Congressional testimony at the Senate Committee on Energy and Natural Resources hearing on additional funds for wildland firefighting and forest restoration as well as ongoing implementation of the National Fire Plan, July 16, 2002 in Washington, DC.

My testimony will focus on the implementation of the National Fire Plan and the urgent need to increase the pace and size of forest restoration treatments to reverse the trend of increasing catastrophic wildfires. I will outline a three-step approach to help achieve this goal

Final report on cooperative work plan FY2014

This report presents an integrated and coordinated series of actions for $2.4 million awarded to the ERI in Fiscal Years 2013 and 2014 under CFDA 10.694, Southwest Forest Health and Wildfire Prevention for the third and fourth years in a 5-year domestic grant. The information provided herein reflects our annual progress as of 6/30/2014. All of the activities (deliverables) summarized in this report respond to land manager and stakeholder requests and needs. The deliverables are informed by best available science and scientific evidence which is translated into the language and product appropriate for the target audience. The ERI actively delivers information using a variety of approaches that includes individual and group presentations and discussions, to printed and electronically accessible fact sheets, short technical reports, longer white papers and management reports, and peer reviewed archival literature

Congressional testimony at the House Subcommittee on Forests and Forest Health Oversight hearing on preventing wildfires through proper management of the national forests, August 14, 2000 in Albuquerque, NM.

There are three points I intend to make in my testimony that will contribute to the solution. 1. We have a solid body of scientific information to begin applying ecologically based forest restoration treatments to protect people, communities, and the forests surrounding them. As we proceed we should continue to build on that knowledge through continued research, monitoring and adaptive management. 2. The solution to catastrophic wildfire must include more than the wildland/urban interface. It is unclear how large a barrier would have been needed to protect Los Alamos under the extreme conditions and power of the Cerro Grande Fire. In addition, there are economic, social and aesthetic reasons that these communities exist in the forest. Communities are inextricably linked in many ways to the forests that surround them. People live in forested areas because they love forested habitats. They don't want to live in a fire-scarred landscape. 3. There are emerging models of communities working to reduce the threat of fire while restoring the forest for its full suite of values. Their success depends on meaningful community collaboration, human and financial resources and adequate scientific support to make well informed management decisions. Congress, federal agencies, universities, and non-governmental organizations must support these communities to help them achieve success

Congressional testimony at the House Subcommittee on Forests and Forest Health oversight hearing on the crisis on the national forests: containing the threat of wildland fire on the environment and communities, March 7, 2003 in Flagstaff, AZ.

My testimony today has four major points: 1. The greatest threat to the sustainability, diversity, and social viability of the forests and communities of the West is our failure to restore forest health in the frequent fire forests of the West. 2. The pace and scale of our forest health restoration treatments is wholly inadequate; treatments should at least be on the scale of acres burned by severe wildfire annually. 3. Knowing what we now know, it is critical that we move forward with large-scale restoration-based fuel treatments using an adaptive management approach. 4. There are emerging models of communities working to reduce the threat of fire while restoring the forest for its full suite of values. Their success depends on meaningful community collaboration, human and financial resources and adequate scientific support to make well informed management decisions. Congress, federal agencies, universities, and non-governmental organizations must support these communities to help them achieve success. These groups should be supported and encouraged to work at the scale of the greater ecosystem, 200,000 to 1,000,000+ acres

Congressional testimony at hearing to discuss the President's healthy forests: An initiative for wildfire prevention and stronger communities, September 5, 2002

What is needed today is clear thinking. Fuzzy thinking can be a major threat to marshaling the nation's resources to address the critical problem in time to prevent catastrophic losses that will affect generations to come. There is plenty of blame to share over the current state of our forests. This hearing is intended to go beyond the blame to solve the crisis. It is my role and obligation as a scientist and as a professional forester to bring honest, objective facts and informed recommendations to this committee. I will attempt to do so in this statement. My testimony will focus on the science of forest restoration and how to reverse the trend of increasing catastrophic wildfires in the dry forests of the West by implementing science-based forest restoration treatments

Congressional testimony at the House Subcommittee on Forests and Forest Health Field Hearing on interagency cooperation in wildland fire fighting, September 28, 2002 in Show Low, AZ.

In my remarks I will give a brief overview of the historical context for federal fire management policies, discuss some ideological barriers to achieving consensus about how to proceed, and recommend a set of actions designed to help overcome these limitations

Congressional testimony at the House Resources Committee hearing to discuss the president's healthy forests: An initiative for wildfire prevention and stronger communities, September 5, 2002 in Washington, DC.

My testimony will focus on the science of forest restoration and how to reverse the trend of increasing catastrophic wildfires in the dry forests of the West by implementing science-based forest restoration treatments

Effect of prescribed burning on mortality of presettlement ponderosa pines in Grand Canyon National Park

Ponderosa pine (Pinus ponderosa) trees established before Euro-American settlement are becoming rare on the landscape. Prescribed fire is the prime tool used to restore ponderosa pine ecosystems, but can cause high mortality in presettlement ponderosa pines. This study uses retrospective techniques to estimate mortality from prescribed burns within Grand Canyon National Park (GCNP). Live and recently dead presettlement ponderosa pines were sampled in four prescribed burns and three adjacent unburned areas. Presettlement ponderosa pine mortality (not including areas of crownfire) was higher than that of control sites in all four burns, although control areas showed elevated mortality rates compared to presettlement times. The highest mortality (23 percent) was found on a prescribed natural fire converted to a wildfire, the second highest (17 percent) on a site with extremely heavy mistletoe, the lowest (10 percent) on a spring burn. Bole scorch height and bole char severity were higher on dead trees than live trees, and may be useful in predicting postfire mortality. GCNP management objectives for overstory mortality are probably being met, but these guidelines do not account for the possibility of mortality delayed more than 5 years

Butterfly response and successional change following ecosystem restoration

The Lepidoptera (butterflies and moths) can be useful indicators of ecosystem change as a result of a disturbance event. We monitored changes in butterfly abundance in two restoration treatment units paired with adjacent untreated forest at the Mt. Trumbull Resource Conservation Area in northern Arizona. Restoration treatments included thinning trees to density levels comparable to densities at the time of Euro-American settlement, and reintroducing a low to medium intensity fire to the system. One unit was treated in 1996, the second in 1998. Butterfly communities, nectar availability, and herbaceous species richness were compared between treated and adjacent control forests, and between 3-year posttreatment and 1-year posttreatment forests. Butterfly species richness and abundance were two and three times greater, respectively, in restoration treatment units than in adjacent control forests. Nectar plant species richness ranged from two to 10 times greater in restoration treatment units than in adjacent control forests. Comparison of the 3-year posttreatment unit with the 1-year posttreatment unit showed little difference in butterfly species richness and abundance, although no statistical comparisons can be made due to sample size. These restoration treatments offer a unique opportunity to study responses to and recovery from disturbance and restoration at a landscape level

Statewide strategy for restoring Arizona's forests: Sustainable forests, communities, and economies

In 2003 Governor Janet Napolitano created the Forest Health Advisory Council and the Forest Health Oversight Council in response to the escalating number, frequency, and intensity of unnatural wildfires threatening Arizonas forests and communities (Executive Order 2003-16). The Councils were directed to develop scientific information and policy recommendations to advise the Governors administration in matters of forest health, unnaturally severe fire and community protection. In addition, the membership was designed to be inclusive to maximize the opportunity for collaboration and defuse the controversy surrounding forest management. (caution: 14 MB file!