Resources
Wildland fire resources are critical to understanding the complexities of how to best manage the natural and human elements of wildland fire. This space contains information to increase information sharing within the community of practice working on Wildland Fire and Prescribed Burning.
Scientists participate in a Prescribed Fire Science Consortium collaborative fire research event at Tall Timbers Research Station. Photo: David Godwin, Southern Fire Exchange / University of Florida.
SE FireMap Fact Sheet - 1.0 Technical Version
This document highlights the overall SE FireMap initiative – offering a technical summary of the project’s background, development process, timeline, and objectives.
Questions and Answers-SE FireMap Phase II: Developing the Decision Support System
Question and Answer transcript of the Q&A SE FireMap Phase II: Developing the Decision Support System webinar.
Opportunities for Research on Carbon Sequestration in Longleaf Pine Ecosystems
As a result of the Fact Sheet on Opportunities for Research on Carbon Sequestration in Longleaf Pine Ecosystems by Kevin Robertson, Ph.D., Fire Ecology Research Scientist, Prescribed Burning has been added to the USDA Climate Smart Priorities List for FY24.
SE FireMap Version 1.0 BETA Product Information
Learn more about the dataset development process, attribute descriptions, known issues, limitations, considerations, and references.
Tall Timbers SE FireMap Technical Oversite Team Update April 23, 2020
The Natural Resources Conservation Service and U.S Endowment for Forestry and Communities established the SE FireMap Technical Oversight Team (TOT) to serve as the advisory body for the proposed SE FireMap initiative. The TOT is comprised of subject area experts from a variety of organizations who expressed an interest in directly supporting the project.
SE FireMap Scoping Report July 15, 2020
Tall Timbers Research, Inc. is pleased to present the July 15th Interim Report for the scoping agreement of the SE FireMap to the U.S. Endowment for Forestry and Communities and the USDA Natural Resources Conservation Service.
SE FireMap Scoping Report October 15, 2020
Tall Timbers Research, Inc. is pleased to present the October 15th Interim Report for the scoping agreement of the SE FireMap to the U.S. Endowment for Forestry and Communities and the USDA Natural Resources Conservation Service.
Tall Timbers Geospatial Center-Scoping Activity Updates 2020
Tall Timbers Geospatial Center-Scoping Activity Updates 2020
DOI Nature-based Solutions Roadmap
The purpose of the Department of the Interior Nature Based Solutions Roadmap is to provide Department of the Interior (DOI) staff with consistent and credible information about nature-based solutions, such as which strategies match certain conditions and goals, what co-benefits they are likely to provide, example projects, and additional resources for project planning, construction, and monitoring.
Tall Timbers Geospatial Center-Scoping Activity Updates 2020-2021
Tall Timbers Geospatial Center-Scoping Activity Updates 2020-2021
SE FireMap-Final Scoping Report (July 2021)
Tall Timbers Research, Inc. is pleased to present the July 15th 2021 Final Report and recommendations for the scoping agreement of the SE FireMap to the U.S. Endowment for Forestry and Communities and the USDA Natural Resources Conservation Service.
SE FireMap Phase 2 Proposal - Public Version
Phase II "Development" proposal jointly submitted by Tall Timbers Research Station and USGS. Financial information has been removed to accommodate sharing. This proposal was approved for funding by NRCS via direct agreements in November, 2022. Initial deliverables are anticipated in March, 2023 and the agreement performance period ends in 2026.
Mapping Fires Across the Southeast-Science to Solutions
The Southeast fire map (SE FireMap), funded by NRCS and managed by Working Lands for Wildlife staff, aims to develop a fire tracking map to allow for improved decision making.
Introduction to Prescribed Fire in Southern Ecosystems
This USDA Forest Service publication is a guide for resource managers on planning and executing prescribed burns in Southern forests and grasslands. It includes explanations of reasons for prescribed burning, environmental effects, weather, and techniques as well as general information on prescribed burning.
Guidebook for Prescribed Burning in the Southern Region
Learn how to plan, conduct and evaluate prescribed burns with this new Guidebook designed for burners of all skill levels. This book takes you step-by-step through the prescribed burning process in addition to providing more in-depth chapters on many of the concepts.
Contingent Pacific-Atlantic Ocean influence on multicentury wildfire synchrony over western North America
Widespread synchronous wildfires driven by climatic variation, such as those that swept western North America during 1996, 2000, and 2002, can result in major environmental and societal impacts. Understanding relationships between continental-scale patterns of drought and modes of sea surface temperatures (SSTs) such as El Nin ̃o-Southern Oscillation (ENSO), Pacific Decadal Oscillation (PDO), and Atlantic Multidecadal Oscillation (AMO) may explain how interannual to multidecadal variability in SSTs drives fire at continental scales. We used local wildfire chronologies recon- structed from fire scars on tree rings across western North America and independent reconstructions of SST developed from tree-ring widths at other sites to examine the relationships of multicentury patterns of climate and fire synchrony. From 33,039 annually resolved fire-scar dates at 238 sites (the largest paleofire record yet assembled), we examined forest fires at regional and subconti- nental scales. Since 1550 CE, drought and forest fires covaried across the West, but in a manner contingent on SST modes. During certain phases of ENSO and PDO, fire was synchronous within broad subregions and sometimes asynchronous among those re- gions. In contrast, fires were most commonly synchronous across the West during warm phases of the AMO. ENSO and PDO were the main drivers of high-frequency variation in fire (interannual to decadal), whereas the AMO conditionally changed the strength and spatial influence of ENSO and PDO on wildfire occurrence at multidecadal scales. A current warming trend in AMO suggests that we may expect an increase in widespread, synchronous fires across the western U.S. in coming decades. Atlantic Multidecadal Oscillation El Nino Southern Oscillation fire history network ocean warming Pacific Decadal Oscillation
A new, global, multi-annual (2000–2007) burnt area product at 1 km resolution Vol. 35
This paper reports on the development and validation of a new, global, burnt area product. Burnt areas are reported at a resolution of 1 km for seven fire years (2000 to 2007). A modified version of a Global Burnt Area (GBA) 2000 algorithm is used to compute global burnt area. The total area burnt each year (2000– 2007) is estimated to be between 3.5 million km2 and 4.5 million km2 . The total amount of vegetation burnt by cover type according to the Global Land Cover (GLC) 2000 product is reported. Validation was undertaken using 72 Landsat TM scenes was undertaken. Correlation statistics between estimated burnt areas are reported for major vegetation types. The accuracy of this new global data set depends on vegetation type.
Medieval warming initiated exceptionally large wildfire outbreaks in the Rocky Mountains
Many of the largest wildfires in US history burned in recent decades, and climate change explains much of the increase in area burned. The frequency of extreme wildfire weather will increase with continued warming, but many uncertainties still exist about future fire regimes, including how the risk of large fires will persist as vegetation changes. Past fire-climate relationships provide an opportunity to constrain the related uncertainties, and reveal widespread burn- ing across large regions of western North America during past warm intervals. Whether such episodes also burned large portions of individual landscapes has been difficult to determine, however, because uncertainties with the ages of past fires and limited spatial resolution often prohibit specific estimates of past area burned. Accounting for these challenges in a subalpine landscape in Colorado, we estimated century-scale fire synchroneity across 12 lake- sediment charcoal records spanning the past 2,000 y. The percent- age of sites burned only deviated from the historic range of vari- ability during the Medieval Climate Anomaly (MCA) between 1,200 and 850 y B.P., when temperatures were similar to recent decades. Between 1,130 and 1,030 y B.P., 83% (median estimate) of our sites burned when temperatures increased ∼0.5 °C relative to the preceding centuries. Lake-based fire rotation during the MCA decreased to an estimated 120 y, representing a 260% higher rate of burning than during the period of dendroecological sampling (360 to −60 y B.P.). Increased burning, however, did not persist throughout the MCA. Burning declined abruptly before temperatures cooled, indicating possible fuel limitations to continued burning.
Reform forest fire management: Agency incentives undermine policy effectiveness
Globally, wildfire size, severity, and frequency have been increasing, as have related fatalities and taxpayer- funded firefighting costs (1). In most accessible forests, wildfire response prioritizes suppression because fires are easier and cheaper to contain when small (2). In the United States, for example, 98% of wildfires are suppressed before reaching 120 ha in size (3). But the 2% of wildfires that escape containment often burn under extreme weather conditions in fuel-loaded forests and account for 97% of fire-fighting costs and total area burned (3). Changing climate and decades of fuel accumulation make efforts to suppress every fire dangerous, expensive, and ill advised (4).
Pedoecological Modeling to Guide Forest Restoration using Ecological Site Descriptions
the u.s. department of agriculture (usda)-natural resources conservation service (nrcs) uses an ecological site description (esd) framework to help incorporate interactions between local soil, climate, flora, fauna, and humans into schema for land management decision-making. we demonstrate esd and digital soil mapping tools to (i) estimate potential o horizon carbon (c) stock accumulation from restoring alternative ecological states in high-elevation forests of the central appalachian Mountains in west Virginia (wV), usa, and (ii) map areas in alternative ecological states that can be targeted for restoration. this region was extensively disturbed by clear-cut harvests and related fires during the 1880s through 1930s. we combined spodic soil property maps, recently linked to historic red spruce–eastern hemlock (Picea rubens–Tsuga canadensis) forest communities, with current forest inventories to provide guidance for restoration to a historic reference state. this allowed mapping of alternative hardwood states within areas of the spodic shale uplands conifer forest (scF) ecological site, which is mapped along the regional conifer-hardwood transition of the central appalachian Mountains. Plots examined in these areas suggest that many of the spruce-hemlock dominated stands in wV converted to a hardwood state by historic disturbance have lost at least 10 cm of o horizon thickness, and possibly much more. Based on this 10 cm estimate, we calculate that at least 3.74 to 6.62 tg of c were lost from areas above 880 m elevation in wV due to historic disturbance of o horizons, and that much of these stocks and related ecosystem functions could potentially be restored within 100 yr under focused management, but more practical scenarios would likely require closer to 200 yr.
