The Dawson Project tests pinyon-juniper woodland silvicultural treatments in southwest Colorado
In Southwest Colorado, fuels specialists and researchers have come together to experimentally evaluate different silvicultural treatments for enhancing pinyon-juniper ecosystem health and reducing fire risk. This interdisciplinary team has implemented replicated silvicultural treatments that vary in spatial complexity and amount of thinning in pinyon-juniper woodlands spanning an elevational gradient.
A major goal of this effort is to understand how changes in woodland structure influence woodland health, including tree growth and mortality, pine nut production, and understory vegetation. Through fuels sampling and spatially explicit wildfire behavior modeling, this project will also assess how treatments influence fire behavior under varying weather conditions to aid future fuel treatment design and placement.
Video: One Hillside in Colorado Will Help Woodlands and Fight Fire Across the West
Project Partners:
- Ian Barrett, Tyler Corbin, Diane Mastin Dixon, James Savage – Bureau of Land Management
- Miranda Redmond – University of California, Berkeley
- Alexandra Urza – US Forest Service Rocky Mountain Research Station
- Peter Weisberg – University of Nevada, Reno
- Chad Hoffman – Colorado State University
- John Bradford – US Geological Survey
Lead investigators for each institution are listed; many additional contributors have worked on the project to date. Please contact Ian Barrett or Miranda Redmond for more information.
Learn more about Pinyon-Juniper Woodlands:
