Current Research Projects
Climate impacts on wildfire patterns and management globally (ONGOING)
Climate change impacts on fire ecology and management more broadly are already being observed across much of the US, and are projected to continue and increase in many areas. Part of the challenge for fire and land managers is to both understand and quantify those impacts at multiple scales, and then to utilize climate information in a way that increases the resilience and success of their management programs. We work on projects across the human-environment range from the physical to the social sciences to address this issue. We also conduct considerable outreach developing climate information tools for wildland fire and land managers, and conducting workshops and webinars on using historical and projected climate data in management applications.
Assessing vulnerability and increasing resilience to cascading consequences on wildfire in the Northwest (ONGOING)
We are working with WSU and a broad range of stakeholders to develop improved modeling of wildfire vulnerability and develop scenarios for increasing resilience through forest management, policy transformation, and community engagement. This is a 4-year effort funded by the NSF Hazard-SEES program for which Dr. Kolden is the PI, you can read more about it by clicking here.
Patterns of wildfire burn severity and unburned islands (COMPLETED)
We are investigating how wildfires burn across the landscape and specifically trying to understand the drivers of unburned islands. These islands occur at different sizes and scales throughout large fires and serve as both critical refugia for wildlife and the seed source for post-fire regeneration. They are also important for mitigating erosion and debris flows post-fire and are part of the patch mosaic that is characteristic of most western US ecosystems. We don't have a good understanding of why they occur where they do, but if we could understand what the drivers of unburned islands are, we might be able to better duplicate them in our attempts to manipulate more fire-resistent and resilient landscapes. This is critical both for preserving threatened and endangered wildlife habitat and other natural resources at risk, and for protecting our homes and communities. We are being supported by the USGS Northwest Climate Science Center for this research.
Burn Severity in bark-beetle killed forests in the central Cascades, Oregon (COMPLETED)
We're partnering with USGS and the USFS Western Wildlands Environmental Threat Assessment Center (WWETAC) to improve quantification of wildfire burn severity in bark beetle-killed forests in the eastern central Cascade mountains. Using a unique LiDAR dataset acquired both pre- and post-fire, as well as field observations and Landsat spectral reflectance, we're working to improve both mapping of burn severity and quantification of biomass consumed and canopy cover lost over the fire. This project takes place on the 2012 Pole Creek Fire on the Deschutes National Forest, and is funded by WWETAC.
Using remote sensing to quantify and monitor changes across landscapes (COMPLETED)
We are working with The Nature Conservancy's Zumwalt Prairie Preserve in northeastern Oregon to quantify and monitor ecological change across their preserve and the adjacent landscape. This includes assessing a reduction in conifer canopy cover through prescribed fire as part of a larger aspen restoration effort, and quantifying grazing impacts on the prairie through multispectral remote sensing. The grazing impacts portion of the partnership is being supported by the TNC Priscilla Bullitt Collins Trust, which has awarded us 5 years' of funding to expand this research into a fully functional decision-support tool that uses remote sensing to map rangeland metrics of vegetation on the ground.
Climate change impacts on fire ecology and management more broadly are already being observed across much of the US, and are projected to continue and increase in many areas. Part of the challenge for fire and land managers is to both understand and quantify those impacts at multiple scales, and then to utilize climate information in a way that increases the resilience and success of their management programs. We work on projects across the human-environment range from the physical to the social sciences to address this issue. We also conduct considerable outreach developing climate information tools for wildland fire and land managers, and conducting workshops and webinars on using historical and projected climate data in management applications.
Assessing vulnerability and increasing resilience to cascading consequences on wildfire in the Northwest (ONGOING)
We are working with WSU and a broad range of stakeholders to develop improved modeling of wildfire vulnerability and develop scenarios for increasing resilience through forest management, policy transformation, and community engagement. This is a 4-year effort funded by the NSF Hazard-SEES program for which Dr. Kolden is the PI, you can read more about it by clicking here.
Patterns of wildfire burn severity and unburned islands (COMPLETED)
We are investigating how wildfires burn across the landscape and specifically trying to understand the drivers of unburned islands. These islands occur at different sizes and scales throughout large fires and serve as both critical refugia for wildlife and the seed source for post-fire regeneration. They are also important for mitigating erosion and debris flows post-fire and are part of the patch mosaic that is characteristic of most western US ecosystems. We don't have a good understanding of why they occur where they do, but if we could understand what the drivers of unburned islands are, we might be able to better duplicate them in our attempts to manipulate more fire-resistent and resilient landscapes. This is critical both for preserving threatened and endangered wildlife habitat and other natural resources at risk, and for protecting our homes and communities. We are being supported by the USGS Northwest Climate Science Center for this research.
Burn Severity in bark-beetle killed forests in the central Cascades, Oregon (COMPLETED)
We're partnering with USGS and the USFS Western Wildlands Environmental Threat Assessment Center (WWETAC) to improve quantification of wildfire burn severity in bark beetle-killed forests in the eastern central Cascade mountains. Using a unique LiDAR dataset acquired both pre- and post-fire, as well as field observations and Landsat spectral reflectance, we're working to improve both mapping of burn severity and quantification of biomass consumed and canopy cover lost over the fire. This project takes place on the 2012 Pole Creek Fire on the Deschutes National Forest, and is funded by WWETAC.
Using remote sensing to quantify and monitor changes across landscapes (COMPLETED)
We are working with The Nature Conservancy's Zumwalt Prairie Preserve in northeastern Oregon to quantify and monitor ecological change across their preserve and the adjacent landscape. This includes assessing a reduction in conifer canopy cover through prescribed fire as part of a larger aspen restoration effort, and quantifying grazing impacts on the prairie through multispectral remote sensing. The grazing impacts portion of the partnership is being supported by the TNC Priscilla Bullitt Collins Trust, which has awarded us 5 years' of funding to expand this research into a fully functional decision-support tool that uses remote sensing to map rangeland metrics of vegetation on the ground.