JFSP Fire Science Exchange Network
Researchers from Michigan State University and the USFS Fire Behavior Assessment Team used 15 years of immediate pre- and post-fire fuel and wildfire behavior data to identify the role of fire advancement mode and pre-fire environmental drivers (e.g., topography, fire weather, and fuel loadings) on fuel consumption and fire effects in California mixed-conifer forests.
Read MoreA new paper by USGS and partners investigated why some California wildfires are destructive and others are not.
View Full Article (open access) >
Read MoreIn a new study, USGS scientists and partners have found extensive drought-caused dieback in Southern California shrublands that subsequently burned in large wildfires.
Read MoreIn this important concept paper, Pausas and Keeley (2021) outline the mechanistic flow of complex drivers of wildfire for fire prone ecosystems. In brief, with ignitions, fuel continuity, and drought saturation points simultaneously lowered by the right weather, wildfire will be triggered.
Read MoreThis paper contrasts the two most important factors driving large fires: fuel-dominated vs. wind-dominated wildfires.
Read MoreThe authors show how live fuel moisture content in chaparral shrub species is highly variable. This brief offers new recommendations on how to best use live fuel moisture content as a measure of fire risk.
Read MoreUnderstanding the relative importance of biological and environmental characteristics conducive to a moderate severity wildfire can help managers predict outcomes to better guide when and where fires can safely be managed.
Read MoreAbstract: The objective of this project is to synthesize existing (extreme fire behavior) EFB knowledge in a way that connects the weather, fuel, and topographic factors that contribute to development of EFB. This synthesis will focus on the state of the science, but will also consider how that science is currently presented to the fire management community, including incident commanders, fire behavior analysts, incident meteorologists, National Weather Service office forecasters, and firefighters. It will seek to clearly delineate the known, the unknown, and areas of research with the greatest potential impact on firefighter protection.
View Full Report PDF >
This study investigated the effect of burn season on direct and indirect tree mortality in mechanically thinned ponderosa and Jeffrey pine stands in California’s Tahoe National Forest.
Read MoreA Bayesian Network model was used to evaluate the relative importance of fuel and fuel treatments compared to weather and variables of the built and natural environment on wildfire risk at the wildland-urban interface (WUI) in San Diego County.
View USGS Research Brief PDF >
The author examines social perceptions of risk of home ignition in the community of Forest Ranch, which is located in the Sierra-Cascade foothills near Chico in Butte County.
Read MoreA 2015 study by Meyer showed that the natural range of variation (NRV) concept and key fire severity indicators could be used to quantitatively evaluate the landscape-scale effects of large wildfires managed for resource objectives.
View Research Brief PDF >
The authors used spatial analyses to describe major wildfire patterns across a 5.8 million acre area of northwestern California.
View Research Brief PDF >
This study examined the historical fire intervals of two chaparral-dominated divisions of the Los Padres National Forest, California.
View Research Brief PDF >
Observations from the 2007 wildfire season in southern California led to several important implications for managing fire risk under these extreme environmental and social conditions.
View Research Brief PDF >
Authors of this paper present quantitative information on the differences in stand structure, fuel loading, and fire behavior in current and reconstructed riparian and upland areas in the Sierra Nevada.
View Research Brief PDF >
The objective of this study was to investigate the influence of thinning treatments on fuel moisture and determine whether or not moisture patterns differ by treatment in mixed conifer stands in northern California.
View Research Brief PDF >
In this study, two atmosphere-‐ocean general circulation models to explore shifts in Santa Ana occurrences.
View Research Brief PDF >
A 2009 study by Collins et al. suggests that freely burning fires in upper elevation mixed-‐conifer forests of the Sierra Nevada may effectively regulate fire-‐induced effects across an entire landscape.
View Research Brief PDF >
In a paper published in Fire Management Today, USGS scientist Jon Keeley coauthors a paper with colleagues from the California Chaparral Institute that analyzes weather and fuel factors in a case study of a critical part of the 2003 Cedar Fire perimeter in San Diego County.
View USGS Research Brief PDF >
The California Fire Science Consortium is divided into 4 geographic regions and 1 wildland-urban interface (WUI) team. Statewide coordination of this program is based at UC Berkeley.
View the about page to learn more >
This regional Fire Science Exchange is one of 15 regional fire science exchanges sponsored by Joint Fire Science Program (JFSP).
Link to another exchange:
