Description
Large wilderness areas in National Parks and Forests offer some of our best opportunities for restoring natural disturbance regimes. High intensity fires, for example, can be permitted to burn with minimal interference. Yet even in large wilderness areas, natural fire management may be complicated by (1) changed frequency and sources of ignition, (2) altered fuel loads and distribution, (3) the large size of past fires relative to present administrative area, and (4) embryonic knowledge about fire behavior in the system. An effective fire management plan potentially leads to further difficulties, including (1) interagency friction over management fires burning near common boundaries, (2) hazards to visitors, (3) damage to archaeological and historic sturctures, (4) enhanced spread of exotic weeds, and (5) fragmentation and loss of old growth habitat. Despite these difficulties, a nearly natural fire regime has been restored in some areas. © by the Ecological Society of America. Abstract reproduced by permission