Publications
The USGS fire science mission is to produce and deliver the best available scientific information, tools, and products to support land and emergency management by individuals and organizations at all levels. Below are USGS publications associated with our fire science portfolio.
Filter Total Items: 306
Post-fire rockfall and debris-flow hazard zonation in the Eagle Creek Fire burn area, Columbia River Gorge, Oregon: a tool for emergency managers and first responders
The Eagle Creek Fire engulfed 48,832 acres (196 km2) within the Columbia River Gorge, Oregon beginning September 2nd and was 100% contained by November 30th, 2017. The Columbia River Gorge area is steep and heavily forested characterized by cliffs and flanking talus slopes, receiving > 100 inches (> 254 cm) of precipitation annually. The Columbia River Gorge is a critical lifeline for Oregon and W
Authors
Nancy C. Calhoun, William J. Burns, S.H. Hayduk, Dennis M. Staley, Jason W. Kean
Taking the pulse of debris flows: Extracting debris-flow dynamics from good vibrations in southern California and central Colorado
The destructive nature of debris flows makes it difficult to quantify flow dynamics with direct instrumentation. For this reason, seismic sensors placed safely away from the flow path are often used to identify the timing and speed of debris flows. While seismic sensors have proven to be a valuable tool for event detection and early warning, their potential for identifying other aspects of debris
Authors
A. Michel, Jason W. Kean, Joel B. Smith, Kate E. Allstadt, Jeffrey A. Coe
Integrating anthropogenic factors into regional-scale species distribution models — A novel application in the imperiled sagebrush biome
Species distribution models (SDM) that rely on regional-scale environmental variables will play a key role in forecasting species occurrence in the face of climate change. However, in the Anthropocene, a number of local-scale anthropogenic variables, including wildfire history, land-use change, invasive species, and ecological restoration practices can override regional-scale variables to drive pa
Authors
Juan M. Requena-Mullor, Kaitlin C. Maguire, Douglas J. Shinneman, T. Trevor Caughlin
Effects of a changing climate on the hydrological cycle in cold desert ecosystems of the Great Basin and Columbia Plateau
Climate change is already resulting in changes in cold desert ecosystems, lending urgency to the need to understand climate change effects and develop effective adaptation strategies. In this review, we synthesize information on changes in climate and hydrologic processes during the last century for the Great Basin and Columbia Plateau, and discuss future projections for the 21st century. We deve
Authors
Keirith A. Snyder, Louisa B. Evers, Jeanne C. Chambers, Jason B. Dunham, John B. Bradford, Michael E. Loik
Inundation, flow dynamics, and damage in the 9 January 2018 Montecito Debris-Flow Event, California, USA: Opportunities and challenges for post-wildfire risk assessment
Shortly before the beginning of the winter rainy season, one of the largest fires in California history (Thomas Fire) substantially increased the susceptibility of steep slopes in Santa Barbara and Ventura Counties to debris flows. On January 9, 2018, before the fire was fully contained, an intense burst of rain fell on the portion of the burn area above Montecito, CA. The rainfall and associated
Authors
Jason W. Kean, Dennis M. Staley, Jeremy T. Lancaster, Francis K. Rengers, Brian J. Swanson, Jeffrey A. Coe, Janis Hernandez, Aaron Sigman, Kate E. Allstadt, Donald N. Lindsay
Operationalizing resilience and resistance concepts to address invasive grass-fire cycles
Plant invasions can affect fuel characteristics, fire behavior, and fire regimes resulting in invasive plant-fire cycles and alternative, self-perpetuating states that can be difficult, if not impossible, to reverse. Concepts related to general resilience to disturbance and resistance to invasive plants provide the basis for managing landscapes to increase their capacity to reorganize and adjust f
Authors
Jeanne C. Chambers, Matthew L. Brooks, Matthew J. Germino, Jeremy D Maestas, David I Board, Matthew O. Jones, Brady W Allred
Bunchgrass root abundances and their relationship to resistance and resilience of a burned shrub-steppe landscape
Invasion of exotic annual grasses (EAG) and increased wildfire have motivated an emphasis on managing rangeland plant communities for resistance to invasion and resilience to disturbances. These traits are provided primarily by perennial bunchgrasses in rangelands such as shrub steppe, and specifically but also hypothetically, the abundances and functioning of bunchgrass roots. We asked how bunc
Authors
Matthew J. Germino, Matthew Fisk, Cara Applestein
Turbidity current observations in a large reservoir following a major wildfire
Turbidity currents are generated when denser river water plunges and flows along the bottom of a lake, reservoir, or ocean. The plunging and downstream movement are driven by density differences due to temperature and/or suspended sediment, and currents have been observed to move slowly over long distances. This study presents observations of multiple turbidity currents in a large reservoir in Cal
Authors
Scott Wright, Mathieu D. Marineau
Evaluating the mid-infrared bi-spectral index for improved assessment of low-severity fire effects in a conifer forest
Remote sensing products provide a vital understanding of wildfire effects across a landscape, but detection and delineation of low- and mixed-severity fire remains difficult. While data provided by the Monitoring Trends in Burn Severity project (MTBS) are frequently used to assess severity in the United States, alternative indices can offer improvement to the measurement of low-severity fire effec
Authors
R McCarley, A.M.S Smith, C.A. Kolden, Jason R. Kreitler
Postfire population dynamics of a fire-dependent cypress
Tecate cypress (Hesperocyparis forbesii) is a rare species restricted to four metapopulations in southern California, USA and a few isolated stands in northern Baja California, Mexico. It is a closed-cone, fire-dependent tree of conservation concern due to an increase in human-caused wildfires that have shortened the interval between fires in many of their populations. In 2003 the Mine/Otay Fire b
Authors
Teresa J. Brennan, Jon Keeley
Developing an expert elicited simulation model to evaluate invasive species and fire management alternatives
Invasive species can alter ecosystem properties and cause state shifts in landscapes. Resource managers charged with maintaining landscapes require tools to understand implications of alternative actions (or inactions) on landscape structure and function. Simulation models can serve as a virtual laboratory to explore these alternatives and their potential impacts on a landscape. To be useful, howe
Authors
Catherine S. Jarnevich, Catherine Cullinane Thomas, Nicholas E. Young, Dana M. Backer, Sarah A. Cline, Leonardo Frid, Perry Grissom
Wildfires as an ecosystem service
Wildfires are often viewed as destructive disturbances. We propose that when including both evolutionary and socioecological scales, most ecosystem fires can be understood as natural processes that provide a variety of benefits to humankind. Wildfires provide open habitats that enable the evolution of a diversity of shade-intolerant plants and animals that have long been used by humans. There are
Authors
Juli G. Pausas, Jon Keeley