Managing fire-prone forests in the western United States

The management of fire-prone forests is one of the most controversial natural resource issues in the US today, particularly in the west of the country. Although vegetation and wildlife in these forests are adapted to fire, the historical range of fire frequency and severity was huge. When fire regimes are altered by human activity, major effects on biodiversity and ecosystem function are unavoidable. We review the ecological science relevant to developing and implementing fire and fuel management policies for forests before, during, and after wildfires. Fire exclusion led to major deviations from historical variability in many dry, low-elevation forests, but not in other forests, such as those characterized by high severity fires recurring at intervals longer than the period of active fire exclusion. Restoration and management of fire-prone forests should be precautionary, allow or mimic natural fire regimes as much as possible, and generally avoid intensive practices such as post-fire logging and planting.

[1]  Jerry F. Franklin,et al.  Beyond Smoke and Mirrors: a Synthesis of Fire Policy and Science , 2004 .

[2]  Jan L. Beyers,et al.  Postfire Seeding for Erosion Control: Effectiveness and Impacts on Native Plant Communities , 2004 .

[3]  W. Romme,et al.  Historical Perspective on the Yellowstone Fires of 1988A reconstruction of prehistoric fire history reveals that comparable fires occurred in the early 1700s , 1989 .

[4]  Donald McKenzie,et al.  Climatic Change, Wildfire, and Conservation , 2004 .

[5]  J. Franklin,et al.  Fire and Other Disturbances of the Forests in Mount Rainier National Park , 1982, Quaternary Research.

[6]  C. Barton,et al.  Ecological Restoration , 2005 .

[7]  Michael D. Dettinger,et al.  CLIMATE AND WILDFIRE IN THE WESTERN UNITED STATES , 2003 .

[8]  Robert W. Mutch,et al.  Fire-Dependent Forests in the Northern Rocky Mountains , 1973, Quaternary Research.

[9]  S. Arno.  Fire in Western Forest Ecosystems , 2000 .

[10]  R. L. Hutto.  Composition of Bird Communities Following Stand-Replacement Fires in Northern Rocky Mountain (U.S.A.) Conifer Forests. , 1995, Conservation Biology.

[11]  R. Beschta,et al.  Postfire Management on Forested Public Lands of the Western United States , 2004 .

[12]  R. Beschta,et al.  The Effects of Postfire Salvage Logging on Aquatic Ecosystems in the American West , 2004 .

[13]  P. Hessburg,et al.  Dry forests and wildland fires of the inland Northwest USA: Contrasting the landscape ecology of the pre-settlement and modern eras , 2005 .

[14]  Jerry F. Franklin,et al.  Forest Restoration and Fire: Principles in the Context of Place , 2004 .

[15]  C. Allen,et al.  ECOLOGICAL RESTORATION OF SOUTHWESTERN PONDEROSA PINE ECOSYSTEMS: A BROAD PERSPECTIVE , 2002 .

[16]  A. J. Belsky,et al.  Effects of Livestock Grazing on Stand Dynamics and Soils in Upland Forests of the Interior West , 1997 .

[17]  M. Turner,et al.  Surprises and lessons from the 1988 Yellowstone fires , 2003 .

[18]  W. Baker,et al.  DISTURBANCE AND STAND DYNAMICS IN PONDEROSA PINE FORESTS IN ROCKY MOUNTAIN NATIONAL PARK, USA , 2003 .

[19]  W. Romme,et al.  The Interaction of Fire, Fuels, and Climate across Rocky Mountain Forests , 2004 .

[20]  T. Kitzberger,et al.  Climatic and human influences on fire regimes in ponderosa pine forests in the Colorado Front Range. , 2000 .

[21]  A. Taylor,et al.  SPATIAL PATTERNS AND CONTROLS ON HISTORICAL FIRE REGIMES AND FOREST STRUCTURE IN THE KLAMATH MOUNTAINS , 2003 .

[22]  C. Skinner.  Change in spatial characteristics of forest openings in the Klamath Mountains of northwestern California, USA , 1995, Landscape Ecology.

[23]  Z. Gedalof,et al.  ATMOSPHERIC, CLIMATIC, AND ECOLOGICAL CONTROLS ON EXTREME WILDFIRE YEARS IN THE NORTHWESTERN UNITED STATES , 2005 .

[24]  P. Beier,et al.  Recommendations for Integrating Restoration Ecology and Conservation Biology in Ponderosa Pine Forests of the Southwestern United States , 2006 .

[25]  M. Savage,et al.  Early 19th‐Century Fire Decline Following Sheep Pasturing in a Navajo Ponderosa Pine Forest , 1990 .

[26]  T. Spies,et al.  Conserving Old‐Growth Forest Diversity in Disturbance‐Prone Landscapes , 2006, Conservation biology : the journal of the Society for Conservation Biology.

[27]  W. Baker,et al.  Nonequilibrium Dynamics between Catastrophic Disturbances and Old‐Growth Forests in Ponderosa Pine Landscapes of the Black Hills , 1997 .

[28]  Peter Z. Fulé,et al.  Restoring Ecosystem Health in Ponderosa Pine Forests of the Southwest , 1997, Journal of Forestry.

[29]  D R Foster,et al.  Salvage Harvesting Policies After Natural Disturbance , 2004, Science.

[30]  M. Kaufmann,et al.  Heterogeneity in ponderosa pine/Douglas-fir forests: age and size structure in unlogged and logged landscapes of central Colorado , 2000 .

[31]  John A. Stanturf.  What is forest restoration , 2005 .

[32]  J. Agee,et al.  SPATIAL CONTROLS OF HISTORICAL FIRE REGIMES: A MULTISCALE EXAMPLE FROM THE INTERIOR WEST, USA , 2001 .

[33]  R. L. Hutto,et al.  CHANGES IN BIRD ABUNDANCE AFTER WILDFIRE: IMPORTANCE OF FIRE SEVERITY AND TIME SINCE FIRE , 2005 .

[34]  J. Agee.  Fire Ecology of Pacific Northwest Forests , 1993 .

[35]  T. Schoennagel,et al.  Ecology and Management of Fire-prone Forests of the Western United States , 2006 .

[36]  R. S. Rummell.  Some Effects of Livestock Grazing on Ponderosa Pine Forest and Range in Central Washington , 1951 .

[37]  W. Shepperd,et al.  Long-term, landscape patterns of past fire events in a montane ponderosa pine forest of central Colorado , 1999, Landscape Ecology.

[38]  Max A. Moritz,et al.  Patterns of Fire Severity and Forest Conditions in the Western Klamath Mountains, California , 2004 .

[39]  J. Agee.  The landscape ecology of western forest fire regimes , 1998 .

[40]  Margaret M. Moore,et al.  Southwestern Ponderosa Forest Structure: Changes Since Euro-American Settlement , 1994, Journal of Forestry.

[41]  Christopher A. Wood,et al.  Wildfire Policy and Public Lands: Integrating Scientific Understanding with Social Concerns across Landscapes , 2004 .

[42]  W. Baker,et al.  A fire history of a subalpine forest in south‐eastern Wyoming, USA , 2000 .

[43]  J. Pierce,et al.  Fire-induced erosion and millennial-scale climate change in northern ponderosa pine forests , 2004, Nature.

[44]  J. Rechel.  After the Fires: The Ecology of Change in Yellowstone National Park , 2006, Landscape Ecology.

[45]  Geneva W. Chong,et al.  A 21st Century Perspective on Postfire Seeding , 2006 .

[46]  B. Law,et al.  Post-Wildfire Logging Hinders Regeneration and Increases Fire Risk , 2006, Science.

[47]  Scott L. Stephens,et al.  Fire regimes of mixed conifer forests in the north-central Sierra Nevada at multiple spatial scales , 2004 .

[48]  D. Lindenmayer,et al.  Salvage Logging, Ecosystem Processes, and Biodiversity Conservation , 2006, Conservation biology : the journal of the Society for Conservation Biology.

[49]  Dorothy M. Martin,et al.  Saving the Forests , 1955 .