Source: UNIV OF IDAHO submitted to
UNDERSTANDING VULNERABILITY OF WHITEBARK PINE IN EASTERN IDAHO AND FURTHERING FORESTRY GRADUATE EDUCATION ON TRIBAL LANDS
Sponsoring Institution
National Institute of Food and Agriculture
Project Status
TERMINATED
Funding Source
MCINTIRE-STENNIS
Reporting Frequency
Annual
Accession No.
1010595
Grant No.
(N/A)
Project No.
IDAZ-MS-0117
Proposal No.
(N/A)
Multistate No.
(N/A)
Program Code
(N/A)
Project Start Date
Aug 25, 2016
Project End Date
Sep 30, 2020
Grant Year
(N/A)
Project Director
Smith, AL, .
Recipient Organization
UNIV OF IDAHO
875 PERIMETER DRIVE
MOSCOW,ID 83844-9803
Performing Department
Forest, Rangeland, and Fire Sciences
Non Technical Summary
The overarching goal of this research is to further our understanding of future vulnerabilities in mid-elevation and high-elevation whitebark pine forests that are common to central and eastern Idaho and western Montana. Whitebark pine (Pinus albicaulis) forests have experienced widespread declines across much of western North America and a number of factors are thought to be responsible: pine beetle outbreaks, white pine blister rust, drought stress, and altered fire regimes. A prevailing challenge with research into whitebark pine in Idaho is that the mid-elevation and high-elevation sites are often in hard to access or within wilderness areas. To overcome this challenge we propose to build of an active collaboration with Salish Kootenai College (SKC) and the Confederated Salish Kootenai Tribal Forestry (CSKTF) that have access to high-elevation non-commodity forests. Although many of these forests are also Tribal Wilderness and roadless areas, CSKT & SKC current research permitting allows very easy and timely access to these forests without additional clearances, such as NEPA.There is also recognized need to increase the number of tribal graduate students acquiring theses-based Masters Degrees in forestry, range management, and related natural resource disciplines. An ongoing challenge however is that many tribal students are placed bound and within their locales may not have access to graduate research programs. One route to achieve this need is the development of hybrid degrees where coursework can be completed via distance learning and where thesis-based research can be completed in concert with a local tribal educational institution and tribal land management agency. This project will build off an existing collaboration between University of Idaho, SKC, and the Confederated CSKTF to build a hybrid research-based Master's program. Specifically, a University of Idaho MS student will conduct place-based research with SKC and CSKTF, while taking online Master's courses that are usually offered via University of Idaho's distance learning programs in Natural Resources and Environmental Science. The student's research theses will focus on using spatially-based fire scar dendrochronology, stand age demographics, and lake sediment paleo-reconstruction to reconstruct fire regimes to further understand the vulnerability of white bark pine across the region. In addition, the student will work with SKC faculty to convert an existing SKC course into a distance education course and develop training material to help other Tribal students navigate this hybrid Master's model.
Animal Health Component
0%
Research Effort Categories
Basic
70%
Applied
30%
Developmental
(N/A)
Classification

Knowledge Area (KA)Subject of Investigation (SOI)Field of Science (FOS)Percent
1220612107050%
1230612107050%
Knowledge Area
122 - Management and Control of Forest and Range Fires; 123 - Management and Sustainability of Forest Resources;

Subject Of Investigation
0612 - Conifer forests of the West;

Field Of Science
1070 - Ecology;
Goals / Objectives
The overarching goal of this research is to further our understanding of future vulnerabilities in mid-elevation and high-elevation whitebark pine forests that are common to central and eastern Idaho and western Montana. Whitebark pine (Pinus albicaulis) forests have experienced widespread declines across much of western North America and a number of factors are thought to be responsible: pine beetle outbreaks, white pine blister rust, drought stress, and altered fire regimes. A prevailing challenge with research into whitebark pine in Idaho is that the mid-elevation and high-elevation sites are often in hard to access or within wilderness areas. To overcome this challenge we propose to build of an active collaboration with Salish Kootenai College (SKC) and the Confederated Salish Kootenai Tribal Forestry (CSKTF) that have access to high-elevation non-commodity forests. Although many of these forests are also Tribal Wilderness and roadless areas, CSKT & SKC current research permitting allows very easy and timely access to these forests without additional clearances, such as NEPA.There is also recognized need to increase the number of tribal graduate students acquiring theses-based Masters Degrees in forestry, range management, and related natural resource disciplines. An ongoing challenge however is that many tribal students are placed bound and within their locales may not have access to graduate research programs. One route to achieve this need is the development of hybrid degrees where coursework can be completed via distance learning and where thesis-based research can be completed in concert with a local tribal educational institution and tribal land management agency. This project will build off an existing collaboration between University of Idaho, SKC, and the Confederated CSKTF to build a hybrid research-based Master's program. Specifically, a University of Idaho MS student will conduct place-based research with SKC and CSKTF, while taking online Master's courses that are usually offered via University of Idaho's distance learning programs in Natural Resources and Environmental Science. The student's research theses will focus on using spatially-based fire scar dendrochronology, stand age demographics, and lake sediment paleo-reconstruction to reconstruct fire regimes to further understand the vulnerability of white bark pine across the region. In addition, the student will work with SKC faculty to convert an existing SKC course into a distance education course and develop training material to help other Tribal students navigate this hybrid Master's model.
Project Methods
The biological range of white bark pine covers large areas of central and eastern Idaho and western Montana. These areas also represent many of the historic lands populated by the Salish and Kootenai tribes. However, many of the Idaho areas are within current wilderness regions or are in roadless areas that difficult to easily access. To overcome these access restrictions we have selected sites located in neighboring western Montana on the Flathead Indian Reservation. The reservation has approximately 1.2 million acres of forested lands under management; over 100,000 acres are high-elevation forests containing whitebark pine, in all three of its suitable fire regimes. The proposed work would preferentially target a high elevation (>1900m) locale containing a self-sustaining stand of whitebark Pine, subjected to a low-intensity/moderate frequency nonlethal fire regime.Data Collection:Data collection will be a combination of age and size class data, and dendrochronological data (both tree cores and fire scars), set in grids of 200m by 200m spacing, up to 1km2 in overall extent. Both tree demographics and dendrochronological data are collected at each intersection of the grid using variable size sample criteria; as well as collection of extant sapling, seedling, and vegetation cover using fixed radius plots, co-located at each grid intersection. Tree cores will be sampled at up to 40 trees in excess of 8" (~21cm) DBH.Data Analysis and Outreach:Post field data analysis includes post-processing and cross-dating of sampled tree cores. Vegetation and tree demographics are summarized into normal parametric statistics including density, cover, average DBH, average height, and other standard forestry indices. Processed materials must be archived by CSKT Forestry. Outreach includes, but is not limited to, target-specific (CSKTF) white papers, general technical reports, peer review articles, and presentation of results in regionally based workshops

Progress 08/25/16 to 09/30/20

Outputs
Target Audience:The target auidences includeUSFS scientists, tribal, state and federal land managers, and private foresters that routinely use information on the impacts of fire on tree mortality, as well as post-fire growth and yield.Two widely applied USFS modeling systems are the FVS-Fire and Fuels Extensionand the First Order Fire Effects Model, amajor limitation of existing equations used by these models to estimate fire induced mortality is that data are limited for younger trees. Changes/Problems: Nothing Reported What opportunities for training and professional development has the project provided?Smith has been working directly with Dr. Everett to convert an existing Culture Fire Ecology course to online using Articulate Storyline 3. This course, which is already taught at SKC as an undergraduate course, will also be delivered at UI to its non-indigenous population. In 2019, Dr. Smith developed and taught a graduate professional development course aimed at helping doctoral students and postdocs succeed in agency and academic interviews. The course was developed as a synchronous online and in person course and was delivered in Spring 2020 and was attended by 10 participants, including some of the project's graduate students. Dr. Smith also developed and taught a year-long introduction to research methods course for undergraduate students in the College of Natural Resources. In 2020 and 2021, following an approach suggested by Dr. Smith in NSF funded project HRD-1906157, three of the doctoral students who have been partially supported by the project are working towards an education chapter in their dissertation focused on a review of course development, delivery (online and on campus), and assessment approaches. This approach takes PhD students beyond the usual 'teaching assistant' experience by having them design, teach, and assess lessons. To facilitate this, Dr. Smith enabled access to his course preparation materials for multiple project graduate students to view how he approached course design and development for both on campus and online modalities. The graduate students were able to provide direct feedback and several volunteered to develop additional content. Dr. Smith provided trainings on the use of Articulate Storyline 3 and advice on teaching via different modalities. Dr. Smith also provided advice on developing ADA compliant transcripts alongside each lesson and provided advice and suggestions on different assignment and approaches to assess the effectiveness of the student learning outcomes. During these two years, students within the project had additional access to the resources of the National Center for the Integration of Research, Teaching and Learning (CIRTL) that enabled access to seminars focused on instructional design and collaborative research support. During the last year, Dr. Smith has worked with the UI Center for Excellence in Teaching and Learning (CETL) to provide an online CANVAS based course to be shared via the CIRTL network. This course provides both graduate students and faculty training, tips, and theory on best practices on developing new or converting existing face-to-face courses into quality online graduate experiences. How have the results been disseminated to communities of interest?The pandemic led us to explore innovative approaches to disseminate the results to communities of interest. Through sharing data with an international modeling team, we realized substantial improvements of existing models that determine how fire severity and intensity impacts tree survival and recovery across landscapes. The data and relationships have been openly shared with developers of the Fire Effects and Earth System Models, including the First Order Fire Effects Model (FOFEM), BioEarth, and the Spread and InTensity of FIRE (SPITFIRE) model that is included within the Community Land Model (CLM) version 5.0 and the Max Planck Institute's Earth System Model (MPI-ESM) version 1.2. In the last year of the project, we worked with researchers who developed virtual reality environments to develop an immersive version of the combustion lab and UI Experimental Forest to visualize project experiments to STEM education and stakeholders. This activity aimed at showing the impacts of the fire severity/intensity experiments on tree saplings. This activity helped develop a portfolio project for an Art and Architecture undergraduate student. The Virtual Reality laboratory environment serves as a scalable platform to engage students and stakeholders in the impacts of fires on plants. The virtual reality laboratory environment is freely available via Github and is freely available to any Oculus user. These Virtual Reality environments include immersive and interactive lessons that step participants through examples of how to protect structures from wildfires. In one example, we have participants select different treatments that can be applied to scaled down houses and they then get to evaluate how those choices impact potential ignition under a series of fire behavior conditions. In another walk-through immersive example, participants get to see how parameter selection impacts the fire behavior and mortality of saplings within fires. We envision that these Virtual Reality environments will be used to both demonstrate the project's outcomes to a wide array of stakeholder, the public, and to the next generation of STEM students by taking the laboratories 'on the road'. We have also been helping introduce both an undergraduate student and a high school student to research at the combustion laboratory. These students participated in various research projects and will be included in all derived publications. Smith also participated in the NSF Sponsored Wildfire in the Biosphere Workshop in May 2021. During this virtual two-week-long workshop, Smith was able to share perspectives and ideas that stemmed from this project. This activity led to a large synthesis paper that is currently under revisions in the journal PNAS Nexus. Smith also participated in the Pacific Northwest Interdisciplinary Wildfire Workshop during the spring of 2021. This was a joint workshop organized by Washington State University, University of Idaho, and Oregon State University. During this virtual one-week-long workshop, Smith was able to share perspectives and ideas that stemmed from this project. Throughout the project, we have also begun the process to re-envision a university-level Fire Ecology course and associated textbook by providing contemporary understanding of evolutionary tree species adaptations to fire and how those species mechanistically respond to fire. Smith updated and delivered in 2021 a re-visioned version of an existing University of Idaho fire ecology course. The 2021 version of the course, brought in current understanding of how fires impact the morphology and physiology of plants and animals. The class was then presented with how these floral and faunal adaptations could then be potentially generalized into a discrete set of responses, where phylogenetic connections were also discussed. The course covered a global array of fire-affected ecosystems including North America, South America, Africa, Europe, Asia, and Australia and highlighted the different human and biotic adaptations to fire. The modules of the course were developed using Articulate Storyline 3 and converted into an LMS-ready SCORM 1.2 format and included an ADA Section 508 compliant transcript. The modules have been freely shared with faculty at the University of Georgia, Umpqua Community College, Salish Kootenai College, Texas Technological University, University of Utah, Texas Tech University, Michigan State University, and Washington State University. The research results within the current project have been incorporated within this revised course and as other similar results become available, the content will continue to be updated. The goal is to evaluate the course at multiple institutions and then through integrating the feedback from multiple student cohorts, develop a new fire ecology textbook. Starting this project year, the Indigenous doctoral student on the project that is evaluating fire effects on basket weaving species is developing a Fire Calendar associated with the use of and interaction with fire by the Kootenai Tribe. The Indigenous doctoral student recognized that a major challenge faced by the Kootenai Tribe is the potential loss of its language and culture due to lack of documentation. Through the Fire Calendar approach highlighted by McKemey MB, Banbai Rangers, et al. (2021) [Austral Ecol. 46(7), 1011-1029] this scholar is interacting with the Kootenai Cultural Committee to develop the calendar to use in outreach to K-12 Tribal and non-tribal schools were examples of the Kootenai Language, narratives, and cultural values associated with fire ecology are presented and preserved. The calendar will highlight flora, fauna, ceremonies, and language. The Indigenous doctoral student is still developing the calendar but plans to present the final product both via online and face-to-face presentations. For example, the plan is to present the calendar alongside a 'western science poster version' at national conferences such as the American Geophysical Union to demonstrate a bridge between indigenous land stewardship, western land management, and how fire ecology research connects both worlds. The Indigenous doctoral studentfurther plans to present their research and calendar at indigenous land stewardship meetings (e.g., Intertribal Timber Council) and submit the research broadly to fire ecology journals and journals focused on preserving indigenous culture. What do you plan to do during the next reporting period to accomplish the goals? Nothing Reported

Impacts
What was accomplished under these goals? Overall, the project was able to complete more deliverables than originally planned. As was outlined during the last progress report, the COVID-19 pandemic resulted in us changing the focus of the saplings to be investigated from whitebark pine to other species due to the limitations of travelling and participating in fieldwork during pandemic restrictions. Through these efforts, the project started a new research area bridging the disciplines of plant physiology and fire behavior that we called pyroecophysiology. This research area explores how known amounts of heat from fire impacts tree growth and death. The project looked at multiple tree species important to the northwestern United States timber industry. As forest managers regularly use planned fires to reduce the future impact of uncontrollable wildfires, this information is useful as it tells them how much fire they can use without killing key timber species and allows them to get improved estimates of costs associated with salvage logging and replanting. Over the course of the project, we have demonstrated fire-induced tree mortality predictive relationships for saplings of 5 different tree species. In the final year of the project, we expanded our analysis to include western white pine and Douglas fir saplings. In each case, 35 saplings were divided into 5 treatment groups. In Douglas fir, we observed two clear states where fires < 0.6 MJ/m2l ed to ~60% survival and fires > 0.8 MJ/m2 led to 100% mortality in 1-2-year-old saplings. Notably, 0.4 MJ/m2, indicated zero mortality of lodgepole pine, ponderosa pine, and western white pine in doses below this threshold. This suggests a potential compensating mechanism that allows Pinus species subjected to low fire intensity dose fires to survive despite losing substantial foliage and other injuries, but clearly more Pinus species need to be assessed to evaluate whether this is a genus-based adaptation, associated with specific Pinus sub-groups, or just limited to these three species. For a subset of unburned and fire-affected Douglas fir saplings we collaborated with Dr. Michael Knoblauch at Washington State University to assess the degree of cambium damage as a function of fire radiative energy (FRE). Our objective was to evaluate whether vital stains were a viable approach to assess cambium damage in saplings experiencing fire. The direct assessment of cambium-phloem death was assessed using 5/6 carboxyfluorescein diacetate, which is a non-fluorescent, membrane permeant component that readily enters cells. This analysis was conducted 7 weeks post-fire. We showed that this method was able to effectively highlight mortality of Douglas fir at 0.8 MJ/m2. Notably, in the FRE treatments < 0.6 MJ/m2. Evidence of living xylem, cambium, and phloem are apparent. This study served as a valid proof-of-concept to conduct follow-up studies using vital stains as a methodology to explore how increasing fire intensity impacts phloem, cambium, and xylem damage in trees. We also found that all three pine species evaluated to date (ponderosa pine, western white pine, and lodgepole pine) each exhibit the same 100% survival threshold, which may indicate the presence of a Pinus genus fire adaptive functional trait. We have further demonstrated that in all 5 species we investigated that 1.4 MJ per sq meter causes mortality in all 1-2-year-old saplings. We have also demonstrated additional relationships between fire intensity (via the measure of fire radiative energy) and a suite of tree morphological and physiological response metrics. As described in the last progress report, the partnership with Dr. Everett at Salish Kootenai College (SKC) achieved a significant milestone of working with them to establish a new thesis-based master's degree, focused on Natural Resource Management. This new degree relies on SKC graduate students having access to University of Idaho online graduate courses that are taught as part of the UI Master of Natural Resources program. Salish Kootenai College was recently awarded accreditation by The Northwest Commission on Colleges and Universities building off the joint $2.5M National Science Foundation award that Everett serves as PI and Smith serves a CoPI. This reporting year saw the first cohort of students enroll in the SKC graduate program and the signing of a formal memorandum of understanding between both SKC and UI on how students can take courses at each institution and how UI can share research resources, library access, and equipment. During this reporting year, the first cohort of graduate students started the SKC program and have begun to take UI online graduate courses. Through these efforts, we have continued to advance the graduate experience of underrepresented groups. Specifically, the McNair scholar who was working on this award as a MS student is now pursing a doctoral degree in Natural Resources. In addition, two veterans and two Indigenous scholar who each received partial support on this award are still pursing doctorates in Natural Resources and Environmental Science. One of the Indigenous doctoral students is researching different tree nursery methods and the other is evaluating of how fire impacts the ecology of plant species used in basket weaving by the Kootenai Tribe of Canada and the northwestern United States.

Publications

  • Type: Journal Articles Status: Published Year Published: 2021 Citation: Wooster MJ, Roberts GJ, Giglio L, Roy DP, Freeborn P, Boschetti L, Justice CO, Ichoku CM, Schroeder W, Davies DK, Smith AMS, Setzer A Csiszar I, Strydom T, Frost P, Zhang T, Xu W, De Jong M, Johnson JM, Ellison L, Vardrevu KP. Sparks AM, Nguyen H, McCarty JL. Tanpipat V, Schmidt C, San-Miguel-Ayanz J. 2021. Satellite Remote Sensing of Active Fires: History and Current Status, Applications and Future Requirements, Remote Sensing of Environment, 267, 112694. doi: 10.1016/j.rse.2021.112694
  • Type: Journal Articles Status: Published Year Published: 2021 Citation: Partelli-Feltrin R, Smith AMS, Adams HD, Kolden CA, Johnson DM. 2021. Short- and long-term effects of fire on stem hydraulics in Pinus ponderosa saplings, Plant, Cell, and Environment, 44, 3, 696-705. doi: 10.1111/pce.13881
  • Type: Journal Articles Status: Published Year Published: 2020 Citation: Partelli-Feltrin R, Johnson DM. Sparks AM, Adams HD Kolden CA, Nelson AS, Smith AMS. 2020. Drought increases vulnerability of Pinus ponderosa saplings to fire-induced mortality, Fire, 3, 56. doi: 10.3390/fire3040056
  • Type: Conference Papers and Presentations Status: Published Year Published: 2019 Citation: Partelli-Feltrin R, Seminar: The fire effects on Pinus ponderosa physiology, Missoula Fire Sciences Laboratory 2019-2020 seminar series. November 21, 2019.
  • Type: Conference Papers and Presentations Status: Published Year Published: 2019 Citation: Partelli-Feltrin R, Johnson DM Adams HD, Smith AMS. Effects of fire on tree hydraulic and carbon processes. AFE Fire Congress, December 1, 2019
  • Type: Journal Articles Status: Under Review Year Published: 2022 Citation: Shuman JK, Balch JK, Barnes RT, Higuera PE, Roos CI, Schwilk DW, Stavros EN, Banerjee T, Bela M, Bendix J, Bertolino S, Bililgn S, Bladon KD, Brando P, Breidenthal RE, Buma B, Calhoun D, Carvalho LMV, Cattau M, Cawley KM, Chandra S, Chipman ML, Cobian-Inguez J, Conlisk E, Coop J, Cullen A, Davis KT, Dayalu A, De Sales F, Dolman M, Ellsworth LM, Franklin S, Guiterman CH, Hamilton M, Hanan EJ, Hansen WD, Hantson S, Harvey BJ, Holz A, Haung T, Hurteau MD, Ilangakoon NT, Jennings M, Jones C, Klimaszewski-Patterson A, Kobziar LN, Kominisko J, Kosovic B, Krawchuk MA, Laris P, Leonard J, Loria-Salazar S, Lucash M, Mahumoud H, Margolis E, Maxwell T, McCarty J, McWethy DB, Meyer RS, Miesel JR, Moser WK, Nagy RC, Niyogi D, Palmer HM, Pellegrini A, Poluter B, Roberston K, Rocha AV, Sadegh M, Santos F, Scordo F, Sexton JO, Sharma AS, Smith AMS, Soja AJ, Still C, Swetnam T, Syphard AD, Tingey MW, Tohidi A, Trugman TA, Turetskey M, Varner JM, Wang Y, Whitman T, Yelenik S, Zhang X. 2022. Reimagine fire science for the Anthropocene, PNAS Nexus. Under revisions
  • Type: Journal Articles Status: Published Year Published: 2022 Citation: Hanan EJ, Kennedy MC, Ren J, Johnson MC. Smith AMS, 2022. Missing climate feedbacks in fire models: limitations and uncertainties in fuel loadings and the role of decomposition in fine fuel succession, Journal of Advances in Modeling Earth Systems, 14, 3, e2021MS002818. https://doi.org/10.1029/2021MS002818
  • Type: Journal Articles Status: Published Year Published: 2019 Citation: Steady WD, Partelli-Feltrin R, Johnson DM, Sparks AM, Kolden CA, Talhelm AF, Lutz JA, Boschetti L, Hudak AT, Nelson AS, Smith AMS. 2019. The survival of Pinus Ponderosa saplings subjected to increasing levels of fire intensity and impacts on post-fire growth, Fire, 2, 2, 23. doi: 10.3390/fire2020023


Progress 10/01/19 to 09/30/20

Outputs
Target Audience:The target audience are state, federal, and triballand resource managers in addition to theglobal plant physiology research community. Changes/Problems:The major challenge this year was the COVID Pandemic. The COVID Pandemic severely limited the ability for in person interactions, which was particularly impactful given tribal members are of elevated risk. The impacts of the COVID Pandemic led to insufficient time during 2020 to conduct planned fire experiments, leading to the saplings becoming dormant. The plan in later spring, summer, and early fall of 2021 is to conduct the remaining fire experiments, to advise the McNair Master's student to completion, to further the education of the tribal doctoral student via conducting in person prescribed fires on Confederated Salish Kootenai Tribal Forestry lands on species important to the tribe. Dr. Smith will provide trainings to Salish Kootenai College faculty to convert existing courses into quality online education distance courses and co-develop new courses that can be used within the new SKC Master's degree. What opportunities for training and professional development has the project provided?Training in fire ecology and growth of nursery saplings to three graduate students. How have the results been disseminated to communities of interest?Results have been disseminated via peer reviewed journal publications to international journals and via Zoom presentations. The COVID Pandemic has eliminated the ability to extend results in person to tribal communities given their higher risk. What do you plan to do during the next reporting period to accomplish the goals?We plan to conduct the fire experiments on the100 western white pine saplings and 100 Douglas fir saplings. we also plan fieldwork at the University of Idaho Experimental Forest and theConfederated Salish Kootenai Tribal Forestry lands on species important to the tribe. namely huckleberries and white bark pine. In the current project year, Dr. Smith will work with Dr Everett at Salish Kootenai College to convert existing courses and help develop joint curricula materials in fire ecology, fire behavior, and other forestry-related topics to help establish a base level of distance education courses for their new master's degree.

Impacts
What was accomplished under these goals? During the last reporting period we have been growing100 western white pine saplings and 100 Douglas fir saplings for use in the fire experiments. Due to COVID pandemic restrictions, the timing of the experimental fires was delayed and will likely commence in late spring 2021 or early fall 2021. This project has helped educate a tribal master's scholar with Dr. Andrew Nelson who directs the UI Forest Nursery, and that tribal scholar is now pursuing a doctoral program. This project is currently supportingan existing tribal doctoral scholar with Dr. Alistair Smith who is researching fire effects on plant species important to the Salish Kootenai Tribe including huckleberries. This doctoral scholar is assisting on the research focused on western white pine and Douglas fir. This project is also supporting a McNair Master's scholar who is conducting the fire research on western white pine and Douglas fir. A major milestone that was achieved is through building on this award, Salish Kootenai College was recently awarded accreditation by The Northwest Commission on Colleges and Universities to award thesis-based Master's degrees, where the initial degrees will be focused on Natural Resources Research. Through building on the efforts in the current award, Salish Kootenai College was awarded a $2.5M grant from the National Science Foundation to build up curricula and research support for their students in support of this new degree.

Publications

  • Type: Journal Articles Status: Published Year Published: 2019 Citation: Steady WD, Partelli-Feltrin R, Johnson DM, Sparks AM, Kolden CA, Talhelm AF, Lutz JA, Boschetti L, Hudak AT, Nelson AS, Smith AMS. 2019. The survival of Pinus Ponderosa saplings subjected to increasing levels of fire intensity and impacts on post-fire growth, Fire, 2, 2, 23
  • Type: Journal Articles Status: Awaiting Publication Year Published: 2021 Citation: Partelli-Feltrin R, Smith AMS, Adams HD, Kolden CA, Johnson DM. 2021. Short- and long-term effects of fire on stem hydraulics in Pinus ponderosa saplings, Plant, Cell, and Environment, 44, 3, 696-705. doi.org/10.1111/pce.13881
  • Type: Journal Articles Status: Published Year Published: 2020 Citation: Partelli-Feltrin R, Johnson DM. Sparks AM, Adams HD Kolden CA, Nelson AS, Smith AMS. 2020. Drought increases vulnerability of Pinus ponderosa saplings to fire-induced mortality, Fire, 3, 56.


Progress 10/01/18 to 09/30/19

Outputs
Target Audience:Advancing the education of tribal members through providing oppertunities to attend graduate school whgile doing indigenous research related to tribal priorities. Changes/Problems:We lost a crop of plants due to an insect outbreak at the nursery.We are currently regrowing 100 Douglas Fir and 100 Western White Pine saplings at the Forest Nursery with the goal to start fire experiments in Summer 2020. A McNair Scholar and a PhD student from the Department of Geography at the UI will be involved in this research. As available we have been conducting field experiments on landscape-scale fires to assess the scalability of this research. What opportunities for training and professional development has the project provided?Educational Objectives: This year we have fully supported a Nez Perce MS student who is conducting research at the Forest Nursery under Dr. Andrew Nelson. The research is focused on using both indigenous research methods and western science to explore the growth of culturally important plants, such as camas. An additional MS student, who took a break for family reasons, is being readmitted to continue his work with Dr. Andrew Nelson on silvicultural practices in tribal lands. A former SKC graduate is expected to start a doctoral program with partial support by this program in Fall 2020. The remaining support for that student will leverage a funded National Science Foundation project that PI Smith is involved on: LSAMP BD: University of Idaho University of Idaho All-nations ANLSAMP, NSF,$1.1M,PI J. Wiencek, 2019-2022 Furthermore, PI Smith and CoPI Everett leveraged this award and submitted a National Science Foundation proposal that seeks to establish the joint MS program between SKC and UI that this grant lai the foundation to achieve: NSF TCUP ICE-TI: Forging Pathways to Tribal College Graduate Education in Natural Resources ($2.5M, National Science Foundation),PI R. Everett (SKC) and CoPI Smith How have the results been disseminated to communities of interest?CoPI Everett presented the goals of this project and the associate TCUP proposal in review to the Tribal council of theConfederated tribes of the Salish and Kootenai Reservation. Also through research publications. Publications to date: Steady WD, Feltrin RP, Johnson DM, Sparks AM, Kolden CA, Talhelm AF, Lutz JA, Boschetti L, Hudak AT, Nelson AS, Smith AMS. 2019. The survival of Pinus Ponderosa saplings subjected to increasing levels of fire intensity and impacts on post-fire growth, Fire, 2, 2, 23. Sparks AM, Talhelm AF, Feltrin RP, Smith AMS, Johnson DM, Kolden CA, Boschetti L. 2018. An experimental assessment of the impact of drought and fire on western larch mortality and recovery. International Journal of Wildland Fire, 27, 7, 490-497. Sparks AM, Kolden CA, Smith AMS, Boschetti L, Johnson DM, Cochrane MA, 2018. Fire intensity impacts on post-fire response of temperate coniferous forest net primary productivity, Biogeosciences, 15, 4, 1173-1183. Smith AMS, Talhelm AF, Johnson DM, Sparks AM, Yedinak KM, Apostol KG, Tinkham WT, Kolden CA, Abatzoglou JT, Lutz JA, Davis AS, Pregitzer KS, Adams HD, Kremens RL. 2017. Effects of fire radiative energy density doses on Pinus contorta and Larix occidentalis seedling physiology and mortality, International Journal of Wildland Fire, 26, 1, 82-94. Smith AMS, Sparks AM, Kolden CA, Abatzoglou JT, Talhelm AF, Johnson DM, Boschetti L, Lutz JA, Apostol KG, Yedinak KM, Tinkham WT, Kremens RJ. 2016. Towards a new paradigm in fire severity research using dose-response experiments, International Journal of Wildland Fire, 25, 158-166. What do you plan to do during the next reporting period to accomplish the goals?We are currently growing 100 Douglas Fir and 100 Western White Pine saplings at the Forest Nursery with the goal to start fire experiments in Summer 2020. A McNair Scholar and a PhD student from the Department of Geography at the UI will be involved in this research. As available we have been conducting field experiments on landscape-scale fires to assess the scalability of this research. A former SKC graduate is expected to start a doctoral program with partial support by this program in Fall 2020. The remaining support for that student will leverage the LSAMP-BD NSF project thatPI Smith is involved in: LSAMP BD: University of Idaho University of Idaho All-nations ANLSAMP, NSF,$1.1M,PI J. Wiencek, 2019-2022

Impacts
What was accomplished under these goals? Research Objectives: To date, our research team has assessed three conifer species:Larix occidentalis, Pinus contorta,andPinus ponderosa; hereafterLAOC,PICO,andPIPO.In each case the change in net-photosynthesis has been assessed at short and extended periods after fires as a function of fire intensity applied to the plants (Sparks et al. 2016, Sparks et al. 2017, Sparks et al. 2018ab, Smith et al. 2017, Steady et al. 2019; Feltrin et al. in review).PIPOis a known fire-resistant species and exhibits a clear threshold below which the fire intensity does not negatively impact the post-fire productivity. In contrast, fire-dependentPICOexhibits a general decline in post-fire productivity across all fire intensity levels.

Publications

  • Type: Journal Articles Status: Published Year Published: 2019 Citation: Steady WD, Feltrin RP, Johnson DM, Sparks AM, Kolden CA, Talhelm AF, Lutz JA, Boschetti L, Hudak AT, Nelson AS, Smith AMS. 2019. The survival of Pinus Ponderosa saplings subjected to increasing levels of fire intensity and impacts on post-fire growth, Fire, 2, 2, 23.
  • Type: Journal Articles Status: Under Review Year Published: 2019 Citation: Feltrin RF, Smith AMS, Adams HD, Kolden CA, Johnson DM. Short- and long-term effects of fire on stem hydraulics in Pinus ponderosa saplings, New Phytologist


Progress 10/01/17 to 09/30/18

Outputs
Target Audience:Ongoing coordination with faculty at Salish Kootenai College and representatives of Confederated Tribes of the Salish and Kootenai Reservation, Confederated Salish Kootenai Emergency Management, and Confederated Salish Kootenai Tribal Forestry. This involves regular phone calls. We have also expanded the project to include persons from the Yakima Tribe and the Nez Perce Tribe. Currently we are supporting via access to professional development opportunities and research support 4 tribal members in the college taking place-bound degrees. Additional audience includes regional nurseries and other land management agencies. Changes/Problems: Nothing Reported What opportunities for training and professional development has the project provided?All the place-bound students are encouraged to take online trainings in Responsible Conduct of Research, Research Ethics, IACUC, and IRB that are also available to our on-campus students. Each of these are offered via the CITI program run by the University of Miami. In addition, the UI also provides these students access to online Safety training courses. Furthermore, PI Smith is developing a seminar course to help graduate studentsprepare for academic or agency interviews. This will be compatible with place-bound learning and is expected to be offered in Fall 2019. How have the results been disseminated to communities of interest?Publications and face-to-face meetings. What do you plan to do during the next reporting period to accomplish the goals?(1) Recruit an additional M.S. student to specifically focus on Whitebark pine. (2) Convert the existing courses into online formats.(3) Have a coordination meeting at SKC to discuss (1 and 2) and next steps.

Impacts
What was accomplished under these goals? As reported last year, we have1 graduate student who is enrolled in a M.S. in Natural Resources who is affiliated with the Confederated Salish Kootenai Tribal Forestry. We are currentlyleveraging industry funds to support this graduate student,thus providing an addedreturn on investmentto this project.A second graduate student enrolled in a M.S. is affiliated with the Nez Perce Tribe and is working with Dr. Andrew Nelson on first foods. A third graduate student is pursuing a Ph.D. degree as a place-bound student from the Yakima Tribe. As an added bonus a second member of the Confederated Tribes of the Salish and Kootenai Reservation is enrolled in a Ph.D. in Natural Resources. Each of these students are acheiving their degrees as place-bound students. Thus far none of them have needed a stipend, but we do expect need for funding support in the coming year. We have engaged additional faculty at UI to help in advising these students, including AS Nelson and EK Strand. Research to date has included completing a broad synthesis of the use of Forest Inventory and Analysis (FIA) data to tackle forest management problems. Research has also included team efforts to understand how fires may impact saplings over multiple northwestern United States conifer species and if through that research we can provide regional managers with information of how much 'good fire' can be used that kills undesirable plants, while not impact desirable species. To date the research has included three conifer species: pinus contorta, pinus ponderosa, and larix occidentalis. It is currenlty being expanded to include four additional larix spp. as well as other pine species such as Pinus albucalus and Pinus taeda.

Publications

  • Type: Journal Articles Status: Published Year Published: 2017 Citation: Lewis SA, Hudak AT, Robichaud PR, Morgan P, Satterberg K, Strand EK, Smith AMS, Zamudio JA, Lentile LB. 2017. Indicators of burn severity at extended temporal scales: A decade of ecosystem response in mixed conifer forests of western Montana, International Journal of Wildland Fire, 26, 755-771
  • Type: Journal Articles Status: Published Year Published: 2018 Citation: Smith AMS Kolden CA, Bowman DMJS. 2018. Biomimicry can help humans to sustainably coexist with fire. Nature Ecology and Evolution, 2, 1827-1829.
  • Type: Journal Articles Status: Under Review Year Published: 2019 Citation: Strand EK, Satterberg KL, Hudak AT, Bryne J, Khalyani AH, Smith AMS. Does burn severity affect plant community diversity and composition in mixed conifer forests of the intermountain United States a decade post-fire? Fire Ecology
  • Type: Journal Articles Status: Submitted Year Published: 2019 Citation: Stenzel1 JE, Bartowitz1 KJ, Hartman MD, Lutz JA, Smith AMS, Kolden CA, Swanson MA, Larson AJ, Parton WJ, Hudiburg TW, A snag in carbon emissions estimates from forest fire: trees do not burn to the ground, Nature Climate Change
  • Type: Journal Articles Status: Published Year Published: 2018 Citation: Tinkham WT, Mahoney PR, Smith AMS, Falkowski MJ, Woodall C, Donke G, Hudak AT. 2018. Applications of the United States Forest Service Forest Inventory and Analysis dataset: A review and future directions, Canadian Journal of Forest Research, 48, 11, 1251-1268.
  • Type: Journal Articles Status: Published Year Published: 2017 Citation: Smith AMS, Talhelm AF, Johnson DM, Sparks AM, Yedinak KM, Apostol KG, Tinkham WT, Kolden CA, Abatzoglou JT, Lutz JA, Davis AS, Pregitzer KS, Adams HD, Kremens RL. 2017. Effects of fire radiative energy density doses on Pinus contorta and Larix occidentalis seedling physiology and mortality, International Journal of Wildland Fire, 26, 1, 82-94
  • Type: Journal Articles Status: Published Year Published: 2018 Citation: Sparks AM, Kolden CA, Smith AMS, Boschetti L, Johnson DM, Cochrane MA, 2018. Fire intensity impacts on post-fire response of temperate coniferous forest net primary productivity, Biogeosciences, 15, 4, 1173-1183
  • Type: Journal Articles Status: Published Year Published: 2018 Citation: Sparks AM, Talhelm AF, Feltrin RP, Smith AMS, Johnson DM, Kolden CA, Boschetti L. 2018. An experimental assessment of the impact of drought and fire on western larch mortality and recovery. International Journal of Wildland Fire, 27, 7, 490-497


Progress 10/01/16 to 09/30/17

Outputs
Target Audience:Ongoing coordination with faculty at Salish Kootenai College and representatives of Confederated Tribes of the Salish and Kootenai Reservation, Confederated Salish Kootenai Emergency Management, and Confederated Salish Kootenai Tribal Forestry. This involves regular phone calls and in person meetings.Working with the College of Graduate Studies, 4 members of the Salish Kootenai Tribe traveled to UI discuss potential graduate student options - 2 are currnently enrolled. Changes/Problems: Nothing Reported What opportunities for training and professional development has the project provided?All the place-bound students are encouraged to take online trainings in Responsible Conduct of Research, Research Ethics, IACUC, and IRB that are also available to our on-campus students. Each of these are offered via the CITI program run by the University of Miami. In addition, the UI also provides these students access to onine Safety training courses. How have the results been disseminated to communities of interest? Nothing Reported What do you plan to do during the next reporting period to accomplish the goals?(1) Recruit an additional M.S. student to speficially focus on Whitebark pine. (2)Convert the existingcourses intoonline formats. (3)Initaite the resarch projects of the existing project students. Hold a coordination meeting at Salish Kootenai College to discuss communication skills.

Impacts
What was accomplished under these goals? Working alongside faculty at Salish Kootenai College we haveidentified several tribal graduate students for this project. To date we have 1 graduate student who is enrolled iin a M.S. in Natural Resources who is affiliated with the Confederated Salish Kootenai Tribal Forestry. A second graduate student enrolled in a M.S. is affiliated with the Nez Perce Tribe. As an addedbonus a second member of the Confederated Tribes of the Salish and KootenaiReservation is enrolled in a Ph.D. in Natural Resources. Each are acheiving their degrees as place-bound students. We have engaged additional facultyat UI to help in advising these students, including AS Nelson and EK Strand. We brought 4 potential tribal graduate students to the UI Moscow campus. We completed several logic model excerises with emergency/land management representatives from both the Salish Kootenai Confederated Tribes and the Nez Perce Tribe.

Publications


    Progress 08/25/16 to 09/30/16

    Outputs
    Target Audience: Nothing Reported Changes/Problems: Nothing Reported What opportunities for training and professional development has the project provided? Nothing Reported How have the results been disseminated to communities of interest? Nothing Reported What do you plan to do during the next reporting period to accomplish the goals?We are actively seeking to recruit graduate students from SKC. Once selected we will work with our SKC collaborators to initiate the research project. We will also initiate the conversion of the existing SKC fire course into an online teaching environment.?

    Impacts
    What was accomplished under these goals? The project is currently being initiated. We are actively recruiting 2-3 persons to start their place bound graduate degree this Fall semester, including current undergraduates from Salish Kootenai College and land management personnel from the Confederated Salish Kootenai Tribal Forestry to apply to a MS (thesis) place-based program at the University of Idaho. During this initiation phase, we (Smith-University of Idaho and Everett-Salish Kootenai College) under direction of the University of Idaho Tribal Liaison (Y. Bisbee) and our Dean of the College of Graduate Studies, have been in regular communication with emergency/land management representatives from the Salish Kootenai Confederated Tribes. Prior to the formal start of the project, Smith and Bisbee visited Salish Kootenai College and discussed the broad goals of place-based graduate programs with their faculty and tribal representatives. During the last few months Smith and Everett have co-hosted weekly 1 hour video conference calls. During these calls, we have invited various members of the Salish Kootenai Confederated Tribes and other regional Tribes to participate. We have conducted logic model exercises and discussions to understand the priorities, needs, and perspectives of these Tribes and respective Tribal organizations. We are also leveraging related projects to work with Salish Kootenai College and the Confederated Salish Kootenai Tribal Forestry to bring to the University of Idaho campus 5-6 potential graduate students to attend the University's Engineering Expo event on April 28th.

    Publications