Wildfire Wednesdays #132: Wildfire Resilience Science Round-Up

Hello and happy spring, Fireshed readers!

Four years ago this week, the Fireshed Coalition and Fire Adapted Communities New Mexico (FACNM) started this newsletter with the intent to parse through trustworthy sources for relevant fire preparedness information, recommendations, and tips to bring to readers across the Southwest. The content and format have evolved since its inception, but one essential part of the newsletter has remained constant throughout the years: our commitment to be informed of, and able to incorporate, the best available science into our understanding of fire and our relationship to it. Today’s Wildfire Wednesday revisits some science we’ve shared over the years and shares a round-up of some of the most recent regional fire science from the Southwest Fire Science Consortium.

Today’s Wildfire Wednesday features:

Take care and enjoy the spring blooms,
Rachel

 

Southwest Research Publications

Sharing the latest wildfire research relevant to the Southwest

Selected articles are presented below based on their relevance and accessibility to the public. For a full round-up of the latest science and to view publications from earlier in 2023, visit the SWFSC website!

Open access articles

 
 
 
 
 

Local Science and Research

Forest and fire ecology findings relevant to the Santa Fe Fireshed landscape

The Greater Santa Fe Fireshed Coalition has pulled together a sampling of local and Southwest-focused scientific articles and forest treatment reports. These journal publications and manager resources, representing the best available science, highlight the importance of forest restoration and conservation treatments happening in the greater Santa Fe area and across the state. While a large body of research can be overwhelming at first, a good place to start is the five topically diverse forest and fire research publications highlighted at the top of the page: a look at climate change in NM over the next 50 years, a study of past Native American fire management in the WUI, carbon stabilization via proactive forest management, the impact of extreme fire on water quality, and fire climate relationships within the Santa Fe Municipal Watershed. If you want to dive in deeper, the page also features a broader list of northern New Mexico- and Southwest-focused forest and fire research articles and local forest treatment success stories.

 

Throwback to Science from Our Sweet Sixteen

Business resilience and wildfire

Living in a fire adapted area means many things, but what does it mean for businesses and the local economy? In May 2019, the Island Park Sustainable Fire Community in Idaho tackled this question. Their ultimate takeaways were that, in practice, business resilience involves both helping to prepare businesses to operate through wildfire and helping businesses thrive in a fire-prone environment. Wildfires pose a serious threat to a community’s continuity and can have devastating effects on the small businesses that depend on it. Business resiliency and risk mitigation strategies help to defend communities from losses and are especially important for small businesses as they experience the highest risk in proximity to wildfire. Read the full write-up to glean all of these lessons learned.

 

Events and Resources

 

In the news

2023-2024 All Hands All Lands Winter Pile Squad: a story about fire, snow, wet boots, and building wildfire resilience in northern New Mexico.

About the squad: this StoryMap from the All Hands All Lands Burn Team discusses the concept of AHAL, the work accomplished by this collaborative burn team over winter 2023-2024, and how this work aligns with the stewardship of fire adapted forests and use of prescribed burning as advocated in the Forest Stewards Guild’s 2021 Policy Statement on Fire, Forest Management, and Communities. In light of the 2022 Hermits Peak-Calf Canyon fire, federal fire agencies and their partners instituted a strategic pause on all prescribed fire activity, during which they researched and released recommendations on how to make this essential forest and community resiliency tool safer. One key takeaway from the recommendations was the need for larger and more diverse burn teams - that is, more boots on the ground, more eyes on the fire, and more perspectives and a greater breadth of experience contributing to the decision of whether or not to burn. The AHAL burn team fills that gap and makes it possible to meet the spirit and letter of this recommendation during collaborative burns. The winter pile squad, active between November and April, adds capacity to the type of prescribed fire which happens during the cooler months - slash pile burning.

Accomplishments: During the winter season, the Pile Squad assisted with 8 controlled burns, helping to accomplish 1,116 acres of high-priority forest restoration. Much of this work was completed in close proximity to communities and was within the wildland-urban interface (WUI). When not actively burning or patrolling, the pile squad assisted with forest thinning and slash management to prepare for future burns in areas such as the Rio de Las Trampas Forest Council’s Community Forestry plot in between the communities of Trampas and El Valle. They also invested in training and hands-on experiences with city and county fire departments to advance their professional skillsets.

 

Webinars

Friday, March 29 from 12:00-1:00pm: What is the Community Navigators Program?
FACNM is launching its spring webinar series on March 29th! Join Gabe Kohler and Emery Cowan as they introduce the national and regional intent of the Community Navigators Program and discuss how communities across the state can access this resource. Learn more by visiting the FACNM Events page!

 

Learn more and register for the full spring webinar series from FACNM at www.facnm.org/events

Gabriel Kohler

The GSFFC is a coalition of public and private organizations. The GSFFC is not a subdivision of the State of New Mexico, as defined in the state’s Open Meetings Act, §§ 10-15-1 to 10-15-4 NMSA 1978. Although federal agencies participate in the GSFFC, the Coalition is not a federal advisory board and was not created by a federal agency, as defined by the Federal Advisory Committee Act (FACA), 5.U.S.C. app. 2, §§ 1 to 16 (2012). The GSFFC operates informally to support its partners, and is not incorporated as a non-profit, 501(C)(3), partnership, or other legal status.