Morpho: Fire impacts to ecosystem services in the US West: Does prescribed burning work, for what and for whom?

Increasing wildfire severity and frequency in the Western US are escalating social, ecological, and economic risks. Prescribed burning – the intentional application of fire to the landscape to achieve management goals – is a key adaptation strategy to reduce risks from wildfire; however, monitoring and evaluating effectiveness of prescribed burning remains a challenge. In addition, current models of ecosystem services (ESs) do not consider events like fire, despite the potential impacts. These knowledge gaps impede guidance on best management practices, which are urgently needed. In response, we propose to synthesize existing information on the impacts of prescribed fire on three critical ESs in Colorado and California: carbon sequestration, recreation, and water yield. We propose a working group that will employ co-production processes with regional stakeholders. We will produce harmonized datasets to evaluate the impact of prescribed fire and use these estimates to update ES models to include the impacts of prescribed and wildland fire. We will develop practitioner briefs and best practices guidance on prescribed burn implementation at the state level. Our results will identify co-benefits and tradeoffs from prescribed burning across multiple ES and directly benefit the wildfire management community by informing where, when, and for whom prescribed burning is effective.