Managing Wildfire for Whitebark Pine Ecosystem Restoration in western North America

Wildfire in declining whitebark pine forests can be a tool for ecosystem restoration or an ecologically harmful event. This document presents a set of possible wildfire management practices for facilitating the restoration of whitebark pine across its range in Western North America. These management...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Published in:Forests Vol. 9; no. 10; p. 648
Main Author: Keane, Robert E.
Format: Journal Article
Language:English
Published: Basel MDPI AG 18.10.2018
Subjects:
Bears
Burning
Climate change
Coniferous forests
Ecological monitoring
ecological restoration
Ecosystem management
Ecosystem restoration
Ecosystems
Environmental restoration
Evergreen trees
Forest & brush fires
fuels (fire ecology)
Management
monitoring
National parks
North America
Pine
Pine trees
Pinus albicaulis
planting
prescribed burning
Prescribed fire
Research centers
Rust fungi
Seedlings
Success
Wildfires
wildland fire use
Washington DC
United States > US
North America
Pacific Northwest
ISSN:1999-4907, 1999-4907
Online Access:Get full text
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
Description
Summary:Wildfire in declining whitebark pine forests can be a tool for ecosystem restoration or an ecologically harmful event. This document presents a set of possible wildfire management practices for facilitating the restoration of whitebark pine across its range in Western North America. These management actions are designed to enhance whitebark pine resilience and health, while also being effective wildfire management measures. The actions are presented by the three phases of the wildfire continuum: Before, during, and after a wildfire. Current pre-wildfire restoration actions, such as mechanical thinning’s, prescribed burning, and fuel treatments, can also be designed to be fuel treatment activities that allow more effective suppression of wildfires when needed. Three wildfire strategies can be implemented while the wildfire is burning—full suppression, partial suppression, and wildland fire use (letting some fires burn under acceptable conditions)—for protecting valuable whitebark pine trees and for ecosystem restoration. Finally, post-wildfire activities include planting rust-resistant seedlings and monitoring effects of the wildfires. Recommended wildfire management practices for the wildfire continuum are specified by region, site type, and stand type in the last section of this paper.
Bibliography:ObjectType-Article-1
SourceType-Scholarly Journals-1
ObjectType-Feature-2
content type line 14
content type line 23
ISSN:1999-4907
1999-4907
DOI:10.3390/f9100648