Description

From the text...'The term restoration relates to activities required to reduce hazards from wildland fires and improve federal forest and grassland health to a condition that can be maintained through periodic disturbance. Restoration and maintenance disturbance activities include fire use and mechanical fuel reduction integrated with timber stand improvement, watershed restoration and range improvement. The principal objectives of restoration and maintenance activities are to preempt or reduce the rate of change to higher risk levels, principally in fire adapted ecosystems'.....CONCLUSION: 'Restoration design should account for the entire suite of management concerns that are locally important or germane to the restoration objective. Impacts to visual quality, hydrology, wildlife usage, and archeological resources may need to be evaluated if deemed important by governmental regulations, current management plans and public needs or desires. In addition, the consequences of climate change and unplanned wildland fires need to be integrated into the design process to acount for future unpredictable and unplanned impacts on restoration areas. Understanding and using the concept of fire regimes is critical to effective restoration planning efforts. These historical 'natural' fire regimes are extremely useful characterizations of the biophysical baseline against which current conditions and treatments can be assessed. The biophysical baseline can be weighed against the numerous other current management considerations (e.g., wildland-urban interface, cultural resources, recreation, threatened and endangered species, etc.) in the critical stage where restoration objectives are bein formulated. When considering restoration it is tempting to delay or postpone activities because of uncertainties of outcomes. In many cases, the risks of continued ecological deterioration may increase significantly by postponing critical restoration activities, even though the absolute outcomes may still be somewhat uncertain.' From the 64th Transactions of the North American Wildlife and Natural Resources Conference. 1999; ©Wildlife Management Institute. Abstract reproduced by permission.