WATERSHED.ORG
Formerly the Watershed Management Council

Websites about Wildfire

During the past six months the amount of fire science and management information on the Web has spread. Here is a sampling of what' s out there. You' re bound to find even more in your explorations, so make sure your cup is topped up before you embark.

Western Regional Climate Center -www.wrcc.sage.dr.edu/fire
This interagency group, affiliated with the Desert Resources Institute, is dedicated to large scale projects dealing with climate, weather and fire. Specific research include: applied studies on climate issues affecting the West, relationship of El Niño and the Southern Oscillation to Western climate, GIS and remote sensing, climatic trends and fluctuations in the West, and synoptic fire weather patterns for Nevada associated with low and high fire-start years.

U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service fire management page - http://fire.r9.fws.gov/ifcc/research/index.html
The Interior Fire Coordination Committee (IFCC) is a chartered research working group which is a joint fire scienceproject between the Forest Service, USGS, and variousbureaus of the Department of the Interior. They have anumber of projects dedicated to the effect of fire on habitat forplants, including threatened and endangered species. There is a direct link to the National Interagency Fire Center (NIFC).

National Interagency Fire Center in Boise - www.nifc.gov
NIFC is the mother of fire websites; all strands lead there. Traditionally the heart of fire suppression logistical resources in the Western U.S., they have expanded to specialize in fire ecology, fire behavior, technology, aviation and weather. They are employing state-of-the-art analytical tools to help solve fire planning as well as firefighting challenges.

National Park Service Fire Management Center at NIFC - http://fire.nifc.nps.gov
Not only does this one tell you about what the Park Service is doing, including access to internal newsletter articles, but you can link to national, international, and over a dozen state fire sites.

Tall Timbers Research Station - www.talltimbers.org
This is one of the earliest facilities dedicated to fire ecological research (since 1958) and they organize reputedly topnotchconferences. They have recently put online their extensivedatabase, the E.V.Komarek Fire Ecology Database. It catalogsa broad range of fire-related information which is international in scope and includes historic as well as currentstudies. The citations include books, government documents,journal articles, and proceedings. These of course include papers from the annual Tall Timbers Fire Ecology Conferences, held since 1962. These proceedings are all available for purchase. You can view the contents of the most recent Proceedings, Fire in Ecosystem Management: ShiftingParadigm from Suppression to Prescription, Boise, 1998, 459 pages. There are searchable keywords for geographic designations, habitat type, management style and species scientific names. Before you get too excited, realize that this nonprofit Florida facility is not geared up to deliver copies.

Oak Ridge National Laboratory - www.ornl.gov
This is one of those sites that was so big I nearly got lost.There are pages for the many research divisions: Environmental Science, Ecology and Earth Sciences, and Bioenergy, to name a few. You might start by searching for such topics as fuel utilization, and effects on the environment from fuel reduction alternatives (biomass harvest or burning for example). Or you could search on a lab scientist' s name to see her publications. Dr. Robin Graham is known for work on carbon cycling and other soil effects, so I searched on her name.

The National Wildland/Urban Interface FireProtection Program - www.firewise.org
This excellent site is for those who live or own land in fire-prone areas, but it is worth visiting for anyone interested in managing watersheds which encompass urban and wildland areas. See 'Resources for Grappling...' article for details.

U.S. Forest Service - www.r5.fs.fed.us/fire/prevention_programs/index.html
This site opens with Chief Dombeck's outline of a fire prevention philosophy which stresses both collaboration and the ecological role of fire. There is detail on subjects ranging from prescribed fire to a variety of wildfire topics. From this URL you can easily navigate to the California Fuels Committee homepage.

California Fuels Committee - www.r5.fs.fed.us/fuelnewsletter/cfchomepage.html
This site has valuable information for areas outside California, too. The CFC is for resource managers interested in fuels management. It is an active organization, holding meetings and field trips, and sharing experiences about fuel reduction throughout the state. The latter is mainly done through its triennial newsletters which are mailed to members and also are posted for 'webbies' at this site.

ÝUSDA-Forest Service, Rocky Mountain Research Station -www.xmission.com/~rmrs
This site has a number of impressive pages, including... /~rmrs/themes/disturb.html which is dedicated to research on disturbance ecology,... /~rmrs/futuresearch.html which contains Future Search Conference Notes from the 1997 Park City Utah Proceedings on Fire Research, and... /~rmrs/pubs/INTpubs/gtr341/341main.html which contains proceedings from The Use of Fire in Forest Restoration, a general session at the annual meeting of the Society for Ecological Restoration in Seattle, 1995.

California State Fire Plan - http://frap.cdf.ca.gov/fire_plan/executive_summary.html
California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection, alongwith the Board of Forestry has completed a comprehensive update of its plan for wildfire protection throughout the state. The Plan deals with several aspects, including its approach to managing vegetation for wildfire prevention. Under assets to protect, it lists watersheds and water. A related site is http://frap.cdf.ca.gov/fire_mgmt/fm_main.html which is adocument entitled Fire Management in California Ecosystems.

Sequoia and Kings Canyon N.P. Fire Info Cache - www.nps.gov/seki/fire/index.html
There is interesting information with several articles under 'Why the National Park Service uses Fire'.

California Energy Commmission - www.energy.ca.gov/development/biomass.html
has a page on biomass energy development in the state.-