State of the science on western wildfires, forests and climate change


Date:
August 3, 2021
Source:
University of Washington
Summary:
Seeing the urgent need for change, a team of scientists from
leading research universities, conservation organizations and
government laboratories across the West has produced a synthesis of
the scientific literature that clearly lays out the established
science and strength of evidence on climate change, wildfire
and forest management for seasonally dry forests. The goal is to
give land managers and others across the West access to a unified
resource that summarizes the best-available science so they can
make decisions about how to manage their landscapes.



FULL STORY ========================================================================== Exceptionally hot and dry weather this summer has fueled dozens of
wildfires across the western U.S., spewing smoke across the country and threatening to register yet another record-breaking year. More than a
century of fire exclusion has created dense forests packed with excess
trees and brush that ignite and spread fires quickly under increasingly
warm and dry conditions.


========================================================================== Scientists largely agree that reducing these fuels is needed to make
our forests and surrounding communities more resilient to wildfires and
climate change. But policy and action have not kept pace with the problem
and suppressing fires is still the norm, even as megafires become more
common and destructive.

Seeing the urgent need for change, a team of scientists from leading
research universities, conservation organizations and government
laboratories across the West has produced a synthesis of the scientific literature that clearly lays out the established science and strength of evidence on climate change, wildfire and forest management for seasonally
dry forests. The goal is to give land managers and others across the
West access to a unified resource that summarizes the best-available
science so they can make decisions about how to manage their landscapes.

"Based on our extensive review of the literature and the weight of the evidence, the science of adaptive management is strong and justifies a
range of time- and research-tested approaches to adapt forests to climate change and wildfires," said co-lead author Susan Prichard, a research
scientist in the University of Washington's School of Environmental and
Forest Sciences.

These approaches include some thinning of dense forests in fire-excluded
areas, prescribed burning, reducing fuels on the ground, allowing some wildfires to burn in backcountry settings under favorable fuel and weather conditions, and revitalizing Indigenous fire stewardship practices. The findings were published Aug. 2 as an invited three-paper feature in the
journal Ecological Applications.

The authors studied and reviewed over 1,000 published papers to synthesize
more than a century of research and observations across a wide geographic
range of western North American forests. The analysis didn't include rainforests in the Pacific Northwest or other wet forests where thinning
and prescribed burning wouldn't be advised.



==========================================================================
"The substantial changes associated with more than a century of fire
exclusion jeopardize forest diversity and keystone processes as well
as numerous other social and ecological values including quantity
and quality of water, stability of carbon stores, air quality, and
culturally important resources and food security," said co-lead author
and UW researcher Keala Hagmann.

This ambitious set of articles was inspired by the reality that under
current forest and wildfire management, massive wildfires and drought
are now by far the dominant change agents of western North American
forests. There is an urgent need to apply ecologically and scientifically credible approaches to forest and fire management at a pace and scale
that matches the scope of the problem, the authors say.

Part of the solution involves addressing ongoing confusion over how to
rectify the effects of more than a century of fire exclusion as the
climate continues to warm. Land managers and policymakers recognize
that the number and size of severe fires are rapidly increasing with
climate change, but agreement and funding to support climate and wildfire adaptation are lagging.

To that end, these papers review the strength of the science on
the benefits of adapting fire-excluded forests to a rapidly warming
climate. The authors address 10 common questions, including whether
management is needed after a wildfire, or whether fuel treatments
(thinning, prescribed burning) work under extreme fire weather. They
also discuss the need to integrate western fire science with traditional ecological knowledge and Indigenous fire uses that managed western
landscapes for thousands of years.

Although climate change brings with it many uncertainties, the evidence supporting intentional forest adaptation is strong and broad based. The
authors clearly demonstrate that lingering uncertainties about the
future should no longer paralyze actions that can be taken today to
adapt forests and communities to a warming climate and more fire.

"This collection represents a blending of scientific voices across
the entire disciplinary domain," said co-lead author Paul Hessburg,
a research ecologist with the U.S. Forest Service and affiliate
professor at the UW. "After reviewing the evidence, it is clear that
the changes to forest conditions and fire regimes across the West
are significant. The opportunity ahead is to adapt forests to rapidly
changing climatic and wildfire regimes using a wide range of available, time-tested management tools." Co-authors on this special report are
from University of Arizona, University of British Columbia, University
of California, Berkeley, University of California, Merced, University of
Idaho, University of Montana, University of New Mexico, Northern Arizona University, Oregon State University, The Pennsylvania State University,
Utah State University, U.S. Forest Service research stations (Pacific Northwest, Pacific Southwest, Rocky Mountain), U.S. Forest Service,
Pacific Southwest Region, Washington State Department of Natural
Resources, California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection,
U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, U.S. Geological Survey, The Nature
Conservancy, R.W. Gray Consulting, Rocky Mountain Tree-Ring Research
and Spatial Informatics Group.

This research was funded by U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, The Wilderness Society, The Nature Conservancy of Oregon, Conservation Northwest,
The Ecological Restoration Institute, Washington State Department of
Natural Resources, U.S. Forest Service (Pacific Northwest and Pacific
Southwest Research Stations), and the California Department of Forestry
and Fire Protection.

========================================================================== Story Source: Materials provided by University_of_Washington. Original
written by Michelle Ma. Note: Content may be edited for style and length.


========================================================================== Journal Reference:
1. Paul F. Hessburg, Susan J. Prichard, R. Keala Hagmann, Nicholas
A. Pova,
Frank K. Lake. Wildfire and climate change adaptation of
western North American forests: a case for intentional
management. Ecological Applications, 2021; DOI: 10.1002/eap.2432 ==========================================================================

Link to news story: https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2021/08/210803175223.htm

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