Functional group cover and treatment data for 13 sites in the Great Basin with reburn history

Land management treatments in sagebrush steppe are an important opportunity to break the annual-grass fire cycle, provided they offer long-lasting resistance to annual-grass invasion and do not burn. However, for BLM areas seeded as part of the Emergency Stabilization and Rehabilitation (ESR) program, one of the largest programs for land management treatments, about 1/4 have at least partially reburned over the last 30 years, according to a recent study. Reburning of treatments can cause a loss of investment if fire-intolerant perennials do not recover and/or significant invasions occur, in which case the risks of wildfire are compounded by increased potential for ecological degradation. Alternatively, recovery of fire-tolerant perennials occurs naturally or due to treatments would represent a significant return on prior investment and the occurrence of fire would thus pose reduced ecological hazard risks. Fire risks are highly variable across sagebrush landscapes, owing to variability in fuel loading, ignition potential, and fire transmission. Information is needed on predicting future risks related to reburning - including post-fire hazards related to ecological degradation - for past land management investments to a) identify protection measures that could be applied now, and b) help design and positioning of future treatment investments to minimize their risk of reburning in ways that cause ecological degradation. This dataset was compiled in order to predict reburn risk to areas that had previously burned and were retreated.