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8/2/2005
Ecological Restoration: Two Recent Studies
Ecological restoration entails an array of activities to restore the structure, function, and composition of ecosystems to something resembling their condition at some earlier, healthier time, often the time of European settlement. It includes projects and programs to remove excess vegetation from fire-adapted ecosystems and return fire to its ecological role. In effect, the combination of treatments mimics the historical role of fire in shaping fire-adapted ecosystems.
The following references are included in an article entitled, "Ecological Restoration in Montana’s Western Larch," written by Hutch Brown, a writer/editor for the USDA Forest Service and the managing editor of Fire Management Today, Washington Office, Washington, DC.
Mimicking Nature’s Fire, by Stephen F. Arno and Carl E. Fiedler (Washington, Covelo, London: Island Press, 2005), explores restoration projects across the Interior West. The authors describe ecological restoration and place it in historical perspective, then describe specific projects in a full range of fire regimes, from nonlethal through stand replacement. Ecosystems treated include pinyon–juniper, ponderosa pine–fir, giant sequoia–mixed conifer, western larch–fir, lodgepole pine, whitebark pine, and aspen–conifer. Projects are on both private and public lands, including wilderness areas. The authors describe historical site conditions, symptoms and causes of ecological degradation, and project design, implementation, and outcomes. By offering the information under a single cover, they hope to inspire restoration projects elsewhere and to help land managers plan and conduct them.
Ecological Restoration of Southwern Ponderosa Pine Forestsedited by Peter Friederici (Washington, Covelo, London: Island Press, 2003), takes an in-depth look at one of the most extensive and best known nonlethal fire regimes in the Nation: ponderosa pine in the Southwest. Sponsored by the Ecological Restoration Institute at Northern Arizona University in Flagstaff, AZ, the work comprises articles by an impressive array of scholars on a wide range of subjects related to the history, sociology, politics, and ecology of southwestern ponderosa pine. Topics range from the ecological impact of American Indians, to the history of natural resource governance in relation to science and politics, to ecological processes and functions such as fuels and fire behavior, to smoke and wildland/urban interface issues, to project monitoring and adaptive management. Lists of threatened, endangered, and sensitive species supplement an extensive section on restoring and protecting biological diversity. Though useful to anyone interested in ecological restoration, the book is an especially invaluable reference for land managers in the Southwest.
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