Restoring Ecosystem Health in Frequent-Fire Forests of the American West - Design with the Desert: Conservation and Sustainable Development - page 226

12.4.4 Acting Swiftly, but Prudently
We need to act swiftly, but with great care, to solve this forest crisis. If we do not, even
greater problems will be left for our children and grandchildren. The best way to do this is
to follow a scientifically rigorous, environmentally responsible, and socially and politically
sound approach. Collaborative approaches where local interests are well represented are
most likely to result in projects which meet these criteria.
We must work to understand the underlying disease and treat it at all levels. Piecemeal
solutions will only treat the symptoms and not the causes. We also must work quickly
to engage all the scientific and political will possible because time is not on our side.
According to a U.S. General Accounting Office report, 9 the country is already spending
more than 90% of its fire suppression monies fighting fires in ponderosa pine and dry
mixed conifer forests in the West. Scientific evidence supports the prediction that if we do
nothing, the number, size, severity, and costs of wildfires in these dry western forests will
only increase. This problem could be further compounded if large-scale infestations of
pine beetle occur along with catastrophic fires, as they already have in northern Arizona.
12.5 Recommendations
With these ideas in mind, I would like to make the following recommendations:
Design treatments starting with solid science, set standards for effectiveness, and measure progress :
Research indicates that alternative fuel reduction treatments have strikingly different con-
sequences not just for fire behavior but also for biodiversity, wildlife habitat, tree vigor, and
forest health. Treatment design should be based on maintaining overall ecosystem health
and reducing catastrophic fire. Science-based guidelines should be developed and become
the foundation for treatments. In addition, they should be the criteria for evaluating the
effectiveness of treatments. Guidelines will help managers design, implement, and monitor
restoration treatments, and provide a base of certainty to those distrustful of land manage-
ment agencies. The standard should be clear—if a treatment does not permit the safe reintro-
duction of fire and simultaneously facilitate the restoration of the forest, it is not a solution.
Reduce conflict by using an adaptive management framework to design, implement, and improve
treatments :
We can wait no longer. Solutions to catastrophic wildfire must be tested and refined in
a “learning while doing” mode. 10 Two of the barriers preventing the implementation of
landscape scale treatments are the unrealistic desire for scientific certainty and a fear that
once an action is selected it becomes a permanent precedent for future management. In the
first place, scientific certainty will never exist. Second, the past century of forest manage-
ment demonstrates the need for applied research and active adaptation of management
approaches using current knowledge. We should expand our environmental review pro-
cess to provide approval of a series of iterative treatments provided they are science based,
actively monitored, and committed to building from lessons learned and new information.
Rebuild public trust in land management agencies by continuing to support a broad variety of
partnership approaches for planning and implementing restoration-based fuel treatments :
The lack of trust that exists between some members of the public and land management
agencies is the genesis for obstructionist actions. A fundamental way to rebuild trust is to