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Case Studies about Fire and Climate Adaptation
Case Studies about Fire and Climate Adaptation
The Conservation and Adaptation Resources Toolbox (CART) developed several case studies relevant to the SWFireCAP roundtable topics: Cultural Burning and On-the-Ground Adaptation. These resources serve as records of implemented projects that have transferable lessons learned to share about strategies for fire and climate adaptation and cultural burning. These case studies can assist land managers, and scientists doing applied research, understand and select from a wide variety of fire and climate informed actions to achieve their goals.
Yosemite National Park’s giant sequoias are at risk from severe fire effects driven by an accumulation of fuels and climate change. Park staff and partners use thinning and prescribed burning to help sequoias resist these pressures and be more resilient to future fire.
The Roost project block on the North Rim of Grand Canyon National Park faces increased wildfire risk due to high fuel load. The National Park Service implements small prescribed burns in optimal locations to enhance landscape resilience to climate impacts.
The 2022 Midnight Fire demonstrated the effectiveness of the Carson National Forest’s use of thinning, prescribed fire, and managing wildfire for resource benefit, to improve forest health, increase resilience to fire and climate change, and protect communities.
The USFS used prescribed fire, hand and mechanical thinning to reintroduce fire to ponderosa pine, pinyon-juniper, sagebrush and mountainbrush ecosystems and create a mosaic of burns across the landscape to increase resilience to changes in fire and climate.
Joshua Tree National Park aims to maintain healthy populations of Joshua trees by using climate data to help the species adapt to a changing fire regime and warming climate by installing fuel breaks, and replanting in burned areas.
Lassen Volcanic National Park conducted thinning in wilderness areas of mixed conifer and fir forests to reduce fuels and reintroduce natural fire regimes over time with the goal of resisting and increasing resilience to changing fire and climate.
Saguaro National Park is removing buffelgrass from Sonoran Desert ecosystems by pulling and spraying herbicide, protecting sensitive areas and creating fire breaks. This reduces the risk of high-severity wildfires and can help resist effects of fire and climate change.
Siphon Draw Environmental Services is using a variety of techniques, including hand removal of vegetation, using wood chip mulch, and using hand-held torches, to manage invasive species and establish fuel breaks in the Sonoran desert.
The U.S. Forest Service, Ancestral Lands Corp, Hopi Tribe, and Navajo Nation are thinning in ponderosa pine ecosystems to increase forest resilience to wildfire and distributing thinned wood to community members for multiple uses.
The Cerro Negro Forest Council empowers community members to thin trees in pinyon-juniper and ponderosa pine ecosystems. This helps ecosystems resist and be more resilient to changing fire regimes and climate, protects communities, and provides firewood to community members.
Paradise Recreation and Park District is establishing green spaces as fuel breaks in mixed conifer ecosystems to reduce the spread of wildfire, protect the town of Paradise from future fire, and provide benefits to wildlife and the community.
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The Sandia Pueblo Environment Department and ranch staff from Galloping Goat Pumpkin Patch Ranch are grazing goats in a riparian cottonwood bosque to reduce fuel loads from invasive plants and resist wildfire.
See Shorter Handout Here
Researchers used the SnowPALM model to learn how climate change and forest disturbances affect snow water resources in the Rio Grande Basin and how this can inform resource management and planning.
Researchers from Oklahoma State University and the University of Georgia focused on improving the Newhall Simulation Model (rNewhall), integrating soil moisture data to refine wildfire probability predictions in the Red River and Rio Grande Basins.
In 2014 stakeholders identified desired future conditions and developed adaptation strategies to help the SJNF resist, be resilient to, or transition to meet the impacts of projected future climate conditions as part of the Adaptive Silviculture for Climate Change (ASCC) network.
Climate Adaptation Science Centers and the Fish & Wildlife Service developed a climate adaptation training series to help improve the climate literacy of grassland managers that featured the Resist Accept Direct framework.
SWFireCAP Brief
SWFireCAP Brief
SWFireCAP_Brief.pdfCultural Burning Annotated Bibliography (Working Draft)
Cultural Burning Annotated Bibliography (Working Draft)
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