Rangeland Ecology & Management

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LONG-TERM PRECIPITATION PATTERNS ASSOCIATED WITH FUELS, FIRE, AND POST-FIRE RESTORATION SUCCESS IN THE GREAT BASIN.
Author
Pilliod, David S.
Arkle, Robert S.
Welty, Justin L.
Publisher
Society for Range Management
Publication Year
2016
Body

Fire is causing an unprecedented loss of sagebrush steppe habitat across the Great Basin. To slow and reverse this trend, increased emphasis is being placed on wildfire prevention and suppression and post-fire restoration efforts. We examined how multi-year precipitation patterns influence fire occurrence and post-fire treatment success in sagebrush habitat throughout the Great Basin. Our dataset consisted of over 15,000 fire occurrences (1950-2014), 2,200 post-fire seeding projects (1951-2014), and 114 years of monthly modeled precipitation data specific to each fire and seeding project. Preliminary results suggest that more and larger fires tend to burn when 2-3 years of above-average precipitation are followed by a sharp drop to normal or below-average precipitation. Several years of high precipitation likely increases herbaceous vegetation, which then accumulates into high fuel loads (e.g., dense litter). More surprisingly, post-fire seeding treatments in the fall or winter after a fire often occur when precipitation is below average for the area, possibly contributing to lower than expected germination and seedling survival. Post-fire seeding success was more likely at sites where precipitation returned to average or above average levels within the first 1-2 years after fire. The strength of these patterns varied across different regions of the Great Basin, but overall, our preliminary findings suggest that allowing more flexibility in the timing of post-fire seeding (to avoid multi-year droughts) or permitting multiple seeding efforts (to sow different species at different times or reseed after failed attempts) may be a first step towards increasing success rates. Examining longer term precipitation patterns and using fall-early winter precipitation data could also help land and resource managers predict areas of high wildfire probability (and thus suppression resource need) and areas where treatment implementation could be delayed to maximize restoration effectiveness.

Language
English
Resource Type
Text
Document Type
Conference Proceedings
Conference Name
SRM Corpus Christi, TX