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Mimicking Nature's Fire: Restoring Fire-Prone Forests in the West

Posted on: Sunday, 26 February 2006, 03:02 CST

By Morrison, Janet A

Mimicking Nature's Fire: Restoring FireProne Forests in the West. Stephen F. Arno and Carl E. Fiedler. xvii + 256 pp. Island Press, Washington D.C. 2005. US $49.95. ISBN: 1-55963-142-2, Hardcover. ISBN: 1-55963-143-0, Paper.

Fire historically played a central role in many terrestrial ecosystems, and a century of fire suppression has caused profound changes in vegetation structure. The authors of Mimicking Nature's Fire: Restoring Fire-Prone Forests in the West have brought this understanding to bear on management of a range of forest types in the American west. Arno and Fielder show that fuel loads are too high, while shade tolerant species are increasing and competing with fire adapted species. Many western forests are in a precarious state, with frequent fire seasons producing multiple intense fires that kill valuable trees, increase forest vulnerability to insect outbreaks, cause severe erosion, and threaten human communities.

This well written book makes a compelling case for adoption of restoration forestry on a large scale to overcome these problems. The authors describe detailed, practical case studies of successful restoration projects from Arizona to British Columbia. In these projects sciencebased management typically involves selective pre- burn thinning treatments to reduce fuel loads and improve vigor of fire-adapted species, combined with prescribed fire that mimics the intensity and frequency of the historical fire regime.

The case studies are the great strength of this book. The expert authors' familiarity with restoration forestry techniques and their commitment to its goals are beautifully presented in 10 chapters that provide rich detail about projects in many forest types: pinyon- juniper, ponderosa pine-fir, giant sequoia-mixed conifer, western larch-fir, lodgepole pine, whitebark pine, and aspen-conifer. This breadth is enhanced by their inclusion of different categories of land ownership and management, including the U.S. Forest Service, private landowners, university research sites, and wilderness areas.

The book's title refers to "nature's" fire, but in most of the text the touchstone is the "historical" fire regime, which is more accurate since indigenous people regularly used fire on a landscape scale to modify ecosystems. The book barely touches on this very central aspect of fire ecology in North America, yet it gets to the core question at the heart of restoration ecology: what is the goal of a restoration and why is it the right goal? This volume is aimed at returning western forests to a state shaped by humans for thousands of years, not to some pristine state that existed before human occupation. The authors evoke these historical forest landscapes almost with reverence, describing, for example, beautiful open forests of huge fire scarred trees with a rich undergrowth of diverse herbs and grasses. This goal would be clearer if presented as mimicking historical fire and using it as an opportunity to reflect on the integration of human culture with nature.

Arno and Feidler note that so far restoration forestry is practiced only on a tiny fraction of the acres that could benefit. The widespread adoption of restoration forestry clearly is not blocked by a lack of scientific knowledge, as the studies outlined in the book show. The obstacles are political. The authors look in this direction at the end of the book but it is just a tantalizing taste of this important part of the story. This book is focused on the scientific side of restoration forestry, but it is impossible to contemplate its future without full acknowledgement of the political problems ahead.-JANET A. MORRISON, Dept. of Biology, College of New Jersey, P. O. Box 7718, Ewing, NJ 08628.

JANET A. MORRISON, Dept. of Biology, College of New Jersey, P. O. Box 7718, Ewing, NJ 08628.

Copyright Torrey Botanical Society Oct-Dec 2005

Source: Journal of the Torrey Botanical Society

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