Date of Award:

12-2026

Document Type:

Thesis

Degree Name:

Master of Science (MS)

Department:

Wildland Resources

Committee Chair(s)

Larissa L. Yocom (Committee Chair), Eric M. LaMalfa (Committee Co-Chair)

Committee

Larissa L. Yocom

Committee

Eric M. LaMalfa

Committee

J. Bradley Washa

Abstract

Wildfire is a natural part of Utah’s landscapes, but as wildfires become more extreme and communities continue to expand into wildland areas, it is increasingly important to understand how wildfires behave and how their negative effects can be mitigated. One way to reduce wildfire risks and protect life, property, and ecosystem services is through fuel treatments — actions that reduce the amount and arrangement of flammable vegetation through mechanical removal, wildland fire, or other methods.

Information on wildfire behavior and fuel treatments is abundant but often scattered, ecosystem-specific and difficult to access. In addition, most research in the Western U.S. has focused on conifer forests, leaving other vegetation types understudied. This research addresses these gaps by summarizing wildfire and fuel treatment information for Utah and examining how fuels treatments and wildfire affect wildlands dominated by Gambel oak and bigtooth maple.

Chapter II presents a practical guide to wildfire and fuel management in Utah. It explains how fire is influenced by vegetation, weather, and terrain, and describes the most common methods used to reduce fuels in Utah. Treatments can be applied alone or in combination to reduce fire risk, reduce fire severity, or improve ecosystem health. The guide also highlights planning considerations and resources available from state and federal agencies.

Chapter III examines what happens to vegetation after mechanical fuel treatments and subsequent wildfire in an oak-maple ecosystem. We studied 112 plots across treated and untreated, burned and unburned areas. Overall, woody regeneration was similar across treatments and fire history, but unburned, untreated areas had the most aboveground biomass and burned, treated areas had the least. Plant diversity increased after fire, and treated areas tended to have more non-native plants. These findings show that treatments and wildfire can have complex effects on vegetation, influencing both recovery and long-term ecosystem health.

Together, these chapters improve public understanding of wildfire and fuel management strategies and provide land managers with post-fire insights to guide future treatments in oak–maple ecosystems.

Creative Commons License

Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial 4.0 License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial 4.0 License

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