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WWETAC Projects

The Western Threat center has collaborative projects in progress with over 50 scientists throughout North America. These projects address a wide array of research questions pertaining to the detection and assessment of wildland threats and threat interactions.

Abstracts for current projects are listed below. Abstracts for previous projects are listed here. For a listing of projects organized by threat area (Environmental Change, Invasives - Plants, Pests, and Pathogens, Landscape Assessments, Wildfire Risk and Fuels Management) please visit our threats page.

Current Projects

• Assessing grizzly bear status on the Kootenai and Idaho Panhandle National Forests
• Biophysical limitations, migration potential, and climatic ranges of tree species in the interface between the boreal forest and the temperate rainforest in Alaska: an information synthesis
• Characterizing root- and heart-rot diseases of Pacific island forests
• Continuing investigation of the introduced parasites of larch casebearer (Coleophora laricella) in the Blue Mts. (OR) and throughout the Pacific Northwest
• Did thinning and surface fuel treatments save homes from the 2011 Wallow Fire (Arizona)?
• Examining costs and benefits of fuel treatments for forest planning in the Sky Islands of Arizona
• Impacts of bark beetles on ecosystem values in western forests:  A synthesis
• Integrated weather/fire/economics modeling framework for fire risk assessment system
• Inyo National Forest Terrestrial Ecological Unit Inventory
• Life history traits and fitness indicators of common native and invasive, non-native plant species in western Washington and Oregon
• Long-term carbon dynamics in aridland ecosystems
• Mapping pine-beetle attacks and associated fire hazard over time
• A multi-scale approach for remotely mapping pine-beetle attacks over time and associated fire hazard
• Operational program for updating wildland fuel data for non-forested landscapes
• Predicting forest inventory variables using lidar-derived metrics and FIA plot measurement data
• Predicting plant invasions in NE Oregon
• Prevalence of rodenticide in fishers in the Sierra National Forest: ecological implications of illegal marijuana cultivation on public lands in the western United States
• Regional noxious weed distribution mapping program (OR)
• Review of vulnerability assessments and Southwest vulnerability to climate change
• Synthesis of dendrochronology methods used to detect insect outbreaks
• Threat assessment of non-native perennial grasses to the ecology and management of National Grasslands in the Northern Great Plains
• A tool for valuing ecosystem services
• Using lidar to improve the reliability of GNN vegetation and fuels maps for forest management and risk assessment