Wednesday, November 15, 2017 The Nugget Newspaper, Sisters, Oregon 21
Forests are denser and more vulnerable to fire
CORVALLIS — While
large fires have had dramatic
impacts in some Pacific
Northwest forests, only about
10 percent of the forested
lands in the eastern Cascades
have burned in the last 30
years, and young trees and
dense forests are continuing
to grow at a rate that outstrips
losses from disturbance.
As a result, many forests
across this region are becom-
ing denser. Efforts to reduce
their vulnerability to future
high-severity fires — through
tree thinning, prescribed burn-
ing and harvesting — have
had little overall effect on
forest structural conditions
across the region as whole.
Those are among the
results of a comprehensive
analysis of forest struc-
ture and biodiversity based
on satellite imagery and
on-the-ground field work
in the eastern Cascades of
Washington, Oregon and
Northern California from
1985 to 2010. Matthew Reilly,
a former Ph.D. student in the
College of Forestry at Oregon
State University led the
study, which was published
in the journal Ecological
Applications. Reilly is now
a post-doctoral scientist at
Humboldt State University.
Large fires in highly visible
places such as the Columbia
Gorge, Santiam Pass and the
Northern California wine
region capture public atten-
tion, said Reilly, but are not
representative of what’s hap-
pening across the whole
region. “We become fixated
on losses associated with tree
mortality and fire, but the
gains from new growth are
really important. They have
the potential to offset those
losses. This study zooms out
beyond the perimeter of recent
fires and considers them in the
context of what else is going
on in the forests and wood-
lands east of the Cascades.”
For forest managers, the
findings emphasize the trade-
offs between two goals: dense
forests that provide habitat
for threatened species such
as the northern spotted owl;
and more open-canopy forest
ecosystems that scientists call
early seral (the youngest stage
in forest development) with
large, thick-barked trees that
are considered less vulnerable
to high-severity fire.
Reilly and his team ana-
lyzed patterns of landscape
change and low-, medium-
and high-intensity fire in
three zones — the warm, dry
zone dominated by ponder-
osa pine; areas comprised of
mixed-conifer species such
as ponderosa pine, Douglas
fir and white and grand fir;
and high-elevation subalpine
forests with extensive areas
of lodgepole pine. The study
covered private as well as
public lands, including the
network set aside in 1994 by
the Northwest Forest Plan,
known as “late successional
reserves.”
Forests in the reserves
comprise about 8 percent of
the 10.5-million-acre study
area and burned at a higher
rate than did forests outside
that system. About 15 percent
of the network burned during
the study period.
Subalpine forests grow
at the highest elevations and
comprise only 9 percent of
the study area. But among
the three vegetation zones,
these areas took a dispropor-
tionally large hit from fire.
About 30 percent of that
zone burned during the study
period. Fires in Washington
in 2006 accounted for most
of the total area burned, about
half of which was high sever-
ity. However, these sorts of
events may be similar to his-
torical fire activity, and some
high-elevation species, espe-
cially lodgepole pine, are very
PHOTO BY ANDREW MERSCHEL
Dense forest stand in the Deschutes National Forest.
resilient to fire, said Reilly.
In contrast, less than 10
percent of the mixed conifer
and ponderosa pine forests
burned. Although a third of
the area burned was classi-
fied as high severity, one of
the major threats to biodiver-
sity in these zones continues
to be a deficit of low- and
moderate-severity fire, which
historically maintained open,
mature forest habitats and
resilience to drought and high-
severity fire.
“When you pull fire out
of the picture, the forests are
getting denser,” said Reilly.
“There’s a push for restora-
tion activities such as thin-
ning and prescribed fire to
make the forests more resil-
ient. And there has been some
really good work done on the
ground, but it’s a drop in the
bucket. It’s hardly enough to
nudge things in the direction
of the way we think things
were historically and towards
landscape-wide conditions
that are likely to be more resil-
ient to drought and fire.”
In the future, he added,
scientists expect climate
change to produce warmer
and drier conditions, lead-
ing to decreased growth, a
longer fire season and an
increased risk of fire. “It’s
very uncertain how much
more, but as droughts increase
in frequency and length, we’ll
need to reassess the capac-
ity of forests in the region to
absorb these disturbances,”
he said. “Continued moni-
toring will be essential to
understand the impacts of
these disturbances on our
landscapes.”
Groups ask
governor
to reopen
wolf killing
investigation
PORTLAND (AP) —
More than a dozen conser-
vation groups have asked
Oregon Gov. Kate Brown’s
office to reopen an investiga-
tion into the Oct. 27 killing
of a wolf by a hunter who
claimed self-defense.
The
Oregonian /
OregonLive reports sixteen
groups made the request
Thursday.
Brian Scott was elk
hunting in Union County
when he shot and killed a
gray wolf he claimed was
running at him. Oregon
State Police investigated
and agreed that he shot in
self-defense.
The letter claims that
police misinterpreted the evi-
dence. The groups say a pub-
lic records request revealed
photographic evidence that
contradicts the official report
done by police about the
incident.
The groups also worry
that an inadequate investiga-
tion sends a signal to hunters
that they can kill wolves with
impunity.
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