FireScape Science Goals

The FireScape Science Working Group provides a science perspective on issues germane to ecosystem ecology and management. The central goals of the Science Working Group are to:

  • Provide technical support and scientific data for FireScape planning, public participation, and management; and
  • Advance the science of ecosystem management.
  • Communicate support and new information to peers.

Science Working Group Objectives

Provide decision support for ecosystem management

  • Provide technical support, scientific data, and analyses for program- and project-level planning, exploration of alternatives, public and stakeholder communication, and implementation.
  • Collaborate with TEAMS Enterprise and other technical resources toward meeting project objectives.
  • Build local capacity for ongoing post-treatment monitoring and adaptive project management.
  • Build capacity and models for adaptation of science-informed management model to other areas.

Advance the science of landscape fire and ecosystem fire management.

  • Develop a hierarchical Land Type Analysis as a base layer of ecological units/systems.
  • Crosswalk Land Type Analysis to fuel models at the landscape scale.
  • Understand fire behavior on complex post-fire landscapes, using stochastic simulation modeling of fire behavior and effects.
  • Integrate fire history information, field observations, and modeling to assess landscape Fire Return Interval Departure (FRID) from the natural range of variation by vegetation type.
  • Apply to desired future condition assessment and Vegetation Dynamics Development Tool (VDDT) analysis.
  • Use Fuel Moisture Stress Index (FMSI) to assess fire hazard in relation to current and future climate variability.
  • Use Land Types and fire behavior to guide desired future conditions and treatment options.
  • Use LiDAR to estimate carbon pools, forest structure and potential crown fire behavior under current and potential future climate.
  • Understand the effects of buffelgrass invasion on landscape fire behavior and effects.

3. Communicate with peers.

  • Create a record of scientific questions central to landscape fire management to communicate this scientific activity to peers in the research and management communities.

 

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