Fire Management in the Southern Rockies

Imagine hiking down through a deep forest of Engelmann spruce and subalpine fir on the flanks of the Continental Divide that eventually gives way to even-aged stands of dense lodgepole pine. Continue wandering down slope amidst shimmering stands of aspen and through mid-elevation forests of mixed conifer and Douglas fir. Walk on lower still through majestic groves of ponderosa pine and finally to the arid pinyon-juniper forests of our lower-elevation mesas and canyons. It is hard not to be amazed by the diversity and beauty of the forest ecosystems of the Southern Rockies—each governed by their own cycles of growth, death, and regeneration—in an intricate, interrelated system of natural processes.

Hayman forest fire, 2002. A convection column caused by high winds and low humidity (USDA Forest Service)

Wildland fire is now recognized as an essential component of these landscapes, needed to maintain the health and resiliency of these forest ecosystems. Fire is as natural and necessary as sunshine or rain. It benefits the forest in many ways—from helping to restore minerals to the soil to releasing seeds from large trees and promoting plant regeneration. Wildland fire can also slow or stop insect manifestations and renew habitat for fish and wildlife. Unfortunately, in many areas of the Southern Rockies, decades of fire suppression, along with overgrazing by livestock and widespread logging, have altered natural conditions and compromised the health of our forests. Forest types that evolved with frequent fire cycles—such as lower-elevation ponderosa pine-have been particularly impacted by these human interventions.

Forest Service worker clearing brush (Bryan Day)

To restore healthy forests, we must safely return wildland fire as a natural and necessary ecological process across the landscape. This can only be accomplished, however, if communities in the "wildland-urban interface" are protected and feel safe from wildfire risks. To that end, the SRCA Fire Subcommittee is committed to the dual goals of Community Protection and Forest Restoration.

1. Community Protection: The Forest Service's own research has shown that maintaining "defensible space" around homes in this wildland-urban interface is the most important factor in preventing tragic losses of life and property. To that end, we support efforts to "fire-wise" homes and to reduce fuels in a protection zone around communities.

2. Forest Restoration: Forest restoration, in contrast, involves taking management actions (e.g., prescribed burning, removing underbrush, or thinning small diameter trees in overstocked stands) as necessary to restore natural conditions so that natural processes such as wildland fire can be returned. Such restoration efforts should be scientifically based and tailored to each particular forest type. For example, some forests—such as high-elevation spruce-fir forests that have 100- to 300-year fire cycles—are still in their natural condition after a century of fire suppression and do not need any restoration at all. Other forests, such as lower-elevation ponderosa pine stands that have 10- to 30-year fire cycles, may need to be thinned before fire can be safely returned to the landscape.

Current Issues/Activities

In order to achieve the goal of returning fire to fire-dependent ecosystems in a socially acceptable manner, SRCA's Fire Subcommittee is pursuing several solution-based strategies.

Promoting Community Protection
The SRCA Fire Subcommittee works to protect communities by supporting prescribed fire and fuel reduction efforts around communities, and working to ensure adequate federal funding for these efforts. We actively engage decision-makers at all levels, from Congressional Representatives to municipal officials, in promoting this priority of community protection. We also work directly with communities, emergency management teams, and land management agencies to plan and implement sound risk reduction projects. The Fire Subcommittee helps to provide opportunities for education, training, and participation in fuel reduction projects for home and property owners. Recognizing that forest fire risk mitigation around communities needs to be a collaborative effort between agencies and local citizens, we work with and encourage land managers to focus their efforts in the wildland-urban interface and reduce fuel loads on public lands near communities.

Promoting Forest Restoration and Defending Wild Forests
Unfortunately, some have capitalized on the public's understandable fear of fire to promote scientifically unsound, unnecessary, or even wasteful logging projects in the name of reducing fire risks. Sometimes these logging projects are proposed for pristine roadless areas in the backcountry far from homes or involve cutting big fire-resistant trees, and therefore have little to do with restoring natural conditions or protecting communities. The SRCA Fire Subcommittee highlights for the public the difference between fire projects that are necessary and beneficial from those which are wasteful and unnecessary, and works with the Forest Service to pursue scientifically sound forest management activities on our public lands.

The SRCA Fire Committee will continue to be an active and vocal advocate for positive changes in fire management strategies throughout the region and nationally.