Forests and Fire Reports and Backgrounders

Reports, Documents, News articles and Background Information on Forests and Fires

Forest fire strategy: Just let it go

In 2006 more acres of the Payette National Forest burned than in recent memory, yet the fire manager and forest supervisor are lauding the benefits of letting many of this year's fires burn. Government agencies are increasingly moving away from fire suppression towards allowing forests to better adapt to perennial fire regimes through periodic burning.

This report reviews the ecological science relevant to developing and implementing fire and fuel management policies for forests before, during, and after wildfires. Fire exclusion led to major deviations from historical variability in many dry, low-elevation forests, but not in other forests, such as those characterized by high severity fires recurring at intervals longer than the period of active fire exclusion. Restoration and management of fire-prone forests should be precautionary, allow or mimic natural fire regimes as much as possible, and generally avoid intensive practices such as post-fire logging and planting.

An Ecologically Based Strategy for Fire Management in Roadless Wildlands

Report: An Ecologically Based Strategy for Fire and Fuel Management in National Forest Roadless Areas. Researchers: Dominick DellaSala, a Forest Ecologist and Director of the Klamath-Siskiyou Regional Program for the World Wildlife Fund, Ashland, OR; and Evan Frost, an Ecologist for Wildwood Environmental Consulting, Ashland, OR. 2006

Ad in The Oregonian: Protect Our Communities from Fire

This 2002 ad in The Oregonian urges the US Forest Service to take a new path, giving higher priority to protecting communities from fire rather than logging in remote areas.

Report: Protecting Homes and Communites from Fire (Center for Biological Diversity)

This 2002 Report explores how treating forests near homes and communities, rather than logging in backcountry areas, is the key to fire protection.

Oregon Wild's Fire Policy Statement

Because fire is an inevitable and ecologically essential component of forest ecosystems, fire prevention should not be a goal of forest management in the Intermountain West except when it threatens human life and extraordinary ecological value.