Toward integrated fire management to promote ecosystem resilience

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  Management interventions for addressing invading annual grasses and encroaching conifers and their effects on fire dynamics in the sagebrush ecosystem are largely reactive.

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  Reactive management limits tools for promoting long-term ecosystem resilience on a fire-prone landscape.

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  We propose an integrated fire management approach in which all management activities before, during, and after wildfire are synergistic and improve long-term ecosystem response to fire.

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  Harney County Wildfire Collaborative is adapting the Potential Operational Delineations (PODs) framework to improve fire outcomes and promote values at risk in the Stinkingwater Mountains pilot project area.

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  The PODs framework serves to promote a broader geographic strategy for addressing the underlying causes of frequent and severe wildfires in the sagebrush ecosystem.