Wildland Fire Science Strategy
New USGS Strategy Harnesses State-of-the-Art Science to Tackle Wildfires Before, During and After the Flames
New USGS Strategy Harnesses State-of-the-Art Science to Tackle Wildfires Before, During and After the Flames
USGS Wildland Fire Science
Supporting the Nation's Wildland Fire Management Challenges
Supporting the Nation's Wildland Fire Management Challenges
USGS Emergency Assessment of Post-Fire Debris-Flow Hazards
How Wildfires Threaten U.S. Water Supplies
The USGS is working to measure and predict post-fire water quality and quantity.
The USGS is working to measure and predict post-fire water quality and quantity.
Wildland Fire Science
USGS Fire Science is fundamental to understanding the causes, consequences, and benefits of wildfire and helps prevent and manage larger, catastrophic events. USGS scientists possess diverse technical capabilities that are used to address a variety of problems posed by wildland fires. Outcomes of USGS science can be used by fire and land managers to respond to fire-related issues when they arise.
Diverse Fire Science Topics
Diverse Fire Science Topics
Learn more about the different ways that USGS science is used for wildland fire management.
Browse USGS Fire Science Publications
Browse USGS Fire Science Publications
Get more information about recent scientific publications produced by USGS that deal with wildland fire science.
Current Wildfire Hazards in the U.S.
Current Wildfire Hazards in the U.S.
Use the Intterra National Fire Situation map tool to view current wildfires and related information.
News
From Ashes to Alerts: Science Helps Protect Colorado Travelers
From Ashes to Alerts: Science Helps Protect Colorado Travelers
LANDFIRE Quickens Pace for Providing Key Fire Data
LANDFIRE Quickens Pace for Providing Key Fire Data
Friday's FIndings - May 24, 2024
Friday's FIndings - May 24, 2024
Publications
A retrospective assessment of fuel break effectiveness for containing rangeland wildfires in the sagebrush biome
Escalated wildfire activity within the western U.S. has widespread societal impacts and long-term consequences for the imperiled sagebrush (Artemisia spp.) biome. Shifts from historical fire regimes and the interplay between frequent disturbance and invasive annual grasses may initiate permanent state transitions as wildfire frequency outpaces sagebrush communities’ innate capacity to recover. The
Forecasting natural regeneration of sagebrush after wildfires using population models and spatial matching
ContextAddressing ecosystem degradation in the Anthropocene will require ecological restoration across large spatial extents. Identifying areas where natural regeneration will occur without direct resource investment will improve scalability of restoration actions.ObjectivesAn ecoregion in need of large scale restoration is the Great Basin of the Western US, where increasingly large and frequent w
Future direction of fuels management in sagebrush rangelands
Sagebrush ecosystems in the United States have been declining since EuroAmerican settlement, largely due to agricultural and urban development, invasive species, and altered fire regimes, resulting in loss of biodiversity and wildlife habitat. To combat continued conversion to undesirable ecological states and loss of habitat to invasive species fueled by frequent fire, a variety of fuel treatment
Science
Post-Fire Sediment Research at the Pacific Coastal and Marine Science Center
The USGS Pacific Coastal and Marine Science Center (PCMSC) in Santa Cruz, California, has been growing our post-fire research contributions since 2017, through studies of post-fire sediment movement that address the Natural Hazards Mission Area objectives for understanding wildfire hazards.
Improving Postfire Debris-Flow Hazard Assessments In The Pacific Northwest Through Application Of Debris-Flow Models
As part of the Post-fire Hazards and Impacts to Resources and Ecosystems (PHIRE): Support for Response, Recovery, and Mitigation Project, the PHIRE Debris Flow Hazard team is engaging in several studies to better understand the spatial and temporal drivers of postfire debris flows and improve postfire hazard assessments across northern California and the Pacific Northwest.
Ecosystems on the Edge: Landscape and Fire Ecology of Forests, Deserts, and Tundra
Climate changes and interacting disturbances such as wildfires, insect and disease outbreaks, and erosion and flooding can perturb and reorganize ecosystems.