Fire is an important ecological process across many ecosystems of the United States. However, in many landscapes, fire has been excluded due to past land management agency policies. There is broad interest in returning fire to our landscapes but this requires an understanding of the historical role of fire and the consequences of excluding fire across these ecosystems. The USDA Forest Service Experimental Forests and Ranges (EFR) are located across a gradient of fire regimes, from frequent low-severity to infrequent high-severity, and serve as place-based areas in which we can assess these issues. Furthermore, the EFR network provides opportunities for scientists and managers to study the ecological outcomes of reintroducing fire to these areas.
Results/Conclusions
This presentation will provide an overview of fire history across the EFR network and the various outcomes of reintroducing fire through experimental burns, simulated fires, and unintended wildfires. We will highlight several short- and long-term research studies that have provided relevant information to the reintroduction of fire as a management tool. In addition, we will highlight some technological advances in monitoring fire behavior and effects across different ecosystems and fire regimes. These short-and long-term data sets can provide scientists baseline information to relate other ecological processes to fire. Because the EFRs are representative of surrounding National Forests they can provide insight into the frequency, severity, and seasonality of fire that could be used to provide rationale for fire management and help restore this important ecological process to the landscape.