Cooperative Agreement for CESU-affiliated Partner with Pacific Northwest Cooperative Ecosystem Studies Unit

The US Geological Survey is offering a funding opportunity to a CESU partner to conduct research examining how repeated wildfire reburns influences the pace and pattern of forest recovery in the western Cascades of Oregon, with particular emphasis on vegetation transitions resulting from forest reburns. Historically, in forests of the western Cascades, fire activity has generally ranged from infrequent and severe in the north, to frequent and of mixed severity in the south. This range in fire activity generally reflects a north-south bioclimatic gradient that spans relatively cool-wet to warm-dry conditions. Historically, severe fires were limited by fuel flammability, especially in the cooler, wetter forest region. However, anthropogenic global warming is increasing fuel aridity (i.e., flammability) in these biomass-rich forests, which have sufficient amounts of horizontal and vertical fuel continuity to sustain intense fire spread. In the recent past, post-fire tree recruitment was generally successful over 1-4 decades, but changes in climate are projected to slow forest recovery while simultaneously driving increases in future fire activity in the western Cascades. Critically, the recovery of forests following such events and the effectiveness of management aimed at facilitating such recovery remain uncertain.