Pacific Southwest Research Station

Major Research Initiatives:

Global Fire Impacts: Impacts of fire and environmental change in tropical forests and savanna of Brazil are being assessed through cooperation between the Forest Service and the Brazilian Federal Institute of the Environment and Renewable Natural Resources (IBAMA).

Forecasting Fire Weather: Climate models are being applied to forecast conditions affecting fire severity over periods from days to months.

Managing Fire and Fuels: PSW is supporting fire management with studies of biomass and fuel accumulation, prescribed burning, and fire emissions. Information technology is being developed to better integrate resource, environmental, social, political, economic, and fire-behavior information.

Fire Effects and Watershed Response: Serious resource and societal losses can occur after the wildfire is suppressed. Forces driving postfire soil erosion and flooding and their mitigation are being investigated throughout the West.

Social Aspects of Fire: Research will examine social impacts due to fire and fire management in the urban-wildland interface. Studies will examine values, attitudes and behaviors of recreationists, the general population in regions surrounding fireprone ecosystems, recreation residence owners, and year-round residents. We will provide information and management tools related to constituent perceptions about fire suppression, post-fire forest health issues, beliefs about recreation activities, beliefs about human health and safety, and beliefs about impacts to fire-prone ecosystems in the wildland-urban interface (including smoke). More about this topic.

	Research Highlights:
	Information from Burned Area Emergency Response (BAER) reports suggest substantial direct impacts of fire on outdoor recreation and substantial risks to recreation opportunities in the future.
	Recreation visitors may be constrained by fire management actions.
	Favored opinions about wildland and wilderness fire management and interventions were signs at recreation sites and closure of some areas to recreation use.
	Bans of specific recreation uses are the least-preferred wildland and wilderness fire management and intervention.
	Year-round, seasonal homeowners, and special use permittees holding cabins on FS land were very concerned about wildfires in their state.
	Fires that are out of control are perceived as the most influential barrier to outdoor recreation.

Research is being conducted by: