A CENTURY OF WILDLAND
FIRE RESEARCH
Contributions to Long-term Approaches
for Wildland Fire Management
PROCEEDINGS OF A WORKSHOP
Kara N. Laney, Rapporteur
Committee on Increasing Resilience to Wildland Fire:
A Century of Wildland Fire Research
Board on Earth Sciences and Resources
Board on Agriculture and Natural Resources
Division on Earth and Life Studies
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This activity was supported by the Rocky Mountain Research Station, Fire, Fuel and Smoke of the U.S. Forest Service, Department of Agriculture under award no. 14-DG-11221637-120. Any opinions, findings, conclusions, and recommendations expressed in this publication do not necessarily reflect the views of any organization or agency that provided support for the project.
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International Standard Book Number-13: 978-0-309-46004-0
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Digital Object Identifier: https://doi.org/10.17226/24792
Cover Photos
Top: 100_0258; prescribed burn in Tahoe National Forest, Nevada. Photo by Steve McKelvey, U.S. Forest Service. ©2005. Accessed at: https://www.flickr.com/photos/usdagov/7650629902. Bottom Left: 20130725-FS-UNK-0004; Moose Meadow Fire in the Beaverhead-Deerlodge National Forest near Philipsburg, MT. Photo by the U.S. Forest Service. ©2013. Accessed at: https://www.flickr.com/photos/usdagov/9421043075. Bottom Center: Trinity Ridge Fire, Idaho. Photo by the U.S. Forest Service. ©2012. Accessed at: https://www.flickr.com/photos/usdagov/10442490704. Bottom Right: Modified from DSC_8232_3985; prescribed burn at Ocala National Forest in Florida. Photo by Susan Blake, U.S. Forest Service. ©2012. Accessed at: https://www.flickr.com/photos/usdagov/7009103335. All images licensed under CC BY 2.0: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0/legalcode.
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Suggested citation: National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. 2017. A Century of Wildland Fire Research: Contributions to Long-term Approaches for Wildland Fire Management: Proceedings of a Workshop. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: https://doi.org/10.17226/24792.
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PLANNING COMMITTEE ON INCREASING RESILIENCE TO WILDLAND FIRE: A CENTURY OF WILDLAND FIRE RESEARCH
DAR ROBERTS, Chair, University of California, Santa Barbara
RODMAN R. LINN, Los Alamos National Laboratory, New Mexico
BRANDA L. NOWELL, North Carolina State University, Raleigh
ANUPMA PRAKASH, University of Alaska, Fairbanks
JEFFREY N. RUBIN, Tualatin Valley Fire and Rescue, Tigard, Oregon
MONICA G. TURNER, NAS,1 University of Wisconsin–Madison
Staff
KARA N. LANEY, Senior Program Officer
RAYMOND (REMY) CHAPPETTA, Program Assistant
___________________
1 National Academy of Sciences.
BOARD ON EARTH SCIENCES AND RESOURCES
GENE WHITNEY, Chair, Congressional Research Service (Retired), Washington, DC
R. LYNDON (LYN) ARSCOTT, NAE,1 International Association of Oil & Gas Producers (Retired), Danville, California
CHRISTOPHER (SCOTT) CAMERON, GeoLogical Consulting, LLC, Houston, Texas
RODNEY C. EWING, NAE,1 Stanford University, California
CAROL P. HARDEN, The University of Tennessee, Knoxville
T. MARK HARRISON, NAS,2 University of California, Los Angeles
THORNE LAY, NAS,2 University of California, Santa Cruz
ANN S. MAEST, Buka Environmental, Boulder, Colorado
ZELMA MAINE-JACKSON, Washington State Department of Ecology, Richland
MARTIN W. MCCANN, Jack R. Benjamin and Associates and Stanford University, Menlo Park, California
JAMES M. ROBERTSON, Wisconsin Geological and Natural History Survey, Madison
JAMES SLUTZ, National Petroleum Council, Washington, DC
SHAOWEN WANG, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
Staff
ELIZABETH A. EIDE, Director
ANNE M. LINN, Scholar
SAMMANTHA L. MAGSINO, Senior Program Officer
DEBORAH GLICKSON, Senior Program Officer
NICHOLAS D. ROGERS, Financial and Research Associate
COURTNEY R. GIBBS, Administrative Associate
ERIC J. EDKIN, Senior Program Assistant
RAYMOND (REMY) CHAPPETTA, Program Assistant
___________________
1 National Academy of Engineering.
2 National Academy of Sciences.
BOARD ON AGRICULTURE AND NATURAL RESOURCES
CHARLES W. RICE, Chair, Kansas State University, Manhattan
MOLLY M. JAHN, University of Wisconsin–Madison
ROBBIN S. JOHNSON, Cargill Foundation, Wayzata, Minnesota
A. G. KAWAMURA, Solutions from the Land, Washington, DC
JULIA L. KORNEGAY, North Carolina State University, Raleigh
Staff
ROBIN A. SCHOEN, Director
CAMILLA YANDOC ABLES, Senior Program Officer
JENNA BRISCOE, Research Assistant
KARA N. LANEY, Senior Program Officer
PEGGY TSAI YIH, Senior Program Officer
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Acknowledgments
This Proceedings of a Workshop was reviewed in draft form by individuals chosen for their diverse perspectives and technical expertise. The purpose of this independent review is to provide candid and critical comments that will assist the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine in making each published proceedings as sound as possible and to ensure that it meets the institutional standards for quality, objectivity, evidence, and responsiveness to the charge. The review comments and draft manuscript remain confidential to protect the integrity of the process.
We thank the following individuals for their review of this proceedings:
John Abatzoglou, University of Idaho
Philip Higuera, University of Montana
Anupma Prakash, University of Alaska, Fairbanks
Paul F. Steblein, U.S. Geological Survey
Although the reviewers listed above provided many constructive comments and suggestions, they were not asked to endorse the content of the proceedings nor did they see the final draft before its release. The review of this proceedings was overseen by John E. Burris, Burroughs Wellcome Fund. He was responsible for making certain that an independent examination of this proceedings was carried out in accordance with standards of the National Academies and that all review comments were carefully considered. Responsibility for the final content rests entirely with the rapporteur and the National Academies.
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Contents
Organization of the Proceedings
2 FIRE SCIENCE RESEARCH IN THE U.S. FOREST SERVICE
Research in the U.S. Forest Service
A Hundred Years of Fire Science and Management at the Forest Service
Sustainability and Wildland Fire: The Origins of Forest Service Wildland Fire Research
3 THE PAST AND FUTURE OF FIRE IN THE UNITED STATES
Fire Science’s American Century
The Role of People in Current and Future U.S. Fire
4 UNDERSTANDING FIRE: STATE OF THE SCIENCE AND RESEARCH PRIORITIES
Fire Regimes and the Ecological Role of Fire in U.S. Landscapes
Predicting and Mapping Fire and Fire Effects
Changing Environmental Drivers, Tipping Points, and Resilience in Fire-Prone Ecosystems
Fire and Fuels Management: What Works Where?
5 LIVING WITH FIRE: STATE OF THE SCIENCE AROUND FIRE-ADAPTED COMMUNITIES
Understanding the Wildfire Policy Context: Where Are We Now?
Translating Fire Science into Fire Management
Adapting to Wildfire: Moving Beyond Homeowner Risk Perceptions to Taking Action
Concluding Remarks from Morning Session
The Role of Technology: What Are the Technologies and What Are the Barriers to Adoption?
Integrating Science into Management and Policy
