Publications

Shams, SB; Boehnert, J; Wilhelmi, O (2025). Assessing the Impact of Conservation Practices on Post-Wildfire Recovery of Evergreen and Conifer Forests Using Remote Sensing Data. FIRE-SWITZERLAND, 8(3), 92.

Abstract
The intensity of wildfires has increased dramatically in recent decades; thus, better understanding the impact of land-management efforts in biodiversity conservation on post-wildfire recovery could highlight the value of these interventions. Field assessments are often costly; therefore, monitoring the effectiveness of applied conservation practices using remote sensing tools is critical. The main goal of this study is to develop and apply a remote sensing framework to assess the impact of conservation practices on post-fire recovery. We focused on a study area in northern California and southern Oregon, a region with diverse conservation practices and increased wildfire activity in the past decade. The proposed framework uses the MODIS dataset to identify fire burn events and Landsat to analyze the time series of an area-aggregated vegetation index, the Normalized Burn Ratio (NBR). Using the remote sensing framework, we confirmed our hypothesis that in areas lacking conservation protection practices, post-fire recovery is slower and more lingering. The median 5-year dNBR recovery for unprotected burn events was around 27%, compared to 37% across all other burn areas. Along with our primary goal of recovery analysis, we also examined fire severity across different conservation practices to identify moderate-to-severe fire events and to capture differences in fire characteristics for the areas under different conversation practices. This analysis revealed that unprotected areas experienced more severe fire events. We also investigated the impact of conservation practices across three dominant forest types in our study area: Dry-Mesic Conifer, Mesic Conifer, and Evergreen Forests. The disparity in post-wildfire recovery between protected and non-protected areas was most pronounced in burn areas dominated by Evergreen Forests. Using the proposed aggregated remote sensing framework, this study highlights the importance of conservation practices in wildfire recovery. This approach could provide a cost-efficient tool for assessing the effectiveness of land-management practices on wildfire recovery across the globe.

DOI:
10.3390/fire8030092

ISSN: