4 - Alternative Fuel-Reduction Treatments Interact with Local Stand Characteristics to Influence Tree Vigor and Mortality in the Southern Cascades, California, USA.

Saturday, October 28, 2023

8:45am - 9:00am PST

Location: A3

Speaker(s)

Christopher Looney, PhD

Research Forester
USFS PSW Research Station
Davis, California, United States

Co-author(s)

EB

Emily Brodie, PhD

Postdoctoral Fellow
USFS PSW Research Station (ORISE program)
MR

Martin Ritchie, PhD

Research Forester
USFS PSW Research Station
EK

Eric Knapp, PhD

Research Ecologist
USFS PSW Research Station
CF

Chris Fettig, PhD

Research Entomologist
USFS PSW Research Station

Alternative fuel-reduction treatments may differ in their long-term potential for improving tree vigor and avoiding tree mortality. Here we investigate how treatments interact with local tree, site, and stand characteristics to influence treatment success. Our results suggest fuel-reduction treatments alter important interactions between fire-tolerant and fire-intolerant conifer species.

Learning Objectives:

Define success when evaluating structurally complex forest restoration treatments
Describe how composition, structural complexity, and local competition alter tree responses to fuel-reduction and restoration treatments
Extrapolate study results to accelerate the development of mature forest structures in similar fire-dependent forests