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.
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
Planning for Growth and Open Space Conservation Webinar Series
In 2012, we embarked on a project to help inform natural resource professionals, land use planners, private landowners and others about the issues facing our forestlands – both public and private – and to help them learn about opportunities and strategies to conserve open space through a series of monthly webinars. Below is the archive of these webinars. We hope you find them interesting!
SE FireMap Version 1.0 BETA Product Information
Learn more about the dataset development process, attribute descriptions, known issues, limitations, considerations, and references.
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.
