Wildfire Policy and Public Lands: Integrating Scientific Understanding with Social Concerns across Landscapes

Abstract

Efforts to suppress wildfires have become increasingly problematic in recent years as costs haverisen, threats to firefighter safety have escalated, and detrimental impacts to ecosystems have multiplied. Wildfires that escape initial suppression often expand into large, high-intensity summer blazes. Lost is the legacy of smaller fires that likely burned outside extreme weather and fuel conditions and resulted in less severe impacts. Despite the recognized need for modifications to existing policies and practices, resource agencies have been slow to respond. The spread of exotic species, climate change, and increasing human development in wildlands further complicates the issue. New policies are needed that integrate social and ecological needs across administrative boundaries and broad landscapes. These policies should promote a continuum of treatments with active management and reduction of fuel hazard in wildland-urban interface zones and reintroduction of fire in wildlands. Management goals should focus on restoration of the long-term ecological health of the land. Projects that reduce fuel loads but compromise the integrity of soil, water supplies, or watersheds will do more harm than good in the long run. Despite significant ecological concerns, learning to live with fire remains primarily a social issue that will require greater political leadership, agency innovation, public involvement, and community responsibility. Resumen: En años recientes, los esfuerzos para suprimir los fuegos no controlados se han vuelto cada vez más problemáticos por el incremento de costos, el aumento de las amenazas a la seguridad de bomberos y se la multiplicioń de los impactos perjudiciales a los ecosistemas. Los incendios que escapan la supresión inicial a menudo se expanden a grandes conflagraciones estivales de alta intensidad. Se ha perdido el legado de fuegos menores que probablemente se llevaban a cabo en condiciones climáticas y de combustible extremas que tenían impactos menos severos.A pesar del reconocimiento de la necesidad de modificaciones a las políticas y prácticas actuales, las agencias han respondido lentamente. La expansión de especies exóticas, el cambio climático y el incremento del desarrollo humano enáreas silvestres complican el problema aún más. Se requieren políticas nuevas que integren necesidades sociales y ecológicas más allá de límites administrativos y en paisajes amplios. Estas políticas deben promover un continuo de tratamientos con gestión activa y reducción de riesgo de combustión en la interfaseárea silvestre-urbana y la reintroducción de fuego enáreas silvestres. Las metas de la gestión deben enfocar en la restauración de la salud ecológica a largo plazo. Los proyectos que reducen la carga de combustible pero que comprometen la integridad del suelo, las reservas de agua o cuencas hidrológicas no serán de mucha utilidad en el largo plazo. A pesar de preocupaciones ecológicas

Implementation of National Fire Plan treatments near the wildland–urban interface in the western United States

“…Furthermore, the intermix, where homes are more dispersed and likely to be outside current fire protection districts and community jurisdictions, is expected to grow faster than the interface (29). Combined with these trends, our results suggest the need for a significant shift in fire-policy emphasis from federal to private lands (30), if protection of communities and private property in the wildland-urban interface remains a primary goal. Toward that end, we recommend fostering fire-adapted communities rather than increased fire protection of ever-expanding communities-at-risk in the WUI.…”

Highly episodic fire and erosion regime over the past 2,000 y in the Siskiyou Mountains, Oregon

“…Recent decades of fire suppression, logging, and dense regrowth have increased forest density regionally (9), and that increased tree density, along with longer and warmer summers, may be contributing to increased fire size and severity (10,11). The belief that recent fires, such as the 196,000-ha Biscuit Fire in 2002, were more severe than the historical norm could be used to justify managing fire hazard through thinning or prescribed fire in currently dense stands (12,13). However, some have questioned whether increased fuels from fire suppression indeed pose an increased risk of severe fire (14,15) and whether climate may override fuel as a control of fire occurrence and extent (10,16).…”

“…Tree-ring fire-scar records also are limited by their relatively short temporal depth, rarely extending before A.D. 1600 and into climatic periods that may be analogous to our current climate. Because the rationale for ecological restoration is rooted in an understanding of an historical baseline, a closer examination of the presettlement pattern and severity of fire in the Siskiyou Mountains could help set more realistic restoration target-points (12,19) and could reveal whether recent fires have been "catastrophic" or just a continuation of burn-severity patterns typical of recent centuries.…”

Forest Economics, Natural Disturbances and the New Ecology

“…This approach is evidenced in the recent paradigm shift in fire management (Dombeck et al 2004). The long standing '10 a.m." policy that sought to control all wildfires by the morning after they were first detected focused on direct control of the fast variable (fire) to protect lives and property and ensure a predictable supply of timber.…”