Tuesday, August 8, 2017: 11:30 AM-1:15 PM
D131, Oregon Convention Center
Organizer:
Jonathan W. Long, USDA Forest Service Pacific Northwest Research Station
Co-organizers:
Marc D. Meyer, USDA Forest Service;
Becky L. Estes, USDA; and
Michelle Coppelleta, USDA Forest Service
Moderator:
Jonathan W. Long, USDA Forest Service Pacific Northwest Research Station
Speakers:
Marc D. Meyer, USDA Forest Service;
Becky L. Estes, USDA;
Ryan Tompkins, USDA Forest Service; and
Kevin R. Welch, University of California, Davis
People interested in restoration of large, severely burned landscape areas are invited to participate in this workshop to learn about recent research and discuss management strategies to facilitate long-term ecological resilience, including targeted tree replanting and reintroduction of managed wildland fire. The workshop will feature integrative research regarding long-term post-fire restoration (after emergency stabilization efforts) in California. Through a series of short presentations, participants will learn about the size and configuration of stand-replacing burns across a range of recent California wildfires as well as revegetation, fuel development, and wildlife use in many of those high-severity patches with and without interventions. The team will present a framework and data analysis tools to inform an ecology-based assessment, and then discuss approaches for replanting and site treatments considering strategies for reintroducing fire into the affected landscapes in desirable ways. Participants will learn about applications to specific fires through a case study presentation, as well more generalized findings regarding important ecological dynamics that motivate or constrain interventions and unaided recovery. The session will include extended discussion of thresholds, challenges, and successful tactics based upon the experience and perspective of participants. The team will capture and use that feedback in revising synthesis and guidance documents to help managers plan ecologically appropriate interventions for wildfires in the 21