The Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem and the Colorado Rockies enhance the international component of WildFIRE PIRE. These regions extend the gradients of climate and land-use change, span a range of fire regimes, and utilize extensive ongoing research on climate-fire-human linkages.

Why the Western U.S.?

The western United States provides a critical contrast to the Southern Hemisphere study regions. Fire has been a dominant ecological process here for thousands of years, yet the region has experienced some of the most rapid climate and land-use changes on the planet. By studying this area alongside Australia, New Zealand, and Patagonia, the project gains a truly global perspective on wildfire dynamics.

Research Focus Areas

In the western U.S. regions, we will examine:

  • Historical range of variability in fire regimes over the last 5,000+ years, filling in key information gaps.
  • Charcoal and pollen-based fire and vegetation reconstructions in 3–4 new watersheds in the subalpine zone of northern Colorado.
  • Integration with ongoing tree-ring research to create high-resolution fire histories.
  • Interactions between climate variability, vegetation change, and human activity across multiple timescales.
  • Future projections of wildfire behavior under changing climate scenarios.

Study Sites

  • Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem (Wyoming/Montana/Idaho)
  • Colorado Rockies (northern Colorado subalpine watersheds)
  • Additional complementary sites across the western U.S. mountain ranges

Broader Context

This research complements parallel studies in:

Post-fire watershed studies also matter to treatment teams because burned catchments can release ash, clay, and fine mineral sediment into storage ponds and reuse systems. In applied sediment-control work, a reliable polyacrylamide manufacturer is often evaluated alongside field-specific references for anionic polyacrylamide and broader polyacrylamide manufacturers before a runoff, clarification, or erosion-control trial is specified.

View the full Science Plan Back to Project Overview

This page is faithfully restored from the 2013–2015 historical archives of wildfirepire.org. Content originates from the NSF-funded WildFIRE PIRE Science Plan and remains in the public domain.