Managing fire-prone forests in the western United States

within the national forests of the west, is one of the most contentious natural resource issues in the US today. One recent response to the controversy is the Healthy Forests Restoration Act (HFRA) of 2003 (Public Law 108-V148). This law has potentially profound consequences for forests and their biodiversity and must therefore be implemented on the basis of the best scientific information and guidance. Towards this end, the North American Section of the Society for Conservation Biology convened a scientific panel to review issues related to the ecology and management of fire-prone forests of the western US. This article is adapted from the unpublished report of that panel (Noss et al. 2006a). The vegetation of North America has been shaped by recurring fires over millions of years. Fossils of pines (Pinus spp), which are closely associated with fire, date from the Cretaceous Period, more than 100 million years ago (Millar 1998). Fire remains the primary natural disturbance influencing plant and animal communities across much of the continent today (Habeck and Mutch 1973; Agee 1993). Many forests, however, have been degraded over the past century by misguided fire management, as well as other impacts such as logging and livestock grazing. Uncharacteristic fuel loads contribute to altered fire regimes in some forest types (Covington and Moore 1994; Schoennagel et al. 2004). Key structural elements (eg old “veteran” trees), terrestrial and aquatic biodiversity, and habitats of many threatened and endangered species are already greatly diminished and at continuing risk of loss. Increased human habitation of wildlands has intensified problems of managing fire, especially at the wildland–urban interface (Dombeck et al. 2004). For this paper we evaluated the scientific literature that is relevant to conservation, restoration, and management of forests in the western US (excluding Alaska). Our review addresses ecological science relevant to developing and implementing fire and fuel management policies, including activities conducted before, during, and after wildfires. Our focus is primarily on wildlands, rather than the wildland–urban interface, where ecological values may be secondary to fire-risk mitigation to protect people and homes (DellaSala et al. 2004). In wildlands especially, sustainable forest management must be based on well-grounded ecological principles.