Too hot, too cold, or just right: Can wildfire restore dry forests of the interior Pacific Northwest?

ABSTRACT: As contemporary wildfire activity intensifies across the western United States, there is increasing recognition that a variety of forest management activities are necessary to restore ecosystem function and reduce wildfire hazard in dry forests. However, the pace and scale of current, active forest management is insufficient to address restoration needs. Managed wildfire and landscape-scale prescribed burns hold potential to achieve broad-scale goals but may not achieve desired outcomes where fire severity is too high or too low. To explore the potential for fire alone to restore dry forests, we developed a novel method to predict the range of fire severities most likely to restore historical forest basal area, density, and species composition in forests across eastern Oregon. First, we de

SUBMITTER: Greenler SM 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC9970105 | biostudies-literature | 2023

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature