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Abstract
Heavy grazing and timbering during settlement by Europeans, and a policy of fire exclusion shortly after caused extensive structural and compositional changes to the southwestern ponderosa pine ecosystem. These changes have resulted in forest health problems, such as increased insect and disease epidemics, reduced wildlife habitat, and a serious wildfire hazard. Prescribed burning can reduce heavy fuel accumulations, provide adequate sites for natural regeneration, thin dense stagnated thickets, and create an edaphic and stand environment conducive to better forest health and productivity. Although presettlement conditions may never be restored, forest condition and health can be improved by means of prescribed fire.
Parent Publication
Citation
Sackett, Stephen S.; Haase, Sally M.; Harrington, Michael G. 1994. Restoration of southwestern ponderosa pine ecosystems with fire. In: Covington, W. Wallace; DeBano, Leonard F. 1994. Sustainable ecological systems: implementing an ecological approach to land management. Gen. Tech. Rep. RM-247. Fort Collins, CO: U.S. Department of Agriculture, Forest Service, Rocky Mountain Forest and Range Experiment Station: 115-121.
