Treesearch

One of the key limitations in implementing ecosystem management is a lack of accurate information on how forest landscapes have developed over time, reflecting both pre-Euroamerican landscapes and those resulting from more recent disturbance regimes. Landscape patterns are of great importance to the maintenance of biodiversity in general, and particularly in relation to wildlife habitat (Noss and Cooperrider 1994). The study of historical landscape patterns and forest structures can give land managers insight into understanding large-scale temporal and spatial stand dynamics. Historical...

The decision to include the fire process as part of a restoration treatment for a particular forest site is most logically made in conjunction with the decision for a silvicultural treatment. In other words, forest managers do not typically wait to visually or quantitatively evaluate the post harvest site before deciding whether or not to apply fire. Each phase of the restoration effort can effectively relieve only certain aspects of forest problems. So, silviculture and fire are complementary.

Over the past century, policies related to the management of fire in U.S. National Parks have evolved fiom efforts to eliminate all fire to recognition of the importance of restoring and maintaining fire as a natural ecological process. Prior to their formal designation by Congress, most National Parks had experienced thousands of years of periodic fire. Long-term interactions of climate, vegetation, and fire are largely responsible for shaping the ecosystems that most parks were established to protect.

Public support is important to all restoration efforts on public lands. Some types of restoration activities are easier for the public to support than others. Restoring wetlands, habitat restoration for salmon or burrowing owls, and vegetative rehabilitation are generally acceptable practices. Most restoration projects and activities such as these do not have much direct impact on people. However, restoring ecological processes, such as fire, is a different story. In this paper, I describe the challenges of restoring fire to the forest. I share.some of the opinions of people in the...

Whitebark pine (Pinus albicaulis) is a major tree species of upper subalpine forests of the northern Rocky Mountains (Schmidt and McDonald 1990). It is an important nutritional and structural component of wildlife habitat (Arno and Hoff 1990; Schmidt and McDonald 1990). Its large, nutlike seeds are a major food source for many birds and mammals (about 105 species) including squirrels, black and grizzly bears, and Clark's nutcrackers (Hutchins and Lanner 1982). The species protects watersheds by stabilizing soil and rock on the harshest sites and by catching and securing snowpack. Historical...

The 26 papers in this document address the current knowledge of fire as a disturbance agent, fire history and fire regimes, applications of prescribed fire for ecological restoration, and the effects of fire on the various forested ecosystems of the north-western United States. The main body of this document is organized in three sections: Assessing Needs for Fire in Restoration; Restoration of Fire in Inland Forests; and Restoration in Pacific Westside Forests. These papers comprise the proceedings from a general technical conference at the 1995 Annual Meeting of the Society for Ecological...

A primary goal of restoration treatments in ponderosa pine (Pinus ponderosa)/fir forests is to create more open stand structures, thereby improving tree vigor and reducing vulnerability to insects, disease, and severe fire. An additional goal in some stands is to manipulate existing species composition and site conditions to favor regeneration of ponderosa pine and other sera1 species.

Fire management's integration into land management planning is critical to the successful management of nearly all wildland ecosystems, including westside forests, which lie west of the Cascade crest in Oregon and the northern coastal ranges in California. Restoration and maintenance of fire as an ecosystem process is critical to retention of biological diversity and ecosystem sustainability. Knowledge of the natural roles of fire across the landscape, the effects,of wildfire and prescribed fire, and the levels of risk of large-scale, high-severity fire, as well as the effects of fire...

Elimination of the historic pattern of frequent low-intensity fires in ponderosa pine and pine-mixed conifer forests has resulted in major ecological disruptions. Prior to 1900, open stands of large, long-lived, fire-resistant ponderosa pine were typical. These were accompanied in some areas by other fire-dependent species such as western larch. Today, as a result of fire exclusion, most stands have dense thickets of small trees and are experiencing insect and disease epidemics and severe wildfires. These forests cover about 40 million acres in the Western United States and are the focus...

Forest Service Research Natural Areas are established to preserve examples of all significant natural ecosystems for comparison with those influenced andlor managed by humans, to provide educational and research areas for ecological and environmental studies, and to preserve gene pools for typical and rare and endangered species. The Research Natural Area program in the Northern Rockies and Pacific Northwest regions attempts to protect a wide spectrum of terrestrial and aquatic communities in their "natural" state. At least 79 of the 246 established and proposed Research Natural Areas in...