exotic invasive plants, restoration of desirable native perennials, rehabilitation of severely disturbed lands, design and assessment of fuels treatments, vegetation mapping and remote sensing techniques, wildfire risk modeling, monitoring and treatment evaluation, and optimizing livestock grazing. A unique feature of the FIREss team is their participation in management with the agencies we support, including all type of pre- and post-fire treatments and fire suppression (including red card certification for incident support).
Our geographic focus is non-forested uplands, which is the most extensive land type in the western USA and in the US Departments of Interior and Defense. The science has been used to improve the efficiency of regulations and can empower regulatory reform. The return on investment is visible satellite imagery as greener and more productive rangelands and wildlife habitat.
FIREss has provided many technical trainings and workshops, in addition to consultations to managers facing specific problems with wildfire, invasions, and rehabilitation. The resulting relationships have led to formation of a number of larger science-management partnerships, such as the USGS-DoD FIREss team. Much of the land-based training and testing needed by the Department of Defense occurs in remote shrub-steppe. USGS-DoD FIREss provides tactical monitoring, fire-risk assessments, and timely prescriptions for fuels treatments to moderate invasion of wildfire-promoting invasive plants and thereby enable continuity and efficiency of military operations.
Post-Fire Restoration
Invasives
Meet the Team
Principal Investigator
Matt Germino: Supervisory Research Ecologist
Technical theme leads
Brynne Lazarus: Plant-Soil Scientist, Analytical Lab Manager, and Supervisory Support
Research, technique development, and extension on herbicide and bioherbicide applications, restoration and rehabilitation, and local-scale experimentation
Cara Applestein: Large-Landscape Data Integration Scientist
Analytical technique development and application for large and complex datasets, including machine learning and artificial intelligence, national-scale evaluation of effectiveness of post-fire management, analyses to make satellite data suited for vegetation mapping, digital tools to increase cost-efficiency and reliability of landscape monitoring and evaluation.
Bill Davidson: Plant, Seed, and Soil Rehabilitation Specialist
Post-fire grazing management; micrometeorological instrumentation, root-soil microbial interactions, development and testing of materials for native plant restoration. Digital solutions and management for large-scale monitoring of burned areas with a primary focus on areas managed by the Bureau of Land Management.
Samuel "Jake" Price: Rangeland and Fire Risk Modeling
Monitoring and supercomputer modeling of wildfire behavior, spread, and risks for large landscapes. Assessment of fuel breaks, science support of prioritization of fuel treatments to protect US National Parks and military areas management by the US Department of Defense.
Chad Kluender: Quantitative Monitoring and Data Translation
Development of cost-effective and reliable methods and strategies for monitoring and analysis of invasive-grass and fire threats and treatment effectiveness, in management units of the US Fish and Wildlife Service, Tribal areas as well as all other major land agencies.
Technicians
Austin Davis
Krystal Busby
Fisher Corbin
Ripley Orr
Chadwick Dehfehr
Kayleigh Dodson (Volunteer, Boise State University graduate student)
Emma Archey (Volunteer)
Kyle Crichton (Volunteer)
Liam Getzloff (Volunteer)
The news stories below are short summaries of FIREss Team publications.
New Invasive Annual Grass Book Addresses Critical Questions for the Western U.S. New Invasive Annual Grass Book Addresses Critical Questions for the Western U.S.
The USGS FIREss team produces basic and applied scientific information needed to manage semiarid landscapes for resistance and resilience to wildfire, exotic plant invasions, and drought. These stressors impact ecosystem productivity and pose costly risks to health, safety, and economic wellbeing in the vast rangelands, protected areas, and military installations of the Western United States. We partner with federal, state, tribal, and private land managers to identify the most cost-efficient and effective solutions to these threats, including monitoring and evaluating remedial treatment outcomes over millions of acres. Our science is also used to help inform more efficient regulations and show return on investments for management actions.
Our team of plant-soil specialists has expertise and ongoing projects on soil stabilization and health, control of exotic invasive plants, restoration of desirable native perennials, rehabilitation of severely disturbed lands, design and assessment of fuels treatments, vegetation mapping and remote sensing techniques, wildfire risk modeling, monitoring and treatment evaluation, and optimizing livestock grazing. A unique feature of the FIREss team is their participation in management with the agencies we support, including all type of pre- and post-fire treatments and fire suppression (including red card certification for incident support).
Our geographic focus is non-forested uplands, which is the most extensive land type in the western USA and in the US Departments of Interior and Defense. The science has been used to improve the efficiency of regulations and can empower regulatory reform. The return on investment is visible satellite imagery as greener and more productive rangelands and wildlife habitat.
FIREss has provided many technical trainings and workshops, in addition to consultations to managers facing specific problems with wildfire, invasions, and rehabilitation. The resulting relationships have led to formation of a number of larger science-management partnerships, such as the USGS-DoD FIREss team. Much of the land-based training and testing needed by the Department of Defense occurs in remote shrub-steppe. USGS-DoD FIREss provides tactical monitoring, fire-risk assessments, and timely prescriptions for fuels treatments to moderate invasion of wildfire-promoting invasive plants and thereby enable continuity and efficiency of military operations.
Post-Fire Restoration
Invasives
Meet the Team
Principal Investigator
Matt Germino: Supervisory Research Ecologist
Technical theme leads
Brynne Lazarus: Plant-Soil Scientist, Analytical Lab Manager, and Supervisory Support
Research, technique development, and extension on herbicide and bioherbicide applications, restoration and rehabilitation, and local-scale experimentation
Cara Applestein: Large-Landscape Data Integration Scientist
Analytical technique development and application for large and complex datasets, including machine learning and artificial intelligence, national-scale evaluation of effectiveness of post-fire management, analyses to make satellite data suited for vegetation mapping, digital tools to increase cost-efficiency and reliability of landscape monitoring and evaluation.
Bill Davidson: Plant, Seed, and Soil Rehabilitation Specialist
Post-fire grazing management; micrometeorological instrumentation, root-soil microbial interactions, development and testing of materials for native plant restoration. Digital solutions and management for large-scale monitoring of burned areas with a primary focus on areas managed by the Bureau of Land Management.
Samuel "Jake" Price: Rangeland and Fire Risk Modeling
Monitoring and supercomputer modeling of wildfire behavior, spread, and risks for large landscapes. Assessment of fuel breaks, science support of prioritization of fuel treatments to protect US National Parks and military areas management by the US Department of Defense.
Chad Kluender: Quantitative Monitoring and Data Translation
Development of cost-effective and reliable methods and strategies for monitoring and analysis of invasive-grass and fire threats and treatment effectiveness, in management units of the US Fish and Wildlife Service, Tribal areas as well as all other major land agencies.
Technicians
Austin Davis
Krystal Busby
Fisher Corbin
Ripley Orr
Chadwick Dehfehr
Kayleigh Dodson (Volunteer, Boise State University graduate student)
Emma Archey (Volunteer)
Kyle Crichton (Volunteer)
Liam Getzloff (Volunteer)
The news stories below are short summaries of FIREss Team publications.