Fire Refugia in Mature and Old Forests of the Pacific Northwest

Recent stand-replacing wildfires in late-successional and old-growth (LSOG) forests have increased land manager interest in fire refugia, which could provide vital habitat for threatened and endangered species during a time of rapid change. The overall goal of this USGS NW CASC-funded project was to model, map, and share information essential for the conservation of LSOG forest ecosystems in the U.S. Pacific Northwest, within a diverse co-production team of state and federal land managers. We developed statistical models of contemporary (2002-2017) fire refugia, non-stand-replacing fire (NSR), and high-severity fire based on topography, fuels, fire weather, fire behavior and climate. Independent models were built for two ecoregions, one encompassing the Douglas-fir/western hemlock forests of the northwestern portion of our study area and the other encompassing dry-mixed conifer forests of the eastern Cascades and Klamath-Siskiyou region. We used these models to produce probability surface maps for fire refugia, NSR, and high-severity fire under low, moderate, and extreme fire weather and fire growth scenarios. These maps and associated products provide timely information about the likely persistence, change, and loss of LSOG forests under current and future climate conditions.

Check out more on our findings from the Fire Refugia in Mature and Old Forests project at https://firerefugia.forestry.oregonstate.edu/home

The website includes an overview of results, link to our comprehensive final report, a portal to the Eco-vis web viewer that allows you to explore maps and models as well as download datasets, and provides and overview of our fire refugia science.

We'll be rolling out outreach and collaboration materials soon. Please feel free to contact us if you'd like to learn more: Meg Krawchuk, meg.krawchuk [at] oregonstate.edu