In many sites across the Northwest, forests are struggling to recover after wildfire due to increasing wildfire size, severity and frequency and harsher post-fire conditions. Following fire, on sites where viable seed sources are too far away, or where warmer and drier conditions are making seedlings vulnerable to mortality, land-cover may change from forest to non-forest. These vegetation changes are putting at risk a variety of forestry objectives, including revenue generation, and many non-revenue objectives, like aesthetic values, privacy, wildlife habitat and water quality. It’s imperative that forest managers make sound decisions about reforestation investments, since these decisions impact private landowner objectives and public land objectives related to regulations, budgets and public trust. Since instances of land-cover change (forest to non-forest) are especially prevalent under conditions of drought and heat stress, forest managers’ attention to site characteristics and changes in annual conditions is important. These novel forest changes call for new tools to guide decision-making.

This project will address a key capacity-building need. It will provide training, guidance and knowledge-sharing opportunities for decision-makers to sift through the abundance and variety of forest management tools. For land-owners and forest managers, it can be challenging to identify the appropriate combination of tools. Decision-makers often need to consider a variety of tool types. On the one hand, they often must consider tools geared to more traditional forestry practices, such as salvage logging; on the other, many decision-makers seek tools informed by climate trends. In practice, in the months and years after wildfire, a sequence of decisions must be made to support post-fire recovery. Ultimately, forest decision-makers need a framework that provides information about tool options over the various steps of the post-fire recovery process.

This project extends the beta version of such a framework (“FireToolMenu V.1.0”), which enables users to find tools for each step of an adaptive post-fire recovery process. During the project year, the project team will deploy a series of interactive methods to develop a user-tailored product (“FireToolMenu V.2.0”). They will (1) apply initial updates based on a user-survey of the product; (2) conduct individualized, user-based product assessments focused on a management problem; and (3) coordinate User Testing Studios – workshops that start with a visit to a site prone to land-cover change (forest to non-forest). As an outcome of this workshop and associated activities, participants are expected to gain awareness about a process to consider opportunities for climate adaptation, while working within practical constraints and the directives of their organization and program. Overall, these activities are expected to generate an improved ToolMenu, adapted to the on-the-ground priorities and constraints of post-fire decision-makers across the Northwest.