Our February meeting will be on Zoom due to the current covid explosion. It will be Tuesday Feb. 1st at 6:00 pm. Zoom link is at the end of this posting. Michelle Coppoletta, an ecologist with the Forest Service’s Sierra Cascade Province will be giving a presentation on how post-fire vegetation and woody fuels are important drivers of subsequent fire severity.
In the face of changing climatic regimes and increases in extreme fire events, many western forests are poised to burn, not only once but multiple times, sometimes in short succession. In areas where fire patterns have been dramatically altered, there is increasing concern that contemporary fires have the potential to set forests on a feedback trajectory with successive reburns, one in which extensive stand-replacing fire could promote more stand-replacing fire. In this presentation I will present the results from a set of studies conducted in a northern California landscape that has burned repeatedly since 2000. Taken together, the results of these studies suggest that post-fire vegetation and woody fuels are important drivers of subsequent fire severity patterns. In areas where repeat high severity fire is undesirable, managers will need to consider a wide range of strategies to maintain and increase the resilience of remnant forests to future fire.
Michelle Coppoletta is currently an ecologist with the U.S. Forest Service in the Sierra Cascade Province, which covers the Modoc, Lassen, and Plumas National Forests. She has worked as an ecologist and botanist with the Forest Service, National Park Service, and US Geologic Survey for over 20 years. Although much of her enthusiasm these days is reserved for her family, garden, and the wildlands near her home, she continually finds reasons to love her job.
Future Meetings: Please send suggestions for future speakers to dGriffith.9@gmail.com. Presentations need to be on topics that relate to our mission statement.
Zoom Connection Information:
https://us02web.zoom.us/j/86385568257?pwd=aDlCb0JpQ3IwemU1Q0RSaTJhT3pZdz09
Meeting ID: 863 8556 8257; Passcode: ABC; Phone: 408-638-0968 or 669-900-6833
Alpine Biomass Collaborative 