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Project ID:

24-2-01-4

Year:

2025

Date Started:

12/11/2024

Date Completed:

11/30/2026

Title:

Spurring innovation in adaptation to altered fire regimes in the Sonoran Desert

Project Proposal Abstract:

1. Problem Statement:
Fires in the Sonoran Desert have historically been infrequent and relatively small, with only a limited need for fire prevention measures. However, climate change and invasive species have led to more frequent and large wildfires in this ecosystem, promoting widespread changes in vegetation communities and declines in native species. Managers are starting to adapt by reducing fuel loads and are considering novel techniques for inhibiting fire spread, such as fire breaks or weed barriers overlaid with biological soil crusts (biocrust). Managers are also keen to improve postfire restoration protocols, such as seeding of native plants, biocrust restoration, and invasive species removal. In this time of rapid change, managers have not had the opportunity to explore the range of options available to them internally or with partners, nor weigh the benefits, efficacy, and costs of novel approaches. This proposed project will help practitioners integrate these options into their decision-making through three 1.5-day in-person workshops in Phoenix, AZ, focused on the evaluation of a range of management scenarios and their potential effects across boundaries and land ownership designations.
2. Objectives
Through a series of three workshops and modeling activities, we intend to achieve these objectives: 1) Identify new management strategies or ways to adapt current strategies to accelerate adaptation to changing fire regimes. Assess the impacts of alternate strategies on the landscape using a suite of approaches including state and transition models and landscape fire models; 2) Evaluate and prioritize the suite of existing and new management strategies with the help of the model outputs to produce a list of management strategies that are likely to be effective in the face of changing fire regimes and climate; and 3) Develop a plan for implementation and monitoring of identified management interventions and summarize critical gaps in scientific knowledge that, in turn, can be addressed in future funding opportunities.
3. Benefits
This project will result in the collective selection of new adaptive management strategies and a plan for implementation. We will also identify monitoring approaches and a list of critical knowledge gaps. These outputs represent a massive leap in shared knowledge and practices for fire management across the northern Sonoran Desert and the establishment of a collaboration among scientists, federal, state, local, and tribal land and resource managers ready to take the next steps and promote implementation based on these planning efforts.

Principal Investigator:

Helen I Rowe

Agency/Organization:

Northern Arizona University

Branch or Dept:

School of Earth Sciences & Environmental Sustainability

Other Project Collaborators

Type	Name	Agency/Organization	Branch or Dept
Agreements Contact	Samaneh Moeini	Northern Arizona University	Office of Grant & Contract Service
Budget Contact	Kiara A Lewis	Northern Arizona University	Office of Grant & Contract Service