Wildland firefighters from the Stanislaus National Forest and researchers from Pacific Southwest Research Station conducted a 21-acre prescribed burn on the Tuolumne Experimental Forest on October 29-30, 2022. The prescribed burn was a part of a Timing of Fire Study allowing researchers to compare how seasonal conditions affect the outcomes of prescribed fire. This video shows how we study the effects of prescribed fire and what we can learn.

Pacific Southwest Research Station scientists have found that demographics and funding impact wildfire resilience. To help bridge the gap, the U.S. Forest Service has launched a Community Wildfire Defense Grant program by the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law to help the communities most at risk.

Pacific Southwest Research Station hydrologists are looking at underlying bedrock in the Kings River Experimental Watershed to better understand the relationship between drought and water use in trees.

Previous management history makes an acute difference in the resiliency of forests to wildfire. Active management, including prescribed fire and group selection silviculture, significantly altered the behavior of the Mosquito Fire at UC Berkeley’s Blodgett Forest.

With funding from a $3 million Post‐Fire Disaster Recovery Agreement from the USFS the California Association of Resource Conservation Districts (CARCD) awarded six resource conservation districts (RCDs) grants for forest post‐fire recovery work within the footprints of 2019‐2021 wildfires. All the funded projects resemble or are building towards establishing Emergency Forest Restoration Teams (EFRTs), as per Action Item 1.14 of the CA Wildfire and Forest Resilience Action Plan.

The Sequoia National Forest made tremendous progress toward achieving the Giant Sequoia Emergency Response goals. To date, 345 monarch Giant Sequoias have been protected in 6 groves covering 43 acres, and that number is growing daily!

Fuels reduction treatments are being completed in phases, starting with hazard tree abatement to facilitate safe access for crews working in the groves, then hand treatments to remove ladder fuels and duff from around monarch Giant Sequoias. Implementation is underway in six of the 12 groves: Bearskin, Black Mountain, Indian Basin, Landslide, Wishon, and the Sierra National Forest Nelder grove. 

Forest restoration and wildfire risk reduction projects are complex, involving many steps and moving parts that determine whether a project will succeed and how long it will take. This infographic takes a peek under the hood of forest restoration projects to lay out each of the steps necessary to get a project on the ground and through completion.

Jennifer Eberlein, Pacific Southwest Regional Supervisor, among others, spoke at the 26th Annual Lake Tahoe Summit to reflect on the progress made to restore the Tahoe Basin over the last two decades, discuss current challenges that the surrounding communities face, and find ways to preserve and protect Lake Tahoe in the years to come.