Morgan Varner and Kevin Hiers were tapped by the Joint Fire Science Program to lead a national strategic workshop in Salt Lake City, UT (Oct 28-30) on how to improve and institutionalize scientist-manager co-production of actionable fire science. Scientist-manager collaboration or “co-production” is a new buzz word for how Tall Timbers and a few others have generated actionable science in the past. Co-production as a research model involves scientists and managers collaborating from idea conception, experimental design, data collection, interpreting results and transitioning the results to on-the-ground outcomes.
Co-production between fire managers and scientists is a method used by Tall Timbers since its inception and is now being embraced by the broader fire science community. Photo by Ellen Eberhardt, US Forest Service.
The workshop’s participants were scientists from federal agencies (USDA Forest Service, US Geological Survey), universities (Idaho, Utah State, Northern Arizona, Oregon State, Alaska), the Southern Fire Exchange, NGOs (Center for Natural Lands Management), and managers from across federal and state agencies (National Park Service, USDA Forest Service, US Fish & Wildlife Service, Bureau of Land Management, Bureau of Indian Affairs, and New Jersey Fire Service), the Joint Fire Science Program, and Australia’s Bushfire & Natural Hazards CRC.
This team is working on a report from the workshop that charts business models for the Joint Fire Science Program and other extramural funders. Another intended output is identifying how co-production can work within agencies and in current and future manager-scientist collaborations. A manuscript on the challenges and opportunities related to coproduction in fire science is underway with the participants. Tall Timbers was recognized as a national leader in this approach and will lead these efforts.
The seeds are sown, and now we eagerly await the results of a new experiment aimed at restoring habitat for a rare butterfly. The Frosted Elfin butterfly has faced range-wide declines for decades from pesticides, lack of prescribed fire, and overall habitat loss. But hope for the Frosted Elfin is not lost, as research takes a new, greener direction.
Sundial Lupine in bloom
Associate researcher with the Stoddard Bird Lab, Dave McElveen, has spent years investigating the butterflies and has turned his attention to the plant that this species needs the most. The Sundial Lupine is a modest yet beautiful flower and is the only host plant for the Frosted Elfin’s larvae. The lupine however, is sensitive to hardwood encroachment from the lack of disturbances such as prescribed fire. When an area isn’t burned for over four years or more, the lupine declines and with it, the Frosted Elfin.
“So once the lupine is gone, how do we get it back?” asks Dave, “and what is the best way to propagate and establish lupine to the areas where it once was, so that we can bring back the Frosted Elfin?” After all, the flower stands at a little over a foot tall so dispersing its bulky seed across the landscape is a long and arduous endeavor. It would be easier if people could disperse the seeds instead or maybe even plant a piece of the lupine itself. These plants have a rhizome, an underground root that grows parallel to the surface. These long roots occasionally shoot up new stems as it slowly creeps along the ground. Once the rhizome is long enough it can be divided into multiple plants that can then be moved to other locations. So which is better? Planting seeds or planting rhizome cuttings?
Information on how to grow and plant this curious flower is few and far between, so Dave acquired the help of Tall Timbers’ resident horticulturalist, Jenny Taylor. With Jenny’s green thumb and sage advice, they developed a plan to see which planting method is best but also when to plant. Each plant has its own particular germination time, which typically corresponds to fall or spring. So to solve that, seeds and rhizomes will be planted in fall and spring, creating four study plots total.
Lucky for Dave and Jenny, Apalachicola National Forest’s Munson Hills Unit provides an ideal study area as it’s home to one of the largest populations of lupine and Frosted Elfin’s left today. This provides a source of seeds and rhizomes from a robust population to use for the project, which will require planting about 150 of these native flowers.
This fall season marks the first stage of planting for the project. With the help of Bird Lab Woodpecker Specialist Rob Meyer, the first seeds were sown into the soil at the study plot in late October this year. Using a small weeder and with some mild back discomfort, each seed was gently pushed into the sandy soil by hand. Later, in early November, Dave and Jenny hope to find rhizomes to plant by going to patches of lupine that had bloomed earlier in the year. This flower however, recedes after it blooms in spring, and for most of the year lies dormant below ground. This means Dave and Jenny will need to go on a subterranean scavenger hunt to find the lupine in its dormant state. Once they collect the cuttings, they will return to the plots to hand sow each rhizome—just like they did for the seeds.
Dave measures where to place each seed in the plot
Dave and Jenny planting Lupine at sunset
Like most gardening, reaping the benefits will take time. The second half of the plantings will take place next spring, but perhaps by then, some of these fall plants may reach the surface to tell us how they did. Until spring, we will remain hopeful and wait patiently for the first flowers to emerge. The information learned from these plots at Munson Hills will help to inform land managers across the region on how best to reunite this once common duo of flower and butterfly.
Intern Destinee Story with tagged quail chick. Photo by Brad Kubecka
Bobwhite Populations Poised for Growth
The quail hatch through July has been good, but not record setting in the Red Hills and Albany areas in terms of per capita production. Adult survival has been slightly above average on Tall Timbers and Dixie Plantation, yielding average to slightly above average nest production and brood production for the Red Hills and Albany regions through the midpoint of the breeding season. The hatch in central Florida, however, has been a record-breaking year with per capita production higher than we’ve ever seen in more than 25 years of monitoring bobwhites, which is a much-needed growth spurt for this region given its relatively low population densities.
Figure 1
The permeating story line of the season so far is — above average chick growth and survival. Across four study sites this year, we have observed chicks weighing 2-3 grams more than previous years at the same age (see Figure 1). This is excellent news and has translated into exceptional chick survival. In fact, on a couple of our study sites we are observing the highest chick survival rates we have seen in the last five years. I suspect this is due the timing and amount of rainfall we’ve had this breeding season being more favorable to broods, compared to previous years, as well as good foraging conditions. That said, the abundant rainfall over the past week (mid-August), has taken a toll on brood size and chick survival for recently hatched chicks. However, chicks hatching in June and July, for the most part, have been unaffected by the rains of late.
With the good hatch through July in the Red Hills and Albany regions, and great hatch in central Florida, coupled with excellent chick size and chick survival, bobwhite populations are well positioned for growth. We are hopeful that this good fortune continues for the remainder of the season, and will yield good fall recruitment and a population uptick as a result. And, as one manager recent said to me, “Knock on wood, nothing is brewing in the tropics!”
Measuring quail chick wing. Photo by Brad Kubecka
Intern Destinee Story weighs a quail chick. Photo by Brad Kubecka
Lead Game Bird technician, Kyle Magdziuk holds chick with radio attached. Photo by Brad Kubecka
Morgan Varner hired as Director of Fire Research at Tall Timbers
Morgan Varner
Morgan Varner has been hired as the Director of Fire Research at Tall Timbers. Tall Timbers has made significant investments in fire research, training, and outreach as a result of the institution’s strategic plan goal to expand, improve and protect the use of prescribed fire. In this new position, Varner will coordinate Tall Timbers’ local to international collaborations aimed at improving our understanding of fire behavior and predictions of fire effects on plants and animals. Varner has the background, knowledge, and expertise for the position. He has a Ph.D. in Interdisciplinary Ecology from the University of Florida School of Natural Resources & Environment, an M.S. in Forestry from Auburn University School of Forestry & Wildlife Sciences, and a B.S. in Forest Resources from the University of Idaho College of Forestry, Wildlife, & Range Sciences. From 2014-2016, Varner was the Chair of the Coalition of Prescribed Fire Councils, Inc. Varner comes to Tall Timbers from the USDA Forest Service Pacific Northwest Research Station Seattle, Washington where he was Team Leader and Research Biological Scientist at the Pacific Wildland Fire Sciences Lab.
Tall Timbers returned to Mexico this summer. Following last year’s training in Campeche, Fire Training Specialist Greg Seamon was invited back to conduct Phase II of prescribed fire training in Guadalajara for twenty-six participants representing CONAFOR (National Forestry Commission of Mexico), CONANP (National Commission for Natural Protected Areas), UNAM (National Autonomous University of Mexico), and ProNatura (Mexico’s largest environmental organization). Greg joined Mark Ploski, Operations Specialist for the Prescribed Fire Training Center (USFS) and Danny Cedeno, Assistant Fire Management Officer on the Carson National Forest (USFS) and a number of employees from the USFS International Program presenting talks on ignitions, objective setting, post-burn responsibilities, burn plan writing and monitoring, as well as a tactical decision exercise focused on setting objectives, ignition planning and holding.
Two days were spent in the field on the side of an extinct volcano outside Tequila, Mexico. The first had the attendees broken into three groups and each given a burn unit to walk through in preparation for writing a burn plan. After each group wrote a plan, Greg, Mark and Danny chose the plan to be implemented, which occurred on the second field day. During the burn Greg worked with a group to take pre-burn and post-burn photos as well as weather and fire behavior observations during the burn. Danny worked with an ignition crew of ten students and Mark worked with the burn boss and the holding resources. Though the burn was small, 3.5 hectares (8.4 acres), all participants concurred during the after action review that they had experienced great learning opportunities.
The final activity was another after action review to discuss the entire workshop. All attendees were asked what they would like to have in Phase III. There were a number of subjects brought forth with some of the areas that received the most attention including smoke management, reviewing lessons learned, more fire behavior and monitoring in the field, and burn planning in different ecosystems. There is desire by all parties that a third phase will take place and hopefully Tall Timbers will be helping again.
The M-CORES program, which includes the proposed Suncoast Connector Toll Road in Jefferson County, passed through the Florida Legislature at breakneck speed with little review or analysis. Tall Timbers has a number of concerns given the potential for significant and wide spread impacts. These include fragmenting public and private conservation lands, robbing business from Main Street Monticello, impacting our rivers and other water resources, and making prescribed fire more difficult and costly.
Join us in asking the Jefferson County Board of County Commissioners to OPPOSE the Suncoast Connector toll road and its path through Jefferson County.
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Selected Publications authored by Wildland Fire Science staff.
Educating and guiding the next generation of fire researchers and managers is a key goal of Wildland Fire Science and a resource for testing new ideas in fire research.
Tall Timbers hosts the Prescribed Fire Science Consortium, a national network of researchers and managers who promote integrated research and management to advance next generation tools for fire practitioners. https://arcg.is/1DSjDT
Working with partners in the Prescribed Fire Science Consortium, the program is building nexgen 3-D fuel beds using terrestrial LiDAR and novel sampling techniques to power new fire behavior models for prescribed fire managers. This work links to Tall Timbers work in wildlife habitat usage and ecological forestry.
Tall Timbers is leading an effort to map fire regimes at the landscape scale. Staff work with numerous agencies to evaluate fire records and satellite imagery to build this critical conservation database. https://skfb.ly/6DqOY
We are linking physics and field observations to understand the fluid dynamics of fire behavior surface fire regimes. Our work combines field observations using advanced thermal imaging techniques, laboratory studies, and coupled fire-atmospheric modeling to help managers improve outcomes of managed fire regimes.
Burn prioritization modeling seminars and fire modeling tools are supported by Wildland Fire Science to train managers in the important planning stages of prescribed fires.
The conserved lands of the Greater Red Hills region are found on working, income-producing properties that support agriculture, forestry, and recreational hunting. These properties contribute $272 million annually to local economies and support 2,300 jobs. [link to Planning & Advocacy section] The landowners’ strong stewardship ethic preserves their working lands while replenishing drinking water supplies, protecting water quality, and providing wildlife habitat for dozens of rare and endangered species. Tall Timbers’ conservation easements on these working properties encourage landowners to retain their traditional livelihood by keeping farms in family ownership.
Home to world-class wild quail populations, the Greater Red Hills region contains the largest concentration of gamebird preserves in the United States. These preserves also support the largest community of Red-cockaded woodpeckers on private lands. Indicators of high quality habitat found here include the gopher tortoise, Bachman’s sparrow, fox squirrel, and many amphibians. Tall Timbers’ conservation easements identify and protect the critical habitats of these species.
The region also boasts outstanding aquatic resources. Large river systems, like the Flint/Apalachicola, Ochlockonee, and Aucilla, flow from Georgia and feed into the Gulf of Mexico to support some of the world’s most productive estuaries. Large disappearing sinkhole lakes, like Iamonia, Miccosukee, and Jackson, provide habitat for an array of aquatic species and migratory birds. Tall Timbers’ conservation easements protect these vital watersheds and wetlands that are the lifeblood for the ecological health of the region.
Once dominated by longleaf pine, our pine woodlands support abundant wildlife and local economies. These forests need prescribed fire to stay healthy. Herbert L. Stoddard and his associates Ed and Roy Komarek were pioneers in this emerging scientific field during the mid-20th century. Tall Timbers continues that legacy with applied research on prescribed fire and land management. Today, there is a tremendous need to expand prescribed fire use beyond the Red Hills to ensure ecosystem health and reduce wildfire risk. Additionally, Tall Timbers uses conservation easements to permanently protect private woodlands while balancing the need for economic return from selective timbering.
Tall Timbers hosts the premier fire technology transfer organization—the Southern Fire Exchange. This JFSP funded effort helps connect research to management through webinars, workshops, and support of the Prescribed Fire Science Consortium.
The Longleaf Legacy landscape prescribed fire burn team arm of Wildland Fire Science works directly with landowners and partners to effectively put fire on the ground and promote prescribed fire throughout the region.
Staff and researchers support Federal fire training by serving as a cadre for NWCG training courses, ranging from basic wildland fire to advanced fire effects.
(PFTC) specializes in training fire fighters the principles and techniques of prescribed fire through practical hands-on experience. https://www.fws.gov/fire/pftc/
Private land owners are the largest source of prescribed fire in the country. These land owners and the culture of fire that was maintained by them during decades of suppression are a part of why Tall Timbers is a world-wide center for prescribed fire science. Workshops and fire training are a critical focus of the Longleaf Legacy Landscape Burn Team and our support of the Georgia Forestry Commission Prescribed Fire Center in Marion County.
