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To visit or learn more about our forest conservation program, contact Ethan Aumack.
To learn about restoration opportunities across the Kaibab Plateau, consider volunteering with us.
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For thousands of years, fire was as integral to ponderosa forests as rain, wind, trees, and wildlife.
The ponderosa pine forests of the southern Colorado Plateau evolved with frequent, low-intensity fires. Studies show that fires often occurred every 2 to 10 years, varying in size and frequency with droughts and wet periods. Along with other disturbances related to climate variation, such as insect outbreaks, fires allowed forest changes to track climate changes over time. They regulated densities by killing small trees and maintaining stands of old, large trees. They also recycled nutrients and created wildlife habitat such as snags (standing dead trees) and burned-out root holes.
Tree-ring studies show that fires stopped burning in ponderosa forests late in the nineteenth century. This coincided with the introduction of domestic livestock, which removed the grasses through which fire burned. Without fire and grass, abnormal densities of small trees established, while industrial logging removed most of the large, old trees. These factors, coupled with road building and predator control, have caused radical changes during the past century.
Restoring ponderosa forests is a multi-faceted endeavor.
To be successful, restoration must be ecologically, economically, and socially viable. At the broadest level, restoration involves restoring fire to wildland forests in a way that is safe, socially acceptable, and protective of wildlife and native biological diversity. This involves an integrated combination of science-informed social agreement, community fire preparedness, land use and fire management planning, and strategic placement of restoration treatments to facilitate fire management and wildlife conservation goals. Creating a safe landscape context for fire through community preparedness, wildland urban interface treatments, and other strategically placed restoration treatments is a critical prerequisite to landscape-scale restoration.
The Warm Fire: An anthem to historical management policies
On June 22, 2006, a controlled burn (ignited by lightning in the Kaibab National Forest south of Jacob Lake) got out of control because of heavy winds. It turned into a conflagration called the Warm Fire. Before it was contained days later, over 60,000 acres of pinyon-juniper, ponderosa pine, and mixed conifer forest were consumed.
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