Arno, S.F., M.G. Harrington, C.E. Fiedler andC.E. Carlson. Restoring

Fire-Dependent Ponderosa Pine Forests in Western Montana. Restoration &

Management Notes. 13: Summer 1995, pp. 32-35.

Fire-resistant ponderosa pine forests of the west have changed

drastically in composition and structure as a result of nearly a century

of fire suppression. Suppression has allowed dense fir thickets (not

fire-resistant) to grow up in the understory. Stressed and crowded firs

are vulnerable to insect invasion and disease and large die-offs

result. Consequently, large stand-destroying fires have become common

where once they were rare.

The authors use several management techniques to restore pre-settlement

conditions to Ponderosa Pine forests in western Montana. The bulk of

the paper focuses on one site. Using a combination of understory

thinning and surface fire (these are low intensity ground fires typical

of the historical fire regime) to create open understory 'park-like'

conditions that resemble historical conditions.

This paper is similar to the one we are reading but the data was

expressed only as text making it hard to follow.

Cairns, John. Restoration Ecology: The New Frontier. In Rehabilitating

Damaged Ecosystems. CRC Press. Boca Raton, FL. 1988. pp 1-11

In this fairly outdated book, Cairns writes about the opportunity

provided by restoration ecology for establishing new frontiers in

theoretical and applied ecology. He proposes definitions of the field

that are contrary to accepted definitions and are very limited in

scope. Otherwise, he does a nice job of summarizing the benefits and

possible pitfalls of such work. It is interesting to read this and see

how the ideas in this field have changed in just a decade.

Covington, W.W. and S.S. Sackett. The Effect of a Prescribed Burn in

Southwestern Ponderosa Pine on Organic Matter and Nutrients in Woody

Debris and Forest Floor. Forest Science, Vol.30, No.1, 1984, pp.183-192.

When forest litter accumulates on the surface of mineral soil, nutrient

cycles slow down. The paper shows that in the first year following a

prescribed burn woody debris and forest floor fuels were substantially

reduced. This reduces risk of severe wildfire, reduces floor

interception and evaporation of precipitation, and releases nutrients

bound in surface organics thus improving conditions for existing and

developing plants.

The information in this one seems somewhat intuitive but good as proof.

Covington, W.W., P Z Fule, M M Moore, S C Hart, T E Kolb, J N Mast, S S

Sackett and M R Wagner. Restoring Ecosystem Health in Ponderosa Pine

Forests of the Southwest. Journal of Forestry. April, 1997. pp 23-29.

**paper distributed to class**

Southwestern ponderosa pine forests are known to have changed in

structure and function since Euro-American settlement in the 1870's.

The principal agent of change has been the suppression of fire. This

paper demonstrates the feasibility of restoring ecosystem traits by

altering fuel load and re-introducing fire.

Higgs, Eric S. A Quantity of Engaging Work to be Done. Restoration and

Management Notes. 9(2) 1991, pp. 97-104.

This paper addresses restoration purely from a philosophical view and

asserts that in today's largely artificial world we will tend to restore

ecosystems to artificial conditions that suit us. It is a rather absurd

view in my opinion and does not take into consideration the theoretical

ecology that drives restoration and dismisses the work of

environmentally concerned ecologists. Before restoration of a site is

carried out, much effort is put into trying to understand the processes

driving its function. A point for thought is that a 'created' ecosystem

and an identical natural ecosystem (i.e. wetlands) may hold different

values. I have mixed reactions to this idea and think it might make a

good discussion topic if we have time.

Jordan III, William R. Restoration Ecology: A Synthetic Approach to

Ecological Research. In Rehabilitating Damaged Ecosystems. CRC Press.

Boca Raton, FL. 1988,

pp. 13-21.

This chapter explains the ability of restoration ecology to provide an

'acid' test for ecological theory. There is no better way to test our

understanding of ecosystem function than to try and restore it. He

separates the idea of copying an ecosystem from imitating an ecosystem.

The difference is that to copy is to reproduce a model while imitation

requires making a model that acts like the original system.

I like most of the views of Jordan. His books are among the first ever

written purely on restoration as a science. If you are interested in

reading anything of his I would recommend checking out his book that

goes by the same name. Bailey Howe has a copy but someone has checked

it out for the semester.

White, Alan S. Presettlement Regeneration Patterns In A Southwestern

Ponderosa Pine Stand. Ecology 66(2), 1985, pp. 589-594

This paper attempts to show that contrary to what is widely believed,

presettlement ponderosa pine patches are not even aged. Four conditions

are required for successful presettlement ponderosa pine establishment:

1) adequate seed production, 2) germination in exclusion of competition

from grasses (This could occur in small areas within mature stands where

a couple die-offs provided fuel for intense localized fires), 3)

sufficient moisture, and 4) avoidance of mortality during their early

years (mostly from fire). The coincident occurrence of all these

factors was not frequent enough to create even age structure.

For a paper in Ecology, this was mostly readable.

Zenter, John. Zenter on Katz (and Zedler, and Hiss) The Issue of

Restorability. Restoration and Management Notes. 10:2 Winter, 1992, pp

113-115.

In this commentary, Zenter attempts to refute many of the ideas put

forth in an earlier paper by a peer named Katz. In it, Katz claims that

restored ecosystems cannot approach natural ones because they are not

the products of "slow" evolutionary processes and are "organized

artifacts" geared to fulfill anthropocentric criteria of what is good.

Zenter challenges the idea of ecosystems as necessarily being the

result of slow evolutionary processes (the classical Clementsian

succession theory in which ecosystems progress toward a climax

community). The present idea that Zenter supports is that ecosystems

are driven by species' response to environmental cues (fires,

landslides, increase in predators). He uses this idea to say that

"landscapes, whatever their origin, become natural over time in the

absence of human influence". He further states that any restored

landscape is not orderly once allowed to "surrender to the forces of

nature".