Toward integrated fire management to promote ecosystem resilience

Abstract

• Management interventions for addressing invading annual grasses and encroaching conifers and their effects on fire dynamics in the sagebrush ecosystem are largely reactive. • Reactive management limits tools for promoting long-term ecosystem resilience on a fire-prone landscape. • We propose an integrated fire management approach in which all management activities before, during, and after wildfire are synergistic and improve long-term ecosystem response to fire. • Harney County Wildfire Collaborative is adapting the Potential Operational Delineations (PODs) framework to improve fire outcomes and promote values at risk in the Stinkingwater Mountains pilot project area. • The PODs framework serves to promote a broader geographic strategy for addressing the underlying causes of frequent and severe wildfires in the sagebrush ecosystem. © 2022