MEDIA ADVISORY
For immediate release
August 4, 2008

The Ecology of Fire: The effects of climate change and forest management

Scientists and forest managers have spent decades trying different tactics for managing fire in forested ecosystems, with strategies ranging from complete fire suppression to prescribed fire introductions. At the 93^rd Ecological Society of America Annual Meeting, ecologists will discuss the role of fire to healthy ecosystems, emphasizing how fire management strategies can be influenced by factors such as greenhouse gases and salvage logging. The meeting will take place in Milwaukee, Wisconsin on Aug. 3-8.

The effects of salvage logging on forest structure following a mixed-severity wildfire in ponderosa pine forests of the Black Hills, SD
Monday, Aug. 4, 2:10 p.m., 104 D, Midwest Airlines Center

In August 2000, a fire burned over 84,000 acres of ponderosa pine forest in South Dakota’s Black Hills. Tara Keyser of the U.S. Forest Service and her colleagues compared areas that were subject after the fire to salvage logging—the removal of burned and dead trees—with areas that were not logged. Her team found that woody debris accumulated much faster in non-logged than in logged areas, creating a greater fuel base and thus a higher fire risk in the unlogged areas. The unlogged areas, however, regenerated 75 percent more of their plant matter than did logged areas five years after the fire. Keyser will discuss how decisions about salvage logging should be conducted on a site-specific basis in Contributed Oral Session 7: Forest Management.

Effects of fire frequency on ecosystem carbon storage in a southeastern U.S. Coastal Plain pineland
Tuesday, August 5, 4 p.m., 103 C, Midwest Airlines Center

The growing concern about climate change has placed emphasis on understanding the global carbon cycle, including which areas produce carbon and which areas sequester it. The latter, known as carbon sinks, are especially important because they can absorb greenhouse gases and potentially ameliorate the effects of these gases in the Earth’s atmosphere. Kevin Robertson of the Tall Timbers Research Station in Florida studies fire frequency in pine forests, which can serve as carbon sinks. Robertson and his colleagues found that although pine forests store more above-ground carbon when there are fewer fires, fires occurring at two-year intervals promote forest productivity and have no effect on soil carbon. Robertson recommends this frequent fire regime to maintain the forest as a stable, sustainable carbon sink. His talk will be in Contributed Oral Session 35: Climate Change and Carbon I.

Monitoring the use of prescribed fire for oak savanna restoration at Sherburne National Wildlife Refuge in central Minnesota
Thursday, August 7, 5-6:30 p.m. Exhibit Hall CD, Midwest Airlines Center

Beginning in the 1970s, prescribed fires have been used as a management tool for the restoration of historic savanna in the Sherburne National Wildlife Refuge in Central Minnesota. Frequent fires are essential to savanna health because they suppress thick levels of tree undergrowth, allowing for an open canopy system with characteristics of both forests and grasslands. Gary Swanson of the U.S. Forest Service and his colleagues with the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service have monitored and assessed the success of these prescribed burn regimes since 1993. Surprisingly, they found that the burned oak forest areas did not appear to have become more similar to savanna ecosystems in plant species composition, though canopies had become more open. Swanson concludes that changes in seasonal timing of prescribed burns, along with mechanical site disturbance and assisted recruitment of species, may hasten the process of savanna restoration.

Using fire history, vegetation, and risk analyses to develop integrated strategies for mixed-pine forest in Upper Michigan
Thursday, August 7, 5-6:30 p.m., Exhibit Hall CD, Midwest Airlines Center

David Hix of the Ohio State University and his colleagues study the fire regime history, both pre- and post-European settlement, across Michigan’s Upper Peninsula. He also evaluates the current fire management strategies of different land management agencies, including the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, the U.S. Forest Service, the Michigan Department of Natural Resources and The Nature Conservancy. Hix and his team found that the average amount of time between fires was closely correlated with vegetative stand composition, structure, diversity and fuel loadings in the forest understory. He also concludes that perceived risks associated with fire vary both within and among management organizations. Hix hopes to integrate his ecological analyses with decision-making analyses to assist land managers in developing restoration-based fuel reduction techniques across the region.

Swanson and Hix will present their posters in Poster Session 59: Fire.

For more information about this session and other ESA Annual Meeting activities, visit www.esa.org/milwaukee. The theme of the meeting is “Enhancing Ecological Thought by Linking Research and Education.” More than 3,500 scientists are expected to attend.