An Ecological Perspective on Living with Fire in Ponderosa Pine Forests of Oregon and Washington: Resistance, Gone but not Forgotten.

ABSTRACT: Wildland fires (WLF) have become more frequent, larger, and severe with greater impacts to society and ecosystems and dramatic increases in firefighting costs. Forests throughout the range of ponderosa pine in Oregon and Washington are jeopardized by the interaction of anomalously dense forest structure, a warming and drying climate, and an expanding human population. These forests evolved with frequent interacting disturbances including low-severity surface fires, droughts, and biological disturbance agents (BDAs). Chronic low-severity disturbances were, and still are, critical to maintaining disturbance resistance, the property of an ecosystem to withstand disturbance while maintaining its structure and ecological function. Restoration of that historical resistance offers multiple social

SUBMITTER: Merschel AG 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC8128712 | biostudies-literature | 2021 Jun

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature