Fire Science

Below are many of the scientific journal articles, books, and other materials we use to inform our positions on wildfire management in and around the Los Padres National Forest. We have provided links to download articles where we are able.

We know there is a lot of information in the publications below. That’s why we prepared an annotated bibliography containing summaries, key findings, and important quotes from most of the studies pertaining to chaparral and coastal sage scrub wildfire management so you can learn the most important information without needing to read through hundreds of pages of scientific documents. Access it here:

Wildfire in Chaparral and Coastal Sage Scrub: An Annotated Bibliography

You can also check out our fact sheet on the basics of wildfire in chaparral and coastal sage scrub.

Alexandre, P.M., S.I. Steward, N.S. Keuler, M.K. Clayton, M.H. Mockrin, A. Bar-Massada, A.D. Syphard, and V.C. Radeloff (2016) Factors related to building loss due to wildfires in the conterminous United States. Ecological Applications, 26(7):2323-2338.

Anderson, S.E., R.R. Bart, M.C. Kennedy, A.J. MacDonald, M.A. Moritz, A.J. Plantinga, C.L. Tague, and M. Wibbenmeyer (2018) The dangers of disaster-driven responses to climate change. Nature Climate Change, 8:648-659.

Baker, B., & Halsey, R. W. (2020). California Chaparral and Woodlands. Reference Module in Earth Systems and Environmental Sciences:1–12.

Baker, W.L. (2014) Historical forest structure and fire in Sierran mixed-conifer forests reconstructed from General Land Office survey data. Ecosphere, 5(7):79.

Baker, W.L. (2015) Are high-severity fires occurring at much higher rates recently than historically in dry-forest landscapes of the western USA? PLoS ONE, 10(9):e0136147.

Baker, W.L. and C.T. Hanson (2017) Improving the use of early timber inventories in reconstructing historical dry forests and fire in the western United States. Ecosphere, 8(9):e01935.

Baker, W.L. and M.A. Williams (2018) Land surveys show regional variability of historical fire regimes and dry forest structure of the western United States. Ecological Applications, 28(2):284-290.

Baker, W.L., C.T. Hanson, and M.A. Williams (2018) Improving the use of early timber inventories in reconstructing historical dry forests and fire in the western United States: Reply. Ecosphere, 9(7):e02325.

Bennetts, R.E., G.C. White, F.G. Hawksworth, and S.E. Severs (1996) The Influence of Dwarf Mistletoe on Bird Communities in Colorado Ponderosa Pine Forests. Ecological Applications, 6(3):899-909.

Bond, M.L., D.E. Lee, C.M. Bradley, and C.T. Hanson (2009) Influence of pre-fire tree mortality on fire severity in conifer forests of the San Bernardino Mountains, California. The Open Forest Science Journal, 2:41-47.

Bradley, C.M., C.T. Hanson, and D.A. DellaSala (2016) Does increased forest protection correspond to higher fire severity in frequent-fire forests of the western United States? Ecosphere, 7(10):e01492.

Brennan, T.J. and J.E. Keeley (2015) Effect of mastication and other mechanical treatments on fuel structure in chaparral. International Journal of Wildland Fire, 24(7):949-963.

Brooks, M.L., C.M. D’Antonio, D.M. Richardson, J.B. Grace, J.E. Keeley, J.M. DiTomaso, R.J. Hobbs, M. Pellant, and D. Pyke (2004) Effects of invasive alien plants on fire regimes. Bioscience, 54(7):677-688.

Campbell, J.L., M.E. Harmon, and S.R. Mitchell (2012) Can fuel-reduction treatments really increase forest carbon storage in the western US by reducing future emissions? Frontiers in Ecology and the Environment, 10(2):83-90.

DellaSala, D. A., Hutto, R. L., Hanson, C. T., Bond, M. L., Ingalsbee, T., Odion, D., & Baker, W. L. (2017). Accommodating Mixed-Severity Fire to Restore and Maintain Ecosystem Integrity with a Focus on the Sierra Nevada of California, USA. Fire Ecology, 13(2):148–171.

DellaSala, D.A. and C.T. Hanson (2019) Are Wildland Fires Increasing Large Patches of Complex Early Seral Forest Habitat? Diversity, 11, 157.

Halsey, R. W. and A.D. Syphard (2015) High-Severity Fire in Chaparral: Cognitive Dissonance in the Shrublands. D. A. DellaSala and C.T. Hanson, Eds. In The Ecological importance of Mixed-severity Fires: Nature’s Phoenix, pp. 177-209. Amsterdam: Elsevier.

Halofsky, J. E., Donato, D. C., Hibbs, D. E., Campbell, J. L., Cannon, M. D., Fontaine, J. B., Thompson, J. R., Anthony, R. G., Bormann, B. T., Kayes, L. J., Law, B. E., Peterson, D. L., & Spies, T. A. (2011) Mixed-severity fire regimes: Lessons and hypotheses from the Klamath-Siskiyou Ecoregion. Ecosphere, 2(4):40.

Hanson, C.T. and M.P. North (2009) Post-fire survival and flushing in three Sierra Nevada conifers with high initial crown scorch. International Journal of Wildland Fire, 18:857-864.

Hanson, C.T. (2018) Landscape Heterogeneity Following High-Severity Fire in California’s Forests. Wildlife Society Bulletin, 42(2):264-271.

Hanson, C.T. and D.C. Odion (2014) Is fire severity increasing in the Sierra Nevada, California, USA? International Journal of Wildland Fire, 23:1-8.

Hart, S.J., T. Schoennagel, T.T. Veblen, and T.B. Chapman (2015) Area burned in the western United States is unaffected by recent mountain pine beetle outbreaks. PNAS, 112(14):4375-4380.

Hart, S.J. and D.L. Preston (2020) Fire weather drives daily area burned and observations of fire behavior in mountain pine beetle affected landscapes. Environmental Research Letters, 15(2020):054007.

Hutto, R.L. (2008) The ecological importance of severe wildfires: Some like it hot. Ecological Applications, 18(8):1827-1834.

Hutto, R.L., R.E. Keane, R.L. Sherriff, C.T. Rota, L.A. Eby, and V.A. Saab (2016) Toward a more ecologically informed view of severe forest fires. Ecosphere, 7(2):e01255.

Jones, M.W., C. Santin, G.R. van der Werf, and S.H. Doerr (2019) Global fire emissions buffered by the production of pyrogenic carbon. Nature Geoscience, 12:742–747.

Keeley, J.E., C.J. Fotheringham, and M. Morais (1999) Reexamining fire suppression impacts on brushland fire regimes. Science, 284:1829-1832.

Keeley, J.E. (2002) Native American impacts on fire regimes of the California coastal ranges. Journal of Biogeography, 29:303-320.

Keeley, J.E. (2003) Fire and invasive plants in California ecosystems. Fire Management Today, 63(2):18-19.

Keeley, J.E. (2006) Fire management impacts on invasive plants in the western United States. Conservation Biology, 20(2):375-384.

Keeley, J.E. (2009) Ecological Foundations for Fire Management in North American Forest and Shrubland Ecosystems. General Technical Report PNW-GTR-779, USDA, Forest Service. PNW Research Station.

Keeley, J.E. and A.D. Syphard (2018) Historical patterns of wildfire ignition sources in California ecosystems. International Journal of Wildland Fire, 27:781-799.

Keeley, J.E. and T.J. Brennan (2012) Fire-driven alien invasion in a fire-adapted ecosystem. Oecologia, 169:1043-1052.

Keeley, J.E. and P.H. Zedler (2009) Large, high-intensity fire events in southern California shrublands: debunking the fine-grain age patch model. Ecological Applications, 19(1):69-94.

Knapp, E.E., B.L. Estes, and C.N. Skinner (2009) Ecological Effects of Prescribed Fire Season: A Literature Review and Synthesis for Managers. General Technical Report PSW-GTR-224, USDA, Forest Service. PSW Research Station.

Kramer, H.A., M.H. Mockrin, P.M. Alexandre, S.I. Steward, and V.C. Radeloff (2018) Where wildfires destroy buildings in the US relative to the wildland-urban interface and national fire outreach programs. International Journal of Wildland Fire, 27:329-341.

Lee, D. E. (2020). Spotted owls and forest fire: Reply. Ecosphere, 11(12):e03310.

Lombardo, K.J., T.W. Swetnam, C.H. Baisan, and M.I. Borchert (2009) Using bigcone Douglas-fir fire scars and tree rings to reconstruct interior chaparral fire history. Fire Ecology, 5(3):35-56.

Lucas, T.A., G. Johns, W. Jiang, and L. Yang (2013) A population model of chaparral vegetation response to frequent wildfires. Bulletin of Mathematical Biology, 75:2324-2345.

Lucas, T.A., R.A. Doña, W. Jiang, G.C. Johns, D.J. Mann, C.N. Seubert, N.B.C. Webster, C.H. Willens, and S.D. Davis (2017) An individual-based model of chaparral vegetation response to frequent wildfires. Theoretical Ecology, 10:217-233.

Meigs, G.W., H.S.J. Zald, J.L. Campbell, W.S. Keeton, and R.E. Kennedy (2016) Do insect outbreaks reduce the severity of subsequent forest fires? Environmental Research Letters, 11:045008.

Mensing, S.A., J. Michaelsen, and R. Byrne (1999) A 560-year record of Santa Ana fires reconstructed from charcoal deposited in the Santa Barbara Basin, California. Quaternary Research, 51:295-305.

Moritz, M.A., J.E. Keeley, E.A. Johnson, and A.A. Schaffner (2004) Testing a basic assumption of shrubland fire management: how important is fuel age? Frontiers in Ecology and the Environment, 2(2):67-72.

Moritz, M.A., E. Batllori, R.A. Bradstock, A.M. Gill, J. Handmer, P.F. Hessburg, J. Leonard, S. McCaffrey, D.C. Odion, T. Schoennagel, and A.D. Syphard (2014) Learning to coexist with wildfire. Nature, 515:58-66.

Mortensen, D.A., E.S.J. Rauschert, A.N. Nord, and B.P. Jones (2009) Forest Roads Facilitate the Spread of Invasive Plants. Invasive Plant Science and Management, 2:191-199.

Multihazard Mitigation Council (2017) Natural Hazard Mitigation Saves 2017 Interim Report: An Independent Study. K. Porter, Principal Investigator. National Institute of Building Sciences, Washington.

Newman, E.A., J.B. Potts, M.W. Tingley, C. Vaughn, and S.L. Stephens (2018) Chaparral bird community responses to prescribed fire and shrub removal in three management seasons. Journal of Applied Ecology, 55:1615-1625.

Odion, D. C., & Hanson, C. T. (2008) Fire Severity in the Sierra Nevada Revisited: Conclusions Robust to Further Analysis. Ecosystems, 11(1):12–15.

Odion, D.C., et al (2014) Examining historical and current mixed-severity fire regimes in ponderosa pine and mixed-conifer forests of western North America. PLoS ONE, 9:e87852.

Odion, D.C., C.T. Hanson, W.L. Baker, D.A. DellaSala, and M.A. Williams (2016) Areas of Agreement and Disagreement Regarding Ponderosa Pine and Mixed Conifer Forest Fire Regimes: A Dialogue with Stevens et al. PLoS ONE, 11(5):e0154579.

Radeloff, V.C., D.P. Helmers, H.A. Kramer, et al (2018) Rapid growth of the US wildland-urban interface raises wildfire risk. PNAS, 115(13):3314-3319.

Schoennagel, T., J.K. Balch, H. Brenkert-Smith, P.E. Dennison, B.J. Harvey, M.A. Krawchuk, N. Mietkiewicz, et al (2017) Adapt to more wildfire in western North America forests as climate changes. PNAS, 114(18):4582-4590.

Six, D.L., C. Vergobbi, and M. Cutter (2018) Are Survivors Different? Genetic-Based Selection of Trees by Mountain Pine Beetle During a Climate Change-Driven Outbreak in a High-Elevation Pine Forest. Frontiers in Plant Science, 9, 993.

Stenzel, J.E., K.J. Bartowitz, M.D. Hartman, J.A. Lutz, C.A. Kolden, A.M.S. Smith, B.E. Law, et al (2019) Fixing a snag in carbon emissions estimates from wildfires. Global Change Biology, 25:3985-3994.

Swanson, M.E., J.F. Franklin, R.L Beschta, C.M. Crisafulli, D.A. DellaSala, R.L. Hutto, D.B. Lindenmayer, and F.J. Swanson (2011) The forgotten stage of forest succession: early-successional ecosystems on forest sites. Frontiers in Ecology and the Environment, 9(2):117-125.

Syphard, A.D. and J.E. Keeley (2015) Location, timing and extent of wildfire vary by cause of ignition. International Journal of Wildland Fire, 24:37-47.

Syphard, A.D. and J.E. Keeley (2019) Factors Associated with Structure Loss in 2013-2018 California Wildfires. Fire, 2, 49.

Syphard, A.D., J.E. Keeley, and T.J. Brennan (2011) Comparing the role of fuel breaks across southern California national forests. Forest Ecology and Management, 261:2038-2048.

Syphard, A.D., J.E. Keeley, and T.J. Brennan (2011) Factors affecting fuel break effectiveness in the control of large fires on the Los Padres National Forest, California. International Journal of Wildland Fire, 20(6):764-775.

Syphard, A.D., J.E. Keeley, A. Bar-Massada, T.J. Brennan, and V.C. Radeloff (2012) Housing arrangement and location determine the likelihood of housing loss due to wildfire. PloS ONE, 7(3):e33954

Syphard, A.D., J. Franklin, and J.E. Keeley (2006) Simulating the effects of frequent fire on southern California coastal shrublands. Ecological Applications, 16(5):1744-1756.

Syphard, A.D., T.J. Brennan, and J.E. Keeley (2014) The role of defensible space for residential structure protection during wildfires. International Journal of Wildland Fire, 23: 1165-1175.

Syphard, A.D., T.J. Brennan, and J.E. Keeley (2017) The importance of building construction materials relative to other factors affecting structure survival during wildfire. International Journal of Disaster Risk Reduction, 21:140-147.

Syphard, A.D., T.J. Brennan, and J.E. Keeley (2018) Drivers of chaparral type conversion to herbaceous vegetation in coastal Southern California. Diversity and Distributions, 2018:1-12.

Syphard, A.D., T.J. Brennan, and J.E. Keeley (2018) Chaparral landscape conversion in southern California. E.C. Underwood, H. Safford, N. Molinari, and J. Keeley, Eds. In Valuing Chaparral: Ecological, Socio-Economic, and Management Perspectives, pp. 323-336. Springer International Publishing.

Syphard, A.D., V.C. Radeloff, J.E. Keeley, T.J. Hawbaker, M.K. Clayton, S.I. Stewart, and R.B. Hammer (2007) Human influence on California fire regimes. Ecological Applications, 17(5):1388-1402.

Thorn, S., Seibold, S., Leverkus, A. B., Michler, T., Müller, J., Noss, R. F., Stork, N., Vogel, S., & Lindenmayer, D. B. (2020) The living dead: Acknowledging life after tree death to stop forest degradation. Frontiers in Ecology and the Environment, 18(9):505–512.

Tingley, M.W., V. Ruiz-Gutierez, R.L. Wilkerson, C.A. Howell, and R.B. Siegel (2016) Pyrodiversity promotes avian diversity over the decade following forest fire. Proceedings of the Royal Society B, 283:20161703,

Underwood, E.C., H.D. Safford, N.A. Molinari, and J.E. Keeley, Eds. (2018) Valuing Chaparral: Ecological, Socio-Economic, and Management Perspectives. Springer International Publishing.

Vachula, R.S., J.M. Russell, and Y. Huang (2019) Climate exceeded human management as the dominant control of fire at the regional scale in California’s Sierra Nevada. Environmental Research Letters, 14(2019):104011.

Williams, M.A. and W.L. Baker (2012) Spatially extensive reconstructions show variable-severity fire and heterogeneous structure in historical western United States dry forests. Global Ecology and Biogeography, 21:1042-1052.

Williams, M.A. and W.L. Baker (2014) High-severity fire corroborated in historical dry forests of the western United States: response to Fulé et al. Global Ecology and Biogeography, 23:831-835.

Zachmann, L.J., D.W.H. Shaw, and B.G. Dickson (2018) Prescribed fire and natural recovery produce similar long-term patterns of change in forest structure in the Lake Tahoe basin, California. Forest Ecology and Management, 409:276-287.

Zald, H.S.J. and C.J. Dunn (2018) Severe fire weather and intensive forest management increase fire severity in a multi-ownership landscape. Ecological Applications, 28(4):1068-1080.

Zedler, P.H., C.R. Gautier, and G.S. McMaster (1983) Vegetation change in response to extreme events: the effect of a short interval between fires in California chaparral and coastal scrub. Ecology, 64(4):809-818.