Fire and Environmental Research Applications Team

Jessica Halofsky

Jessica is a research scientist with the University of Washington providing assistance to national forests on planning for climate change. Jessica is also working to integrate the Vegetation Disturbance Dynamics Tool (VDDT) and the Fuel Characteristic Classification System (FCCS) for assessment of potential fuel conditions and fire hazard across western U.S. landscapes under different management and disturbance scenarios.

Research Interests

• Climate change – ecosystem impacts, vulnerability and adaptation
• Fire and disturbance ecology
• Vegetation dynamics

Current Project Summaries

Olympic National Forest Climate Change Case Study

As a part of the WestWide Climate Initiative, we are working with managers on the Olympic National Forest to develop adaptation strategies for climate change and to incorporate those strategies into planning and projects on the forest. Olympic National Park and other landowners on the Olympic Peninsula will be collaborators in this process. Parallel case studies are being conducted on the Inyo National Forest in California and the Shoshone National Forest in Wyoming.

VDDT-FCCS Integration

The Vegetation Disturbance Dynamics Tool (VDDT) and the Fuel Characteristic Classification System (FCCS) are two valuable products used by many land managers throughout the United States. VDDT is a state and transition model that simulates changes in vegetative composition and structure across a landscape under different disturbance regimes and management scenarios. The FCCS is a tool that allows users to create and catalogue fuelbeds and evaluate the fire potential of those fuelbeds. Although the utilities of VDDT are many, VDDT does not directly assess fire hazard for different vegetation states. We will integrate VDDT and FCCS to enhance the utility of VDDT by allowing simulation of both vegetation composition and structure and related fire potential across a landscape over time.

Linking VDDT and FCCS will help to address a number of research/management questions, including:

1. What is the extent to which fuel treatment programs can reduce fire hazards over time at the mid-scale (HUC 5 watershed scale)?
2. How would different forest management scenarios change short and longer term (100 years or more) fuel conditions and fire hazard?
3. How long do fuel treatment effects last in different forest types and how frequently might treatment be needed to sustain reduced fuel and fire hazard?
4. How do impacts of climate change on vegetation and disturbance regimes interact with management scenarios to influence fire hazard?
   

Curriculum Vitae [.pdf][.html]