Forest ThreatNet

Volume 6, Issue 1 - Spring 2013

Western Threat Center Highlights

Nancy Grulke, Western Wildland Environmental Threat Assessment Center Director

Wildfire Risk and Fuels Management

The Western Threat Center continues to investigate increased potential for wildfire risk in forests dying from bark beetle outbreaks. Through collaborative research and funding opportunities, Center researchers, visiting scientist and University of Idaho assistant professor Jeff Hicke, and partners are analyzing multiple publications and focusing on solutions that decrease bark beetles' impact on fragile forests.

Bark beetle-killed trees create different forest fuel dynamics than other disturbances because impacted trees die standing up and do not populate the forest floor as immediately as thinning or other disturbances, resulting in wildfire fuel. Western Threat Center researchers, including David Peterson and Nicole Vaillant, are using a Forest Service Joint Fire Science Program grant to continue collecting wildfire behavior data, analyze time-since-beetle outbreaks, gain increased confidence in expected wildfire behavior, and close knowledge gaps.

The Center also released two new assessment tools and updated the popular ArcFuels, a tool for wildfire fuels management. Center researchers began training fire ecologists and fuels managers in Landscape Treatment Designer, a new tool that facilitates landscape-level design of fuel treatments. In addition to updating ArcFuels, Center researchers continued training opportunities. A new tool helps managers assess wildfire risk to fish habitat on three National Forests in eastern Oregon and Washington.

Above: Dying, beetle-infested forests often spark western wildfires.

Landscape Disturbance Assessments

The Western Threat Center developed remote sensing, modeling and multi-state assessments estimating carbon storage related to fire risk, forest fuel treatments, natural and human-caused forest disturbance, and post-bark beetle epidemics. Center researchers created an approach to understanding fire transmission pathways among land ownership and use on National Forests, important to understanding wildfire behavior. They also demonstrated the Landscape Designer Tool, which shows location, distribution, and effectiveness of protecting pine from wildfire.

Exotic and Native Invasives

The Western Threat Center held a multi-agency workshop to develop and apply a framework to prioritize invasive plants treatment in the intermountain west. Three supported projects demonstrated the framework’s effectiveness on scablands, National Forests, and national grasslands. The projects potentially reduce field work, identify effective treatments, and offer a clear communication tool to management. Additionally, a workshop report highlighted private forest owners’ perception of invasive plants risk and management strategies, which could be influenced by improved awareness of conservation issues and increased communication among landowners. During the workshop, Western Threat Center Director Nancy Grulke presented research focused on Jeffrey pine’s susceptibility to the Jeffrey pine beetle, common in California and generally found following significant drought.