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Restoration
A century of
overgrazing, selective old growth logging and indiscriminate
fire suppression has resulted
in the proliferation of small diameter trees and the
accumulation of a large amount of natural fuel. This situation
creates conditions for uncharacteristic high-intensity crown
fires that consume tens to hundreds of thousands of acres at a
time, damage irreplaceable ecosystems, destroy private and
public property worth billions of dollars, and claim the lives
of an increasing number of fire fighters and residents.
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Ponderosa pine forests of the
Southwest were historically low density forests dominated by old
growth trees widely interspersed over grassy understory
regularly maintained by periodic low intensity surface fires. |
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The disruption of
the natural fire regime and the selective logging of old growth
removed the natural check on small tree proliferation and
triggered explosive growth in dense thickets. Where forests once
counted 40 to 60 trees per acre, they now count 400 to 600, and
often upward of 1,000. |
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The accumulation of large amounts of fuel, dense
thickets, ladder fuel and interlocking crowns, combined with a
changing climate and the degradation of the watersheds,
create the
conditions for stand replacing, high-intensity,
crown fires. These uncontrollable
landscape-scale wildfires create massive ecologic and
economic disasters. |
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The purpose
of restoration treatments, such as mechanical thinning or
prescribed fire, is to restore ecosystems currently departed
from historical conditions to a sustainable ecology. Restoration enhances habitats for biologically diverse
wildlife and plant communities and supports the
reintroduction of a natural regime of cool ground fires. |
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By removing the
large number of small diameter trees in excess of the historical
range of variability, restoration treatments are designed to restore
forest structure, composition and functions approximating historical
conditions.
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The end goal of
ecological restoration in the Southwest is the reintroduction of
a sustainable regime of beneficial natural surface fire. |
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The northern
Arizona model of restoration is based on the consensus agreement
reached by the collaborative group. This
agreement is
institutionalized in several foundational documents. |
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