The Good, the Bad, the Ugly: How Wildfires Reshape Landscapes
Exploring USGS’s Role in Understanding Postfire Changes
Exploring USGS’s Role in Understanding Postfire Changes
Wildland Fire Science Strategy
New USGS Strategy Harnesses State-of-the-Art Science to Tackle Wildfires Before, During and After the Flames
New USGS Strategy Harnesses State-of-the-Art Science to Tackle Wildfires Before, During and After the Flames
USGS Wildland Fire Science
Supporting the Nation's Wildland Fire Management Challenges
Supporting the Nation's Wildland Fire Management Challenges
USGS Emergency Assessment of Post-Fire Debris-Flow Hazards
How Wildfires Threaten U.S. Water Supplies
The USGS is working to measure and predict post-fire water quality and quantity.
The USGS is working to measure and predict post-fire water quality and quantity.
Wildland Fire Science
USGS Fire Science is fundamental to understanding the causes, consequences, and benefits of wildfire and helps prevent and manage larger, catastrophic events. USGS scientists possess diverse technical capabilities that are used to address a variety of problems posed by wildland fires. Outcomes of USGS science can be used by fire and land managers to respond to fire-related issues when they arise.
Diverse Fire Science Topics
Diverse Fire Science Topics
Learn more about the different ways that USGS science is used for wildland fire management.
Browse USGS Fire Science Publications
Browse USGS Fire Science Publications
Get more information about recent scientific publications produced by USGS that deal with wildland fire science.
Current Wildfire Hazards in the U.S.
Current Wildfire Hazards in the U.S.
Use the Intterra National Fire Situation map tool to view current wildfires and related information.
News
Publications
Redistribution of debris-flow sediment following severe wildfire and floods in the Jemez Mountains, New Mexico, USA Redistribution of debris-flow sediment following severe wildfire and floods in the Jemez Mountains, New Mexico, USA
Severe fire on steep slopes increases stormwater runoff and the occurrence of runoff-initiated debris flows. Predicting locations of debris flows and their downstream effects on trunk streams requires watershed-scale high-resolution topographic data. Intense precipitation in July and September 2013 following the June 2011 Las Conchas Fire in the Jemez Mountains, New Mexico, led to...
Effects of drought and cloud-water interception on groundwater recharge and wildfire hazard for recent and future climate conditions, Kauaʻi, Oʻahu, Molokaʻi, Maui, and the Island of Hawaiʻi Effects of drought and cloud-water interception on groundwater recharge and wildfire hazard for recent and future climate conditions, Kauaʻi, Oʻahu, Molokaʻi, Maui, and the Island of Hawaiʻi
The Water-budget Accounting for Tropical Regions Model (WATRMod) code was used for Kauaʻi, Oʻahu, Molokaʻi, Maui, and the Island of Hawaiʻi to estimate the spatial distribution of groundwater recharge, soil moisture, evapotranspiration, and climatic water deficit for a set of water-budget scenarios. The scenarios included historical and future drought conditions, and a land-cover...
Propensity score matching mitigates risk of faulty inferences in observational studies of effectiveness of restoration trials Propensity score matching mitigates risk of faulty inferences in observational studies of effectiveness of restoration trials
Determining effectiveness of restoration treatments is an important requirement of adaptive management, but it can be non-trivial where only portions of large and heterogeneous landscapes of concern can be treated and sampled. Bias and non-randomness in the spatial deployment of treatment and thus sampling is nearly unavoidable in the data available for large-scale management trials, and...
Science
Ground-truthing an easy guide to biocrust morphogroups
Land and resource managers are increasingly aware of the contribution of biocrusts to ecological functions and have expressed interest in training and resources to recognize biocrusts in the field. This knowledge will help enable managers to address biocrusts in carrying out analyses under the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA). WERC scientists have drafted a single page, easy guide to...
State of Knowledge of Biological Soil Crusts: A synthesis of work to inform land management.
Land and resource managers are increasingly interested in up-to-date information for biocrust conservation and management. To facilitate the use of evolving science by land managers, WERC scientists are compiling a synthesis of recent work on biocrusts related to their ecology and management. This knowledge will help enable managers to address biocrusts in carrying out analyses under the National...
Ecosystems on the Edge: Landscape and Fire Ecology of Forests, Deserts, and Tundra
Climate changes and interacting disturbances such as wildfires, insect and disease outbreaks, and erosion and flooding can perturb and reorganize ecosystems.