Environmental Engineering Reference
In-Depth Information
and fuel reduction. About 1 million hectares are shown
as having had 'restoration', with 1.6 million having
had fuel reduction only. About 73 000 hectares were
placed under 'stewardship contracts', which tend to
cover multiple activities that are restorative, including
road stabilization or decommissioning, invasive species
control, prescribed fi re and replanting (USDA and
USDI 2011 ).
Much of the work of restoring interior, fi re - adapted
forests is being done through the efforts of a multi-
agency collaboration called the
Fire Learning Network
,
started in 2002 by the US Forest Service, the US Depart-
ment of the Interior, and the Nature Conservancy.
According to a 2009 analysis, approximately 80% of
ecosystems and major habitat types are moderately to
highly departed from their respective
reference
condi-
tions as identifi ed by people working with each type of
ecosystem (Blankenship
et al
. 2009 ). This includes
ecosystems
that have experienced too little fi re, as
well as those that are experiencing too much.
In most cases, the Fire Learning Network focuses on
land areas of 400 000 ha or more, which means that
land ownership and management responsibility are
mixed, and consensus building and collaboration are
necessary (see Chapter 22). Altogether, across the
United States, over 32 million ha of land have been
brought under the aegis of the network. In 2009, the
focus was on the eastern slope of the Cascade Moun-
tains in Washington and Oregon, western Montana,
the Siskiyou Mountains of northern California and
forest land in New Mexico. The Nature Conservancy
estimates that managers will have to treat 64 000 ha
per year for decades to come, in order to work their
way through the 'backlog' of forests that need restora-
tive work.
The Fire Learning Network brings
stakeholders
together, establishes shared goals and develops an
information database. It supports implementation
projects that can range from a few hundred acres to
much larger. Typical projects include tree thinning,
brush removal, prescribed burning, livestock exclusion
fencing and reseeding with native grasses and forbs.
Each individual project is planned within a larger
landscape
-level strategy. Because this work is un-
proven, an
adaptive management
framework is
used, which allows learning and improving practices
over time. Projects are integrated with local economies,
and by-products of restoration are put to use wherever
possible.
A similar approach to collaborative forest restoration
was established by the US Congress (under Title IV of
Omnibus Public Land Management Act of 2009 -
Public Law 111-11, Sec. 4001-4004; US Congress
2009) as the Collaborative Forest Landscape Restora-
tion (CFLR) Program. The purpose of the CFLR
Program is to encourage the collaborative, science-
based ecosystem restoration of priority forest land-
scapes. It provides a means to (1) encourage ecological,
economic and social
sustainability
, (2) leverage local
resources with national and private resources, (3)
facilitate the reduction of wildfi re management costs,
including through re-establishing natural fi re regimes
and reducing the risk of uncharacteristic wildfi re, (4)
demonstrate the degree to which various ecological
restoration techniques achieve ecological and water-
shed health objectives and (5) encourage utilization
of forest restoration by-products to offset treatment
costs, benefi t local rural economies and improve forest
health.
The CFLR Program provides funding authority for
up to US$40 000 000 annually for fi scal years 2009-
2019, up to 50 percent of the cost of carrying out
and monitoring ecological restoration treatments on
National Forest System land, up to $4 million annually
for any one project, up to two projects per year in any
one Forest Service region and up to 10 projects per
year nationally. In 2010, 9 of 10 projects selected for
funding were in the western United States. In Box 13.1,
we present the Upper South Platte Watershed Project
as a case study that illustrates many of the points
raised thus far.
13.4
PERSPECTIVES
Restoring forests across a large part of a continent is a
daunting prospect. Events are changing quickly, and
there is much we simply do not and cannot know. It is
challenging for forest managers and restoration eco-
logists to stay up-to-date with current methods and
technologies. The authors have worked in the arenas
of ecology, restoration and natural resource manage-
ment for decades. Our perspectives include private and
public practice, research, teaching, writing and facili-
tating restoration efforts. We would like to offer a few
observations on the prospects and perspectives for
restoring temperate forests in western North America
by way of a synthesis of our experiences.
