Utah’s forests are shaped by wildfire and other natural disturbances that affect nature and people. The Utah Forest Restoration Institute (UFRI) at Utah State University will inform the management of fire risks and fire effects to improve resilience to forest disturbance, offer training opportunities for the next generation of Utah forest managers, and create new ways for managers and researchers to collaborate given Utah’s unique mix of forests, woodlands, and wildfire. Thanks to a new ongoing appropriation by the Utah Legislature, UFRI joins existing institutes in adjacent Southwest states in efforts to improve the health of forest and woodland ecosystems in the region by leveraging best-science practices to reduce the risks and impacts of wildfire and other disturbances.
Across the West, trees have been dying at higher rates, from things like bark beetles, invasive pathogens, fire and drought, all of which are exacerbated by warming temperatures. A team led by Jim Lutz from the Quinney College of Natural Resources visits the Utah Forest Dynamics Plot, as it has every year for the last decade, to survey and measure 30,000 individual trees in the area.
To help understand how we can prepare and manage forests in the face of climate adaptation, USU researchers are investigating how trees have historically adjusted to changes in climate throughout their lives. USU Associate Professor Justin DeRose, and dendrochronologist Ryan Jess are using tree rings to look into the past to try and plan for the future.
For a century fire ecologists have worked to decipher a complex question — what does a “normal'' wildfire year look like in the West? That’s a hard question to answer for many reasons, but new research from a team in the QCNR shows that thanks to the state’s unique landscapes, Utah’s wildfire patterns may never fit into what is considered “normal” for other Western states.