Forestry

Wildfire Perceptions Largely Positive After Hiking in a Burned Landscape

When hikers returned to UC Davis Stebbins Cold Canyon Reserve in 2016, a year after the Wragg wildfire, many expected to see a devastated landscape. They did, but many were also energized about the new changes they saw. Allie Weill, then a graduate student with Professor Andrew Latimer, Plant Sciences, published a paper on this.

Happy Holidays from Plant Sciences, UC Davis

Happy holidays to our Plant Sciences faculty, staff, students, alumni, and to all of our partners and friends who work with us on pressing issues in plant and environmental sciences. Enjoy this stunning photo of giant sequoias by Zane Moore, a Ph.D. student in our department, who works with Professor David Neale. Neale’s lab is sequencing the giant sequoia.

Plant Diversity a Casualty of High-Severity Wildfires

Sierra Nevada forests are losing plant diversity due to high-severity fires, according to a study from the University of California, Davis. These fires are turning patches of forest into shrub fields — indefinitely, in some cases.

The California Tree Mortality Data Collection Network — Enhanced communication and collaboration among scientists and stakeholders

An article in California Agriculture addresses how critical research is underway to understand the consequences of the massive wave of tree mortality in the Sierra Nevada. Urgent dialogue has started among UC scientists, forest managers, and public agencies to manage the consequences of the unprecedented tree die-off and increase the resiliency of forests to future droughts.

Thinning Forests, Prescribed Fire Before Drought Reduced Tree Loss

Thinning forests and conducting prescribed burns may help preserve trees in future droughts and bark beetle epidemics expected under climate change. Thinning and prescribed fires reduced the number of trees that died during the bark beetle epidemic and drought that killed more than 129 million trees across the Sierra Nevada between 2012–2016.