Research Highlights

Wildland Fire and Fuels

Station scientists are providing practical, science-based knowledge and tools to support public and private land managers in smoke management, fire suppression, fuel classification and monitoring, biomass utilization, postfire restoration, and predicting fire behavior and the effects of fire on forest and rangeland resources.

Research results help reduce losses to society from fire, and improve and maintain the resilience and sustainability of our Nation's natural resources.

Research Summaries

• Ancient Trees at Red Mountain Ranch
• Causes and Consequences of Landscape Fire History Patterns
• Ecology of Montane Grassland Fire at the Valles Caldera National Preserve, New Mexico
• Effects of Thinning and Prescribed Burning on Tree Physiology and Predicted Fire Behavior in an Old Growth Ponderosa Pine/Western Larch Stand
• Exploring a Social Problem: People, Fire, and the Wildland-Urban Interface
• Integrated Modeling for Forest Health and Fuel Reduction Decision Support
• An Integrated Study Investigating Masticated Fuels: Developing Sampling Methods, Describing Fire Behavior, and Evaluating Fire Effects
• LANDFIRE Highlights
• Managing the Unexpected in Public Outreach for Fire and Fuels Management
• A New Approach to Estimating Soil Erosion and Mitigation Effectiveness Following Wildfire
• Public Perspectives on Wildfire Risk in the Southwest
• Synthesizing Scientific Information for Fire and Fuels Project Managers
• Understanding the Interaction Between Fire and Woodpeckers as a Means for Guiding Forest Management Practices

Invasive Species

Station researchers are evaluating the threats caused by invasives to our Nation's forests and grasslands, and developing methods to restore and rehabilitate impacted ecosystems. Research results provide managers with knowledge and tools needed to reduce or eliminate the potential for introducing invasives, and their establishment, spread, and impact throughout our Nation's forests and rangelands, both public and private.

Research Summaries

• Arizona Invasive Species Advisory Council
• Biology, Ecology and Management of Western Bark Beetles
• Ecosystem Responses to Invasive Plant Removal and Fuel Reduction in Cottonwood Forests of the Middle Rio Grande
• Efficacy of Biological Control of Leafy Spurge in the Northern Great Plains
• Impacts of Invasive Plants on Songbirds: Using Song Structure as an Indicator of Habitat Quality
• Invasive Species in Mountain Streams
• Newly Discovered non-Ribes Hosts for an Invasive Blister Rust in the Western USA
• Projecting Changes in Dwarf Mistletoe Infestation
• Understanding Invasion of the Exotic Annual, Cheatgrass
• Verbenone for Reducing Mountain Pine Beetle Attacks in the Black Hills

Inventory, Monitoring and Analysis

The Station maintains a comprehensive inventory and monitoring program responsible for collecting, analyzing and reporting information on America's forests and rangelands. Such information helps assess the status, trends and sustainability of our forests and can be used by land managers, planners and policy makers to make informed resource management decisions.

Research Summaries

• Characterizing Forest Change with Satellite Imagery and FIA Data
• The Importance of Monitoring Wilderness Character
• Multiple-resource Monitoring to Guide Adaptive Management
• Objective Mapping of Bedrock Landslides Using Lidar

Recreation

Scientists are working to help managers, communities and others better understand both the risks, trends and emerging issues affecting recreation, and the new ways of meeting recreation and ecotourism needs while protecting core ecosystem features and attributes.

Research Summaries

• Effects of Snowmobile Trails on Coyote Movements within Lynx Home Ranges
• Describing Wilderness Experiences for Backcountry Visitors in Denali National Park, Alaska
• Place-Based Identities and their Impact on Host Communities and Landscapes
• Visitor Experiences in High-Use Wildernesses in the Pacific Northwest

Resource Management and Use

Scientists working under this focus area provide science, management and technology services to forest and rangeland owners, managers, policy makers, other scientists and the public, so they can manage and use natural resources and improve the standard of living and quality of life for current and future generations. Three areas are emphasized:

• better understanding of the structures and processes of forest and range ecosystems;
• development of effective and environmentally sound technologies for managing these resources; and
• delivery of the goods and services that people use and value from forests and rangelands.

Research Summaries

• Changes in Great Basin Sagebrush and Woodland Ecosystems
• Do Soil Compaction and Organic Matter Removal Effect Tree Growth?
• Effect of Alternative Silvicultural Treatments on Snow Accumulation in Lodgepole Pine Stands
• Forest and Rangeland Condition
• How do Mastication and Thinning Treatments Impact Pinyon-Juniper Ecosystems?
• Life on the Edge for Limber Pine Seed Dispersal within a Peripheral Population
• Long-term Patterns of Seed Production in Ponderosa Pine Forests
• A Look at Grassland Ecosystems of the Southwestern United States
• Mapping Personal and Community Meanings Attached to Western Montana Landscapes
• Phosphate Mine Waste Rock Remediation
• Restoration of Aspen in the Western U.S. that are in Decline or Experiencing Die-off

Water and Air

The Clean Water and Clean Air Acts, along with other legislation, require federal, state and local land managers to protect the natural resources they oversee. These managers rely on sound science to help formulate management decisions and advise policy makers and community leaders.

As leaders in technology transfer in fire weather intelligence and smoke forecasts for the western United States, Station scientists supply technical tools, such as computer models and website databases, to support land managers and policy makers; and watershed simulation tools, to maintain and restore western watersheds.

Research Summaries

• A Climate Model for the Western United States
• Indicies to Evaluate Air Quality Impacts on Vegetation
• LIDAR: A New Technology to Monitor Smoke Plume Dymanics in 3-D
• Real-Time High-Resolution Analysis and Forecasting of Fire Weather and Smoke Dispersion in the Western USA
• Spatial Variation in Coarse Wood in Streams and Riparian Zones
• Tree Mortality from Beetles and the Role of Large Wood in Stream Channels
• Watershed-Scale Assessment of Forest Fuels Treatments

Wildlife and Fish

Wildlife and fish research covers a broad array of terrestrial and aquatic species, including those that are listed as sensitive, threatened and endangered. Today's managers are challenged with conserving critical habitats while also managing for recreation, timber, fire, insect and disease outbreaks, noxious weeds, and other resource issues. Concerns over wildlife and fish conservation have created major policy shifts in forest and rangeland management over the past 25 years. Maintaining healthy habitats, populations and biodiversity required in laws such as the Healthy Forests Restoration Act, the Endangered Species Act, and the Clean Water Act are key strategic goals for Forest Service Management.

Research is underway on habitat attributes needed to maintain species across complex and dynamic landscapes. Findings help protect and enhance wildlife and their habitats, and minimize or mitigate the effects from such disturbances as fire, urbanization, roads, recreation, invasives, global climate change, and other factors. Results help define key tradeoffs and new options for blending wildlife protection with other objectives, and discover new cost-saving techniques for monitoring changes in wildlife and fish populations and their habitats.

Research Summaries

• Factors Affecting Grassland Bird Richness
• Helping the National Forest System Define the Geographic Range of Sensitive Species
• Patterns of Finescale Genetic Variation in Chinook Salmon
• Sage-Grouse Habitat Restoration
• Wolverine Population Assessment in the Glacier National Park Ecosystem