Silva, LucasDeak, Alison2022-10-262022-10-262022-10-26https://hdl.handle.net/1794/27755Land managers, scientists, and policymakers have increasingly promoted and invested in prescribed fire to reduce wildfire risk and restore fire-adapted ecosystems. We investigate the amount of prescribed fire needed to meet these goals in the Siskiyou Mountains of northwest California and southwest Oregon using a forest-succession model. Specifically, we ask, how much prescribed fire is required to maintain carbon storage and reduce the severity and extent of wildfires under divergent climate change scenarios? A prescribed fire frequency of fifteen years was found adequate for maintaining carbon storage on sites. Prescribed fire lowered the severity of wildfires at a local-scale and was most effective under a warmer and wetter climate. These results suggest targeting treatments in areas with high social-ecological concern and within climactic and topographic gradients most conducive to its effects will provide opportunities to decrease the risk of high-severity fire and contribute to meeting climate mitigation goals.en-USAll Rights Reserved.Landscape ecologyPrescribed fireSimulation modelingSiskiyou MountainsElectronic Thesis or Dissertation