Fire as a Restoration Tool in Pacific Northwest Prairies and Oak Woodlands: Challenges, Successes, and Future Directions

Abstract

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Restoring Invaded Pacific Northwest Prairies: Management Recommendations from a Region-Wide Experiment

“…Relying on any one treatment is likely to produce disappointing results. For example, widespread efforts to reintroduce fire into WPG prairie systems (Hamman et al 2011) may succeed in controlling invasive shrubs, but may not achieve goals of increased native diversity unless accompanied by glyphosate application and native seeding. Only when prescriptions employ strategically selected treatment combinations which are repeatedly applied over time, is the likelihood of success significantly enhanced.…”

Climate Change Impacts on Western Pacific Northwest Prairies and Savannas

“…Additionally, and maybe more controversially, managers may want to consider using prescribed fire to pre-adapt areas to projected increases in fire frequency. Prescribed fire is only now beginning to be widely utilized in prairies and oak savannas (Hamman et al 2011). Fire managers may wish to consider higher fire frequencies on small portions of protected sites to help promote projected changes in communities, while still protecting firesensitive target species such as butterflies.…”

Escaping social-ecological traps through tribal stewardship on national forest lands in the Pacific Northwest, United States of America

“…Fire suppression has reduced the occurrence of both high-severity, stand-replacing fire, especially in moist forests, as well as low-severity fires, especially in dry forests (Miller et al 2012, Reilly et al 2017). These changes in fire Ecology and Society 23(2): 10 https://www.ecologyandsociety.org/vol23/iss2/art10/ regime have facilitated widespread encroachment and densification by shade-tolerant conifers and degraded the quality of hardwood stands in forests and woodlands, grasslands and wetlands, and coast redwood (Sequoia sempervirens) forests (Zald 2009, Engber et al 2011, Hamman et al 2011. For tribes, an important consequence has been declines in shade-intolerant, or disturbance-dependent understory plants and fungi used for food, fiber, and medicine, including various berries, camas, morels (Morchella spp.…”

“…Many hardwoods such as oaks, madrone (Arbutus menziesii), and bigleaf maple (Acer macrophyllum) also form valued large, old trees, although they depend upon fire to deter conifers from overtopping them. Research has demonstrated that burning, digging, thinning, trimming, weeding, and other interventions are important for sustaining the productivity and availability of many edible berries, Ecology and Society 23(2): 10 https://www.ecologyandsociety.org/vol23/iss2/art10/ roots, mushrooms, and seeds, along with other ecocultural resources that come from early successional forest openings or persistent nonforest communities (Turner and Cocksedge 2001, Wray and Anderson 2003, Peter and Shebitz 2006, Hamman et al 2011, Turner et al 2011, Anderson and Lake 2013. These communities support animals, including deer (Odocoileus spp.…”