Research on large wildfires spotlighted at AFE conference
Members of Texas Tech University's Department of Natural Resources Management were prominently featured at the Association for Fire Ecology's regional conference, which was held Jan. 28-31 in Tucson.
Officials said the conference, technically called "Fire in the Southwest: Integrating Fire into Management of Changing Ecosystems," provided a forum for exchange of scientific information on the ecology and management of fire adapted and affected ecosystems in the southwestern United States and northern Mexico in a time of changing climate.
Lessons Learned. During the closing plenary session Sandra Rideout-Hanzak, an assistant professor in CASNR's Department of Natural Resources Management, presented a talk on "Large Wildfires, Lessons Learned." She discussed early results and lessons learned from the East Amarillo Complex wildfires of March 2006. At 907,000 acres, these wildfires are the largest in the contiguous 48 states since the 1988 Yellowstone fires.
In addition, CASNR graduate student Tony Roberts presented early results by him and Clint Boal, a research assistant professor in CASNR's Department of Natural Resources Management, on the effects of the East Amarillo Complex fires on avian populations. Rideout-Hanzak also presented a talk on prescribed fire effects on the endangered Kuenzler's hedgehog cactus. CASNR graduate student Micah Beierle presented research on prescribed fire management of salt cedar.
Management Problems. Officials said diverse fire regimes and contentious management issues, coupled with continuing severe drought, have presented Southwestern land managers and fire scientists with large challenges. Recent and predicted changes in climate, fuels and fire behavior are producing management problems with few obvious solutions.
Ecosystems of interest included forests, pinyon-juniper woodlands, interior chaparral and desert and semi-arid shrublands and grasslands. Session topics included fire and wildlife; insects and pathologens; fuel and fire management/landscape decision processes and invasive plants and fire. Other areas were burned area emergency rehabilitation; fire and restoration; fire ecology; fire history/fire regimes; social issues and fire management implications; and lessons learned from large southwest fires.
Wildfire Regimes. At the annual Association for Fire Ecology banquet two lifetime achievement awards and awards to outstanding students were presented. The featured speaker was Anthony Westerling, an assistant professor in the school of engineering at University of California-Merced, who spoke on climate change impacts on western wildfire regimes.
The Association for Fire Ecology is an organization of professionals dedicated to improving the knowledge and use of fire in land management through science and education.
The event was sponsored by the Bureau of Land Management, Fire and Aviation Management; ESRI GIS for Forestry; Joint Fire Science Program; National Park Service; Northern Arizona University; Stephen F. Austin State University; Texas Tech University Department of Natural Resources Management; The Nature Conservancy; and the USDA Forest Service-Southwestern Region.
Written by Norman Martin
CONTACT: Sandra Rideout-Hanzak, Assistant Professor, Texas Tech University Dept. of Natural Resources Management, (806) 742-2843, sandra.rideout-hanzak@ttu.edu
Editor's Note: Photography by USDA Forest Service, Southwestern Region and BLM Rocky Mountain Research Station
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