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Fire Chronicle #27
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Laura McCarthy, Forest Trust
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Sep 27, 2004 12:38 PDT
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FIRE CHRONICLE: Stories of the National Fire Plan
Number 27
September 27, 2004
FOREST RESTORATION THEORY TESTED IN THE FIELD
Restoration of fire-adapted forest ecosystems is based on theories from
ecological and social research. Restoration differs from fuels reduction
in that its goals pertain to the condition of entire forests and the
human communities that depend on them, whereas the goals of fuels
reduction are limited to altering fire behavior and protecting
communities. The ecological science used to inform restoration suggests
that environmental conditions can be changed through treatments that
establish conditions conducive to natural fire regimes. The social
science used in restoration suggests that residents of rural communities
want to help restore forests in part because they view restoration jobs
as important to their economy.
The National Fire Plan has funded many forest restoration projects
across the West. The results of these projects are now becoming
available. This issue of the Fire Chronicle provides a detailed look at
one New Mexico project that provides a good example of restoration that
tested the theories and generated impressive results. A description of
the project, illustrated with photographs, can be viewed by clicking
here
http://www.theforesttrust.org/whatsnew.html or the same narrative is
printed below.
Restoration of a Ponderosa Pine Forest
Restoration of the Valle Grande Grass Bank on New Mexico’s Rowe Mesa was
funded by a $256,000 grant awarded to The Four Corners Institute by the
USDA Forest Service’s Collaborative Forest Restoration Program. The idea
for the restoration project was developed by five organizations that
each contributed skills and expertise to the partnership. For example,
The Conservation Fund provided access to the grass bank, Quivira
Coalition supplied outreach expertise, Four Corners Institute
contributed specialized knowledge of restoration ecology, Forest Guild
provided ties to community-based work crews, and USDA Forest Service
provided a prescribed burning crew.
The project area included 377 acres of ponderosa pine savanna and
meadows at the southern terminus of the Sangre de Cristo Mountains in
northern New Mexico. Ecologists believe that ponderosa pine savannas
were once established on the ridges and that the savannas were separated
by large grassy meadows. Several centuries of sheep grazing on Rowe Mesa
altered the pattern of pine savanna and meadows. Then when sheep grazing
stopped after World War II, pinyon pine and juniper forests established
on the ridges and in the meadows. Therefore, the starting condition for
the restoration project, documented in baseline monitoring, was dense
forest with abundant small pinyon pine and juniper trees among larger
ponderosa pine. Understory grasses and forbs were scarce in the forested
areas, while the meadows were filled in with small pinyon and juniper.
The objectives of this project were common to those of many other forest
restoration projects. First, the team wanted to reintroduce
low-intensity fires that would foster recovery of the grassy understory,
preserve large trees, and reduce erosion. The second objective was to
make fuelwood available to nearby rural communities, thereby creating
restoration jobs for thinning and slash reduction crews. Finally, the
team wanted to improve and inform the existing ethic of ecological
stewardship among participants in the project and to foster a perception
among local residents that forest restoration will benefit their home
communities.
Real-life Challenges
Implementation of the project was conceived in four phases. First, write
a biological and archaeological study based on the Forest Service’s
management decision. Second, write the prescription and mark the stands.
Third, allow local residents seeking fuelwood to remove the marked trees
and cutting debris. Fourth, implement a prescribed burn.
The first two phases of the project went according to plan. The
prescription was developed to reduce small-diameter understory trees,
retain large and old trees, rehabilitate the understory cover, and
reintroduce low-intensity surface fire. The marking was accomplished
with a team of one Four Corners Institute scientist and foresters from
the Forest Guild and USDA Forest Service.
The third phase turned out to be far more complicated than anticipated.
The stand was marked and ready for cutting, but only a few firewood
permits were requested. After an initial waiting period, the project
partners realized that fuelwooders working alone would not implement the
prescription. The partners reviewed their grant budget and decided that
they could hire a local thinning crew to drop the marked trees. They
would then offer the downed wood for free, hoping to attract more
fuelwooders.
The treatment proceeded quickly once a thinning contractor from a local
community was hired. Within weeks of the announcement that free firewood
was available, 118 permits were issued. Fuelwooders with chainsaws and
pickup trucks came from the surrounding area and were each assigned a
small area to load firewood. The fuelwooders were allowed to drive
off-road to get to the wood. Monitoring showed that little soil
compaction resulted since each person had been assigned to a different
part of the stand and the tire tracks did not overlap.
Then a second unforeseen development cropped up. Even after the fuelwood
was removed, there was still a great deal of slash and debris left on
the site. Limbs, branches and twigs were scattered across the ground,
leaving too much ground fuel to safely light a prescribed fire. The
Forest Guild Youth Corp cleaned up half of the slash, but there was much
work left to be done, so the project partners hired a local thinning
crew. This time the crew’s job was to lop and scatter the slash, scrape
pine needles from the base of the “leave” trees, and prepare the area
for a prescribed fire.
Next Steps
The project will be finished this winter, when the 377 acres are
scheduled for a prescribed burn that is expected to move through the
stand as a low-intensity surface fire. The Pecos District of the Santa
Fe National Forest, which manages Rowe Mesa, is committed to the burn
and plans to maintain the restored forest with frequent low-intensity
prescribed fires.
Already, restoration of the Valle Grande Grass Bank is considered a
success. The prescription was developed by an experience ecologist and
focused on retaining large old trees and restoring a natural fire
regime. The local community implemented the restoration prescription,
gaining paid employment for the more difficult tasks of felling trees
and lopping slash, and using the by-products of the treatment to heat
their homes. The theory of restoration in this case turned out to be
sound.
FOR MORE INFORMATION: The restoration prescription was designed by Dr.
Melissa Savage at the Four Corners Institute, who can be contacted at
fore-@ucla.edu. The community-based work crews were organized by
Orlando Romero at orla-@theforesttrust.org. The community outreach and
education was carried out by Courtney White at the Quivira Coalition
(execu-@quiviracoalition.org). The Collaborative Forest Restoration
Program that funded the project was described in an early issue of the
Fire Chronicle (number 6, see link to past issues below).
FIRE CHRONICLE is edited by the Forest Guild. Laura McCarthy, Program
Director, wrote this issue based on interviews with the Valle Grande
Grass Bank Collaborative Forest Restoration project partners. The Forest
Guild welcomes your comments, stories, and observations about how the
national fire plan is being implemented (just send a reply message and
it will go to the list moderator). To subscribe to FIRE CHRONICLE go to
http://www.topica.com/lists/firechronicles/ or send an email message to
lau-@theforesttrust.org.
PAST ISSUES OF FIRE CHRONICLE can be downloaded from
http://www.theforesttrust.org/forest_protection.html#fire
1. 2002 Fire Plan Appropriations will Benefit from 2001 Experience
2. Wildland-Urban Interface Definition a Barrier to Accountability
3. Stewardship Blocks: Innovative Tool Brings Fire Plan Benefits into
Community
4. Youth Training Needed for Fire Plan to Benefit Local Workforce
5. Grants Get National Fire Plan Money into Communities
6. Collaborative Forest Restoration Program Creates New Solution to
Gridlock
7. Permits Regulate Prescribed Burning on Private Land
8. Accountability Remains a Key Issue for National Fire Plan
9. National Partnership Advances Landscape-Scale Forest Restoration
10. Poor Communities Most Threatened By Wildfire
11. A New Model to Fire-Proof Forest Homes
12. Consensus Over Fuel Reduction Treatment Dissolves
13. Wildland Urban Interface Definition Needed for Effective Policy
14. Funding Gaps Prevent Completion of Hazardous Fuel Reduction
15. Agencies Propose to Streamline Environmental Review for Hazardous
Fuel Reduction Treatments
16. National Fire Plan Provides Economic Opportunity for Rural Residents
17. Bark Beetles Heighten Wildfire Concerns
18. Small And Local Businesses Cite Barriers To Reaching National Fire
Plan Goals
19. Federal Report Fuels Public Debate Over Healthy Forests Act
20. New Report Evaluates Efficacy Of Fuel Reduction Treatments
21. Slow Progress to Set Treatment Priorities for National Fire Plan
22. Better Accounting of Fuels Reduction is Needed
23. Scientists Tell Agencies: “Salvage of Dead Pinyon Pine may be
Counterproductive”
24. Policy Evaluation: The State of the National Fire Plan
25. Agencies Implement Promising New Science-Based Accounting System
26. Report Describes Fuel Treatments For Southwestern Ponderosa Pine
Forests
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