Biggest Issues Facing Sierra Forests and Forest Communities

Posted by Betony Jones

February 20, 2007

Someone asked me today what the biggest issues are facing Sierra forests and the surrounding communities. I think this is a good place to start the Saving the Sierra “Forests Blog”, and I hope that my thoughts will elicit other thoughts and comments and kick off a discussion around these important issues. Not necessarily ranked in order of importance, I will add issues over the course of the week:

Catastrophic Wildfire

(wildfire)

(controlled burn)

As a result of past timber harvesting and fire suppression much of our region's forestland is overgrown-- dense with small trees and shrubs that act as kindling, ready to ignite. Historically, Sierra forests burned with some regularity, the fires spread slowly and covered fewer acres, and many of the larger trees were resistant to the flames which stayed relatively low to the ground. Regular fire in a forest helps protect the trees from insects and disease, improve habitat for wildlife, and release seeds from serotinous cones (which need heat to become "unglued").

Catastrophic wildfire today burns hotter, spreads faster and further, and can kill even the oldest, most resilient trees. Furthermore, these fires will scorch all of the nutrients and life out of the soil so that even hardy pioneer species cannot grow, and the land is effectively sterilized.

Restoring Sierra forests so that they are not so susceptible to catastrophic wildfire is a huge, expensive, and daunting task. It often requires manual thinning followed by reintegrating fire into the ecosystem. Cutting the small trees and shrubs is time consuming and expensive. There are few viable markets for small diameter trees, so often to help pay the costs of thinning, some larger trees, up to 30 inches in diameter, are harvested and sold. Developing new markets and new value-added products for small diameter timber could potentially reduce the quantity of larger trees harvested while providing enough value to pay for the forest restoration.