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The Bitter Root Resource Conservation & Development is combating the dangers of wildfire by reducing fuels through their fire mitigation program: the Hazardous Fuels Reduction Fuel Mitigation Grant Program. The program is a 50 / 50 cost-share in the form of a grant from the organization.
As a second edition of their webinar series focused on forestry issues, the Western Landowners Alliance (WLA) recently hosted a panel discussion on the uses of and challenges inherent in using prescribed fire to manage forests. While the speakers agreed that prescribed fire is a useful tool for proper management in most places, there were resounding concerns from all of the panelists regarding the use of prescribed fire including public perception and landowner education, liability, personnel, planning and coordination, and cost.
Focused on the Great Basin, one of 22 Landscape Conservation Cooperatives in North America, the Great Basin Landscape Conservation Cooperative (Great Basin LCC) represents a partnership among public and private groups. The Great Basin LCC supports landscape-scale conservation, promotes science, and enables management based on traditional knowledge and science so human and ecological communities can respond and adapt to climate and land use change.
Data from rangeland studies in both Oregon and New Mexico supports grazing as a strategy to promote ecological resiliency. Grazing can be used to manage and promote perennial grasses. In a study focusing on The Great Basin area, researchers found that the fuel moisture of un-grazed rangeland was 21% whereas the same fuel moisture of properly grazed rangeland was over double that at 46%.
