Pacific Southwest Research Station

Forest Fuels and Vegetation Management

Clearcutting during the Comstock era, followed by decades of fire suppression, caused the condition of Tahoe forests to become denser and less resistant to severe wildfire. Development of homes and communities has created a large wildland urban interface that is vulnerable to wildfire. That vulnerability was recently demonstrated by the Angora wildfire in 2007, which was economically the most destructive fire to occur in the Tahoe basin to date. Forest treatments to reduce wildfire hazards, including prescribed burning, are being planned and implemented throughout the Basin. Research is examining the effects of both wildfires and fuel treatments (including, understory burns, pile burning, thinning, and mastication) on forest health, wildlife, water quality, air quality, and other values. Vegetation management research is considering not only wildfire and fuel treatments, but also diseases, insects, and climate change.

Current Research Projects

Silvicultural prescriptions to restore forest health

Integrated decision support for cost effective fuel treatments under multiple resource goals

Effects of pile burning in the Tahoe basin on soil and water quality

Biodiversity response to burn intensity and post-fire restoration

Evaluation of montane forest genetic resources in the Lake Tahoe basin: Implications for conservation, management, and adaptive responses of Pinus monticola to environmental change

Effectiveness of upland fuel reduction treatments

Developing fuel characteristic classification system fuelbeds for the Angora fire region

Balancing fuel reduction, soil exposure, and erosion potential

Identifying reference forest conditions

Predicting nutrient and sediment loading from prescribed fire using WEPP

Modeling influence of management on wildfire under future climatic conditions

Nutrient emissions from prescribed fire

Effects of prescribed fires in California State Parks

Restoration and fuel treatment of riparian forests

Threats to white pines