Wildfire and Forest Resistance and Resilience

Dear Colleagues,

Wildfire is a planetary phenomenon that shapes ecosystems and is fundamentally linked to vegetation growth through its effects on soils; indeed, fire is a recognized pedogenetic (soil-forming) factor and historically enabled agriculture and grazing. With the notable exception of polar environments (Arctic and Antarctic), most terrestrial ecosystems experience fire with varying regularity, and many systems, such as Mediterranean-climate regions (e.g., the Mediterranean Basin and California) and temperate conifer forests (e.g., the western United States), cannot be understood without the long presence of fire.

During the 20th century, however, widespread suppression policies, shifts in population and land use, the expansion of industrial monospecific plantations (e.g., Pinus or Eucalyptus), and climate-driven increases in drought frequency and duration have disrupted historical fire regimes. The result in some regions has been more extensive and led to severe wildfire, including mega-fires that cause loss of life and major economic impacts and that can overwhelm ecosystem resilience and natural recovery.

This Special Issue of Forests focuses on restoration in two complementary senses: (1) post-fire recovery of soils, vegetation, fauna, hydrology, and landscape function; and (2) restoring fire regimes through cultural/prescribed burning, fuel and stand treatments, and pyrodiverse mosaics that reduce risk and rebuild resilience. We welcome international contributions spanning field experiments, remote sensing, modeling, and socio-ecological approaches that translate mechanisms into effective, climate-ready management and policy.

Papers cover a wide range of topics of interest, which include, but are not limited to, the following:

• Post-fire rehabilitation and ecosystem restoration;
• Restoration of fire regimes (cultural/indigenous and prescribed burning);
• Stand and fuel treatments for resilience to wildfires (ecological thinning and mosaic design);
• Soil and pedogenesis after fire (hydrophobicity, nutrients, microbiome);
• Vegetation recovery and regeneration pathways;
• Hydrology, erosion, and watershed restoration;
• Mapping severity and monitoring recovery (field indicators and remote sensing);
• Risk assessment and climate-ready restoration planning;
• Decision support and adaptive management for restoration;
• Community, equity, and socioeconomic dimensions of restoration;
• Governance, prevention, and multi-agency coordination aligned to restoration;
• Effectiveness, cost, and long-term monitoring of restoration interventions.

Dr. Marcos Francos
Dr. Víctor Fernández-García
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 250 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for assessment.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Forests is an international peer-reviewed open access monthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2600 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.