Webinar: Fire severity-mediated dynamics of the southwestern Alberta Foothills

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In this webinar from October 2020, Cameron Naficy of the LIM Fire Regime Team presents his research findings as part of the Landscapes in Motion project.

Fire severity-mediated dynamics of the southwestern Alberta Foothills

Cameron Naficy

Recorded on Oct. 7, 2020

In this presentation for the fRI Research Webinar Wednesday series, Cameron Naficy describes the geographic variability of the fire regime in the LIM study area, explains what his research tells us about the ecological dynamics and forest conditions resulting from frequent historical fire, and shares insights on resilience mechanisms and limits of lodgepole pine. He found variable severity across forest types in the Alberta Foothills: Douglas-fir forests had a mixed-severity regime that skewed towards moderate/low severity, while lodgepole pine forests had a mixed-severity regime that skewed towards high severity.

Topics covered include:

  • Mixed-severity fire regime concepts and definitions

  • Overview of the LIM study area and the patch-level forest cover types they found

  • Patterns of forest types and historical fire frequency in the study area, with findings of the fire regimes of two main forest types (Douglas-fir and lodgepole pine)

  • Crossover research with the Visual Applications Team (Mountain Legacy Project)

  • Contrasting frameworks for Indigenous influences on fire-mediated landscape conditions: comparing Ponderosa pine and lodgepole pine forests

Click here to view the webinar. You will be asked to register to view the recording.