Wildfire Impacts, and Post-Fire Rehabilitation and Restoration
Science Center Objects
Land use and unintentional (e.g., wildfire) disturbances are increasingly dominant factors affecting land-use planning and management of semiarid landscapes, particularly in sagebrush steppe rangelands. In the last 10-20 years, wildfires are occurring more frequently and increasingly in very large burn patches.
Major conservation investments are often directed towards stabilizing soils and promoting native or desirable perennial plant communities that support wildlife and sustain livestock values under current and future conditions. My research group is evaluating risks of soil erosion and exotic-plant invasions, and approaches for increasing the effectiveness of post-fire seeding, herbicide applications, and also effects of grazing-resumption timing. Our activities contribute to the information base needed by managers to preserve or restore resistance and resilience to burned rangeland landscapes. Research sub-topics include:
Post-fire seeding, planting, and herbicide spraying effectiveness; finding ways to improve success
Seed-source effects, determined from actual seedings and through common-garden studies
Post-fire wind erosion: causes, consequences, and management implications
Developing monitoring approaches for post-fire landscapes
Assessing bunchgrass maturity and readiness for grazing
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Date published: November 16, 2017Status: ActivePlant-Soil-Environment Laboratory (FRESC)
We produce basic and applied science needed to manage landscapes in ways that make them resistant and resilient to stressors such as wildfire, exotic plant invasions, drought, and temperature extremes. These stressors impact ecosystem productivity and functioning and pose costly risks to human health and safety in the western United States. We team with other state and federal agencies to find...
Contacts: Matthew J GerminoAttribution: Forest and Rangeland Ecosystem Science Center
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Date published: January 1, 2018Exotic and perennial grass cover for pastures in the Soda Fire (2016)
The point data file ("Soda Fire Point and Pasture Data (2016).Point Data.csv") includes 2016 vegetative cover values of exotic annual grass and perennial grass measured within three different types of plots for 75 pastures in the Soda Fire, which burned in 2015: 6m² plot using a grid-point intercept photo software, SamplePoint (Booth et al. 2006), 1m² quadrat usi
Attribution: Forest and Rangeland Ecosystem Science Center