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Browsing by Author "Battaglia, Mike A., committee member"

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    Constraints on mechanical fuel reduction treatments in USFS Wildfire Crisis Strategy priority landscapes
    (Colorado State University. Libraries, 2024) Woolsey, George, author; Hoffman, Chad M., advisor; Tinkham, Wade T., advisor; Battaglia, Mike A., committee member; Ross, Matthew R. V., committee member
    The US Forest Service recently launched a Wildfire Crisis Strategy outlining objectives to safeguard communities and other values at risk by substantially increasing the pace and scale of fuel reduction treatment. This analysis quantified layered operational constraints to mechanical fuel reduction treatments including existing vegetation, protected areas, steep slopes, and administrative boundaries in prioritized landscapes. A Google Earth Engine workflow was developed to analyze the area where mechanical treatment is allowed and operationally feasible under three scenarios representing a range of management alternatives under current standards. Results suggest that a business-as-usual approach to mechanical fuel reduction is unlikely in most landscapes to achieve the 20-40% of high-risk area treatment objective using mechanical methods alone. Increased monetary spending to overcome physical constraints to mechanical treatment (e.g., steep slopes and road access) opens sufficient acreage to meet treatment objectives in 18 of 21 priority landscapes. Achieving treatment objectives in the remaining landscapes will require both increased spending and navigating administrative complexities within reserved land allocations to implement fuels treatments at the pace and scale needed to moderate fire risk to communities. Broadening the land base available for treatment allows for flexibility to develop treatment plans that optimize across the multiple-dimensions of effective landscape-scale fuel treatment design. Spatial identification of the constraints to mechanical operability allows managers and policymakers to effectively prioritize mechanical and managed fire treatments.
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    Empowering collaborative forest restoration with locally relevant ecological research
    (Colorado State University. Libraries, 2015) Matonis, Megan Shanahan, author; Binkley, Daniel, advisor; Battaglia, Mike A., committee member; Reid, Robin S., committee member; Schultz, Courtney A., committee member
    Collaborative forest restoration can reduce conflicts over natural resource management and improve ecosystem function after decades of degradation. Scientific evidence helps collaborative groups avoid undesirable outcomes as they define goals, assess current conditions, design restoration treatments, and monitor change over time. Ecological research cannot settle value disputes inherent to collaborative dialogue, but discussions are enriched by locally relevant information on pressing natural resource issues. I worked closely with the Uncompahgre Partnership, a collaborative group of managers, stakeholders, and researchers in southwestern Colorado, to develop research questions, gather data, and interpret findings in the context of forest restoration. Specifically, my dissertation (1) explored ways to better align collaborative goals with ecological realities of dynamic and unpredictable ecosystems; (2) defined undesirable conditions for fire behavior based on modeling output, published literature, and collaborative discussions about values at risk; (3) assessed the degree to which restoration treatments are moving forests away from undesirable conditions (e.g., homogenous and dense forests with scarce open habitat for grasses, forbs, and shrubs); and (4) looked at the validity of rapid assessment approaches for estimating natural range of variability in frequent-fire forests. The current practice of defining desired future conditions pulls managers and stakeholders into command-and-control thinking and causes them to dream away resource tradeoffs and the unpredictability of forest change. Instead, moving ecosystems away from undesirable states and reducing unacceptable risk might allow for diverse and socially acceptable conditions across forested landscapes. The concept of undesirable conditions helped the Uncompahgre Partnership come to agreement over types of fire behavior and stand conditions they wanted to avoid through management. I determined that restoration treatments on the Uncompahgre Plateau are generally moving forests away from undesirably dense conditions that were uncommon prior to Euro-American settlement. My assessment was largely based on data collected during collaborative workdays with the Uncompahgre Partnership. Our rapid assessment approach for estimating historical forest structure took a quarter of the time required for scientifically rigorous stand reconstructions, and it provided reasonably accurate estimates of tree density and spatial patterns. Our data on historical stand structure revealed that fragmentation and loss of open grass-forb-shrub habitat between tree groups were the most dramatic and undesirable changes occurring in frequent-fire forests over the past century. Many restoration treatments are focused on restoring spatial patterns in tree groups, with little attention to spatial patterns in open grass-forb-shrub habitat. I determined that the juxtaposition of tree groups with grass-forb-shrub habitat >6 m from overstory trees is important for restoring understory cover, diversity, and composition. Focusing on undesirable conditions in stands, such as high tree density and scarcity of grass-forb-shrub habitat, can help collaborative groups find common ground and design treatments that restore structure, composition, and processes in forest ecosystems.
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    Long-term forest recovery processes following a large, mixed severity fire in ponderosa pine ecosystems of the Black Hills, South Dakota, USA
    (Colorado State University. Libraries, 2011) Wudtke, Benjamin J., author; Smith, Frederick W., advisor; Battaglia, Mike A., committee member; Vaske, Jerry J., committee member
    Understanding the pattern and timing of ecological recovery following wildfires in western forests has become critical as the area burned has dramatically increased in the past decade. This is especially important in ponderosa pine forests, where mixed severity fires lead to a complicated landscape mosaic of initial fire effects and patterns of recovery. I compared forest structural change in relation to initial fire severity, 10-years following the Jasper Fire of 2000 in ponderosa pine forests of the Black Hills of South Dakota. The Jasper Fire burned ~34,000 ha as a mixed severity fire with 25% low, 48% moderate and 27% high severity. I measured 43 sites within and adjacent to the Jasper fire perimeter which represented unburned areas and areas burned at low, moderate and high severity. These sites were established in 2001, immediately following the Jasper fire, and were measured annually for the first 5 years. My work constitutes the 10-year re-measurement of these sites. I assessed forest recovery as accumulation of forest floor biomass, seedling regeneration, snag dynamics, tree survivorship and growth of surviving trees. Stand density has remained constant for unburned sites at ~25 m2 ha-1 since the fire, but has continued to decline in low and moderate sites which were at 18 and 9 m2 ha-1. After 10 years, high severity sites had 63 Mg ha-1 of forest floor woody debris and were significantly greater than other burned sites and unburned sites where biomass was ~14 Mg ha-1. Approximately 80% of forest floor biomass on high severity sites was coarse woody material (>7.6 cm). There was no difference in fine material (<2.5 cm) between burned and unburned sites. The difference in coarse woody debris was due to the near complete fall of snags on high severity sites where 87% of fire-killed trees have now fallen. Litter on low severity sites was similar to unburned sites but is still significantly lower on moderate and high severity sites. Duff remains ~85 to 99% less on burned sites compared to unburned sites. Regeneration was substantial on unburned, low, and moderate severity sites. Unburned sites averaged ~6,000 seedlings ha-1, while low and moderate severity sites averaged ~1,200 seedlings ha-1. Regeneration was sparse on high severity sites and averaged 28 seedlings ha-1, likely attributed to factors limiting seed availability. Regeneration in the first 4-5 years was low on burned sites, when the Palmer Drought Severity index averaged. Since 2007, the amount of surviving seedlings substantially increased, when the drought index averaged 3.5. Tree growth measured as basal area increment for the 50 largest diameter trees per severity was significantly reduced on sites for 2001 through 2006 compared to five-year pre-fire growth. The only significant difference between severities during that time was in 2002 when moderate severity sites had higher relative growth. Growth for all sites increased in 2007 through 2010 and tree growth on moderate severity sites was significantly greater than unburned and low severity. The persistent drought from 2001 - 2006 had a more pronounced effect on tree growth than any fire effects. Forest recovery following mixed severity wildfire is strongly influenced by initial fire effects and postfire climate. Low severity areas are similar to unburned areas in nearly all aspects of stand structure. Overstory density was substantially reduced in moderate severity areas but had increased tree growth and seedling regeneration produced a new cohort of trees that will likely lead to the development of a multi-aged forest. Regeneration in high severity areas continued to be slow, and the persistence of a sparsely treed woodland forest, or cover type conversion in some instances, is likely. Importantly, many processes of recovery have accelerated in the past 3 years, as the persistent severe drought conditions of 2001 - 2007 have subsided.