Potential for forest thinning to reduce risk and increase resilience to wildfire in Australian temperate Eucalyptus forests

Keenan, Rodney J.; Weston, Christopher J.; Volkova, Liubov

doi:10.1016/j.coesh.2021.100280

Cited by 21 publications

(7 citation statements)

References 36 publications

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“…logging operations without follow‐up burns, windthrow events) may create this more flammable microclimate without leaving bare ground, so that no initial delay in enhanced flammability is present (e.g. Donato et al ., 2006; Keenan, Weston & Volkova, 2021).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Identifying and managing disturbance‐stimulated flammability in woody ecosystems

Lindenmayer,

Zylstra

2023

Biological Reviews

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Many forest types globally have been subject to an increase in the frequency of, and area burnt by, high‐severity wildfire. Here we explore the role that previous disturbance has played in increasing the extent and severity of subsequent forest fires. We summarise evidence documenting and explaining the mechanisms underpinning a pulse of flammability that may follow disturbances such as fire, logging, clearing or windthrow (a process we term disturbance‐stimulated flammability). Disturbance sometimes initiates a short initial period of low flammability, but then drives an extended period of increased flammability as vegetation regrows. Our analysis initially focuses on well‐documented cases in Australia, but we also discuss where these pattens may apply elsewhere, including in the Northern Hemisphere. We outline the mechanisms by which disturbance drives flammability through disrupting the ecological controls that limit it in undisturbed forests. We then develop and test a conceptual model to aid prediction of woody vegetation communities where such patterns of disturbance‐stimulated flammability may occur. We discuss the interaction of ecological controls with climate change, which is driving larger and more severe fires. We also explore the current state of knowledge around the point where disturbed, fire‐prone stands are sufficiently widespread in landscapes that they may promote spatial contagion of high‐severity wildfire that overwhelms any reduction in fire spread offered by less‐flammable stands.We discuss how land managers might deal with the major challenges that changes in landscape cover and altered fire regimes may have created. This is especially pertinent in landscapes now dominated by extensive areas of young forest regenerating after logging, regrowing following broadscale fire including prescribed burning, or regenerating following agricultural land abandonment.Where disturbance is found to stimulate flammability, then key management actions should consider the long‐term benefits of: (i) limiting disturbance‐based management like logging or burning that creates young forests and triggers understorey development; (ii) protecting young forests from disturbances and assisting them to transition to an older, less‐flammable state; and (iii) reinforcing the fire‐inhibitory properties of older, less‐flammable stands through methods for rapid fire detection and suppression.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Identifying and managing disturbance‐stimulated flammability in woody ecosystems

Lindenmayer,

Zylstra

2023

Biological Reviews

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“…Millions of hectares of fire‐adapted forests in the western United States are currently slated for ecological restoration and hazardous fuel treatments over the coming decades, and these treatments are increasingly being studied and incorporated globally (Keenan et al., 2021; Rabin et al., 2022). Information gained from the effects of prescribed burning and variable levels of tree thinning is valuable to resource managers when determining whether treatments are meeting planned management objectives.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Increases in understory plant cover and richness persist following restoration treatments inPinus ponderosaforests

Springer,

Stoddard,

Rodman

et al. 2023

Journal of Applied Ecology

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A combination of forest thinning followed by prescribed burning is widely applied in the western United States to increase ecosystem resistance and resilience to disturbances. Understory plant community responses may be driven by both management treatments and climatic factors. Thus, responses to treatments during a 20‐year megadrought have implications for the role of management in fostering adaptive capacity to climate change. We used a network of five sites (600 plots) spanning an environmental gradient in ponderosa pine (Pinus ponderosa) forests of the American Southwest, an ecosystem that is broadly distributed and actively managed throughout the western United States. We used repeated long‐term monitoring data to quantify plant community responses to treatment 1–5‐, 6–10‐ and >10‐year post‐implementation. Specifically, we focussed on the effects of treatment and abiotic conditions on native and non‐native plant cover and species richness and the proportion of native species with northern (cool‐mesic) biogeographic affinities. Overall, thinning and prescribed burning nearly doubled native cover and increased native species richness by about 50% relative to untreated controls. These effects persisted for over a decade after treatment, even under the influence of significant and persistent drought. Cover and richness were also greater on intermediate to wet sites. Finally, native species with northern biogeographic affinities were reduced for up to 5 years after treatment relative to those with southern (warm‐xeric) affinities, and in dry years, indicating that both management and interannual climate variability may foster shifts to plant communities that are more resilient to a warming climate. Synthesis and applications. In ponderosa pine forests of the American Southwest, tree thinning followed by prescribed burning will generally promote restoration goals of increasing resilience to climate change by enhancing the diversity and abundance of native understory plant species, even during a persistent 20‐year megadrought.

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“…Other recent modeling work hypothesizes that expanded deployment of commercial thinning as a landscape-scale wildfire management strategy will provide net benefits to imperiled spotted owls (S. occidentalis), based on the assumption that thinning will effectively reduce overall wildfire severity and result in more live trees in the forest [23]. A literature review to assess whether thinning should be increased in dry Eucalyptus forests of southern Australia suggested that thinning plus burning may be effective in curbing wildfire severity but cautioned that evidence is limited [24]. Other authors analyzed a single young Eucalyptus forest stand that burned in January of 2020 in southeast Australia and reported lower fire severity in forests with thinning plus burning prior to wildfire but high severity in forests with thinning alone [25].…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Cumulative Tree Mortality from Commercial Thinning and a Large Wildfire in the Sierra Nevada, California

Baker

Hanson

2022

Land

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Debate remains about the effectiveness of commercial thinning as a wildfire management strategy, with some studies reporting somewhat lower severity in thinned forests, and some reporting higher severity, during wildfires. However, while vegetation severity is a measure of basal area tree mortality, research on this question generally omits tree mortality from thinning itself. We investigated whether cumulative tree mortality, or cumulative severity, from commercial thinning and wildfire was different between thinned and unthinned forests in the Caldor Fire of 2021 in the northern Sierra Nevada mountains of California, USA. We found significantly higher cumulative severity in commercial thinning areas compared to unthinned forests. More research is needed to determine whether cumulative severity is higher in commercially thinned forests in other large western US wildfires.

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Potential for forest thinning to reduce risk and increase resilience to wildfire in Australian temperate Eucalyptus forests

Cited by 21 publications

References 36 publications

Identifying and managing disturbance‐stimulated flammability in woody ecosystems

Identifying and managing disturbance‐stimulated flammability in woody ecosystems

Increases in understory plant cover and richness persist following restoration treatments inPinus ponderosaforests

Cumulative Tree Mortality from Commercial Thinning and a Large Wildfire in the Sierra Nevada, California

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