Identifying opportunity hot spots for reducing the risk of wildfire-caused carbon loss in western US conifer forests

Abstract

As both the climate and wildfire crises intensify and investments are made to dramatically increase the pace of forest restoration across dry forests in the western U.S. through the Wildfire Crisis Strategy, an understanding of where Nature-Based Solutions are the most optimal in lessening climate impacts is key. To this end, a collaborative project between The Nature Conservancy (Arizona, Oregon, Colorado, Washington, New Mexico, California, Idaho), University of Montana, and U.S. Forest Service Rocky Mountain Research Station created a generalizable framework to assess risk to carbon in forests and mapped where proactive forest management actions (ecological thinning and prescribed and cultural burning) could be taken to reduce those risks. This evaluation of where living trees are at most risk of burning and not sustaining carbon in the future were then compared to areas where human communities are most vulnerable to wildfire, the basis of initial investments by the Wildfire Crisis Strategy. The areas of overlap, or “opportunity hotspots” are where we recommend effort be focused to prioritize further action to reduce risks to both carbon and human communities.

Citation

Peeler, J.L., McCauley, L., Metlen, K.L., Woolley, T., Davis, K.T., Robles, M.D., Haugo, R.D., Riley, K.L., Higuera, P.E., Fargione, J.E. and Addington, R.N., 2023. Identifying opportunity hot spots for reducing the risk of wildfire-caused carbon loss in western US conifer forests. Environmental Research Letters, 18(9), p.094040. https://iopscience.iop.org/article/10.1088/1748-9326/acf05a/meta