Collaborative stewardship to prevent wildfires

Environment

Volumn 48, Issue 7, 2006, Pages 8-21

  Lenart, Melanie ^a,b  

^a UNIVERSITY OF ARIZONA   (United States)

^b Climate Assessment for the Southwest ^*  (United States)

Author keywords

[No Author keywords available]

Indexed keywords

AMERICAN INDIAN; CLIMATE CHANGE; CONSENSUS DEVELOPMENT; DECISION MAKING; ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION; ENVIRONMENTAL SUSTAINABILITY; FIRE PROTECTION; FOREST; MOISTURE; REVIEW; UNITED STATES; VEGETATION; WILDLIFE CONSERVATION;

EID: 33747401926     PISSN: 00139157     EISSN: None     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.3200/ENVT.48.7.8-21     Document Type: Review

References (69)

1. J. Baeza, "BIA Recognizes Firefighters Who Make a Difference," The White Mountain Independent, 11 June 2004. The article also describes the experience of five heroes who were fighting the Aspen fire near Tucson in 2003. Two of them died in a helicopter crash on Aspen Ridge on 26 July 2003, while a third helped rescue the two survivors of the crash.
2. Although no direct deaths were recorded, the stress of the evacuation and overall loss may have led to the deaths of several elderly residents, neighbors reported. For example, residents of the Timberland Acres subdivision, which lost more than 100 homes to the fire, believed stress from the fire precipitated the deaths of seven of their neighbors in the weeks and months following the traumatic event.
3. W. R. Potapchuk, Moving from Collaborative Processes to Collaborative Communities, Community Building Institute, http://www.communitytools.net/cbi/ collaborativecommunities.htm (accessed 27 April 2006).
4. See also A. Moote, P. Kohany, K. Watters, and J. Schaffer, Directory of Collaborative and Community-based Groups Restoring Forest Health in Arizona and New Mexico (Flagstaff, Arizona: Ecological Restoration Institute, March 2003).
5. To gain insight on the behind-the-scenes efforts that led to this success story, the author attended board meetings and related functions during 2004 and 2005, and interviewed active members of the board during 2005. Eight members were willing to participate in the confidential interviews, which used a semi-structured protocol to get a wide range of response on several specific questions. It should be noted that the NRWG members, to some degree, represent what one person called "the Same Ten People," that is, active members of the community who are willing to meet and take on tasks as volunteers. So NRWG members often participate in other initiatives, boards, and committees as well.
6. White House Office of the Press Secretary, "President Bush Promotes Healthy Forests in Arizona," press release (Washington, DC, 11 August 2003).
7. National Interagency Coordination Center, Wildland Fire Statistics: Total Wildland Fires and Acres (1960-2005), http://www.nifc.gov/stats/fires_acres. html (accessed 4 April 2006).
8. U.S. Forest Service researcher Ron Neilson estimates modern values for acres burned in wildfire is about eight times lower than natural levels, based on models he constructed with Jim Lenihan and others as part of the Mapped Atmosphere-Plant-Soil System project.
9. White House Office of the Press Secretary, note 5 above.
10. United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) Forest Service in cooperation with the Western Forestry Leadership Coalition, Western Bark Beetle Report: A Plan to Protect and Restore Western Forests, (Washington, DC, 2002). The states considered for the evaluation include the 11 western states, the Dakotas, Nebraska, Kansas, and Alaska.
11. Although moist forests may erupt into catastrophic wildfire when exposed to an unusually hot, dry period, the management techniques described here will not necessarily improve the resiliency of these humid forests.
12. The fire environment triangle concept of weather, topography and fuels affecting fire behavior is described in C. M. Countryman, The Fire Environment Concept, Pacific Southwest Forest and Range Experiment Station, Berkeley, CA (1972). To request a reprint of this publication, go to http://www.fs.fed.us/ psw/publications/ or email Richard Schneider at rschneider@fs.fed.us.
13. A. L. Westerling, A. Gershunov, T. J. Brown, D. R. Cayan and M. D. Dettinger, "Climate and Wildfire in the Western United States," Bulletin of the American Meteorological Society, 84, no. 5 (2003): 595-604.
14. Westerling, A. L., H. G. Hidalgo, D. R. Cayan, and T. W. Swetnam, "Warming and Earlier Spring Increases Western U.S. Forest Wildfire Activity," Science Express, 6 July 2006, http://www.sciencemag .org/cgi/rapidpdf/1128834v1.pdf.
15. Branches and deadwood on the forest floor represent the "thousand-hour fuels" that take roughly 40 days to become dry enough to significantly impact wildfire behavior, if other conditions are conducive. For more on the role of temperature, see M. Lenart, "Rising Temperatures Bump Up Risk of Wildfires," Southwest Climate Outlook, April 2006, http://www.ispe.arizona .edu/climas/forecasts/swarticles.html.
16. T. J. Brown, B. L. Hall, and A. L. Westerling, "The Impacts of Twenty-first Century Climate Change on Wildland Fire Danger in the Western United States: An Applications Perspective," Climatic Change 62 (2004): 365-88;
17. K. Hennessy et al., Climate Change Impacts on Fire-Weather in South-east Australia, (Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation, Victoria, Austrialia, December 2005).
18. N. P. Gillett, A. J. Weaver, F. W. Zwiers, and M. D. Flannigan, "Detecting the Effect of Climate Change on Canadian Forest Fires." Geophysical Research Letters 31 (doi: 10.1029/2004GL020876) (2004): L18211-1 to 118211-4.
19. For more on the physical reasoning behind the projected increase in precipitation variability, see M. Lenart, "Southwestern Drought Regimes Might Worsen with Climate Change," Southwest Climate Outlook, December 2003. This publication of the Climate Assessment for the Southwest is available at http://www.ispe .arizona.edu/climas/forecasts/swarticles.html.
20. One member of the White Mountains Natural Resources Working Group considered the wildland-urban interface to encompass any area within a day's reach of wildfire and noted the Rodeo-Chediski fire had traveled about 18 miles in one day.
21. The fire environment triangle concept of weather, topography, and fuels affecting fire behavior is described in Countryman, note 11 above.
22. B. A. Strom, "Pre-fire Treatment Effects and Post-fire Forest Dynamics on the Rodeo-Chediski Burn Area, Arizona," thesis for master of science in forestry, Northern Arizona University (May 2005). Posted at the following Web site: https://library.eri.nau.edu:8443/ bitstream/2019/269/1/ StromNAU2005.pdf (Last accessed April 20, 2006).
23. W. W. Covington, et al., "Historical and Anticipated Changes in Forest Ecosystems of the Inland West of the United States," Journal of Sustainable Forestry 2 (1994): 13-63.
24. Estimates of the number of trees in southwestern forests range from 300 to 900 trees per acre, but the larger values probably represent individual sites, while the average may be closer to 400 trees an acre, based on USDA Forest Service estimates.
25. T. W. Swetnam and C. H. Baisan, "Historical Fire Regime Patterns in the Southwestern United States Since, AD 1700," in C. D. Allen, technical ed., Fire Effects in Southwestern Forests, USDA Forest Service General Technical Report RM-GTR-286 (Washington, DC), 11-32.
26. B. Tellman, R. Yarde, and M. Wallace, Arizona's Changing Rivers: How People Have Affected the Rivers, University of Arizona Department of Agriculture Issue Paper 19, (Tucson; 1997), 114.
27. R. Durrenberger, "The Colorado Plateau," Annals of The Association of American Geographers 62, no. 2 (1972): 211-36.
28. Photo posted on Northern Arizona University Web site at http://cpluhna.nau.edu/Change/logging.htm.
29. For instance, when one group was told they could not harvest trees because of concern about soil erosion given the wet conditions, they responded by paving part of the road so they could continue with their plans.
30. B. Segee and M. Taylor, Prelude to Catastrophe: Recent and Historic Land Management Within the Rodeo-Chediski Fire Area (Southwest Center for Biological Diversity, Sierra Club and Southwest Forest Alliance, July 2002), http://www.biologicaldiversity.org/ swcbd/Programs/fire/r-c_report.pdf, (accessed 20 April 2006).
31. Arizona Game and Fish Department, Statement of Reasons in Support of an Appeal of the Apache-Sitgreaves National Forests Land and Resource Management Plan, 1988, as cited in Segee and Taylor, ibid.
32. Annual income from lumber and wood by county obtained using a Web-based tool of the Bureau of Economic Analysis Regional Economic Information System, using the selection for "Detailed Income and Employment Tables by SIC Industry 1969-2000. The tool is available at http://www.bea.gov/bea/regional/ reis/.
33. The original owner of the plant, Southwest Forest Industries, sold the company to Stone Container when they moved out of McNary.
34. Most of the expenditure involved upgrading their waste-treatment processing to fully comply with the Clean Water Act.
35. E. Losos et al., "Taxpayer-Subsidized Resource Extraction Harms Species," BioScience 45, no. 7 (1995): 446-455.
36. C. McKinney and G. Miller, "GAO Finds Costs of Forest Service's Logging Program 'Impractical, if not Impossible' to Determine," public statement by U.S. Representatives Cynthia McKinney and George Miller, 24 October 2001), http://www.wildcalifornia .org/projects/natlforest/reports/ mckinneymiller1001. html (accessed 30 April 2006).
37. Rates based on discussions and presentations at the Four Comers Sustainable Forest Partnerships workshop held in October 2004.
38. Charter members included longtime chairman Steve Campbell, Richard Remington, Martin Moore, Peter Schumway, and Todd Schulke.
39. Interviews with members of the Natural Resources Working Group. Also, Associated Press, "Fire Crews Gain Ground, Lose Some," The Arizona Daily Star, 26 June 1996.
40. Population numbers based on U.S. Census figures from 2000. Given the high rate of population growth in this area, the numbers have no doubt increased since then.
41. See note 4 above.
42. J. Braxton Little, "Quincy Library Group Bars Outsiders," High Country News, 26 April 1999.
43. The Natural Resources Working Group of the White Mountains, "Understanding the Differences and the Essential Balance Between Arizona's Amenity Economy and Resource Extraction Economies and the Essential Roles and Responsibilities of Collaborative Workgroups," paper adopted by the group on 25 May 2004.
44. Transfer payments, including retirement benefits, account for more than 39 and 32 percent of personal incomes, respectively, in Apache and Navajo Counties. Government jobs provide another major source of income for both counties, based on county-level economic data for 2002.
45. T. Finger and B. Morehouse, "An Environmental History of Climate and Water Management in the Upper Little Colorado Watershed," unpublished paper produced by the University of Arizona Institute for the Study of Planet Earth, 2006.
46. Ibid., page 3.
47. Technically referred to as the Blue Ridge-Morgan Ecosystem Management Area in the environmental analysis that led to the National Environmental Policy Act decision in April 1997.
48. Ecosystem management pilot testing project cooperative agreement between USDA Forest Service, Apache-Sitgreaves, Coronado and Tonto National Forests, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, Arizona Game and Fish Commission, Office of the Governor, Arizona Board of Regents on behalf of University of Arizona College of Agriculture, and Eastern Arizona Counties Organization, 12 December 1997.
49. The pre-settlement forest concept stems from ideas developed by Northern Arizona University's Ecological Restoration Institute (ERI) Director Wallace Covington and colleagues. Northern Arizona University's Dave Garrett served as a consultant for the Blue Ridge project.
50. Although some Forest Service employees initially balked at applying the term "natural processes restoration" to a managed forest type, they relented in favor of encouraging environmentalists to be involved in the restoration process.
51. Unlike the USDA Forest Service, collaborative groups are allowed to lobby members of Congress.
52. J. Baeza, "Tree Thinning in High Gear on Blue Ridge," The White Mountain Independent, 27 October 2000.
53. Tour of treated sections in the Blue Ridge Demonstration Project of the Apache-Sitgreaves National Forest attended by the author, Arizona, 19 May 2004.
54. Todd Schulke of the Southwest Center for Biological Diversity (CBD) testified in support of the stewardship contract at the 2005 White House Conference on Cooperative Conservation, held in St. Louis, Missouri, in September. Schulke also wrote an op-ed piece supporting the project. CBD had been one of the plaintiffs on the Mexican spotted owl lawsuit.
55. However, nongovernmental organizations have indicated that legal challenges would still have loomed if the Forest Service had awarded the stewardship contract to Louisiana Pacific, another company that had put in a bid for the project. District managers indicated they preferred a contract that supported local business interests, given the attention to economic sustainability.
56. Durrenberger, note 25 above.
57. The Healthy Forest Restoration Act requires that all lands, regardless of jurisdiction, within the Community Wildfire Protection Plan (CWPP) be evaluated as to fire regime condition class and that a treatment priority and plan be developed and implemented under the oversight of a CWPP board and a plan administrator. If a community fails to meet these requirements it will no longer be eligible for federal grant funding for forest health, fuel reduction, or certain fire assistance grants.
58. By supporting the White Mountains Stewardship Contract, the donating district can help count treated areas in its own established targets for thinning treatments.
59. L. J. Gibson, 2005 White Mountain Stewardship Project Economic Assessment, Final Draft, 24 April 2006, page 13.
60. Raw values for carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases (calculated as carbon dioxide equivalents) tallied by the author using the following dataset: Western Governors Association, Western Regional Air Partnership, 2002 Fire Emission Inventory for the WRAP Region, Phase II, Final Report, 22 July 2005. Documents and datasets for this project (no. 178-6) are available online at: www.wrapair.org;
61. Conversion to carbon dioxide equivalents based on: J. Houghton et al., eds., Climate Change 2001: The Scientific Basis (Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 2001).
62. H. J. Schellnhuber, P. J. Crutzen, W. C. Clark, and J. Hunt, "Earth System Analysis for Sustainability," Environment 47, no. 8 (October 2005): 10.
63. J. Wondolleck, The Collaborative Dimension of Ecosystem Management (Ann Arbor, Michigan: University of Michigan Ecosystem Management Initiative, 2001), http://www.snre.umich.edu/ecomgt/events/ sympo97/wondolleck.htm (accessed 27 April 2006).
64. Ibid.
65. A. Moote and D. Becker, Exploring Barriers to Collaborative Forestry (Flagstaff, Arizona: Ecological Restoration Institute of Northern Arizona University, December 2003), https://library.eri.nau.edu:8443/ bitstream/2019/116/4/MooteNAUERI2003.pdf (accessed 27 April 2006).
66. M. Lenart, "Is Global Warming Creeping into Southwest Forests? Evidence Building That Warming Is Already Affecting the Region," Southwest Climate Outlook, February 2005. This publication of the Climate Assessment for the Southwest is available at http://www .ispe.arizona.edu/climas/forecasts/ swarticles.html.
67. For instance, the Intergovernmental Panel for Climate Change projects average annual temperature will rise by between 3 and 10 Fahrenheit by 2100. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration researchers Martin Hoerling, Jon Eischeid, and Gary Bates project southwestern winter temperatures could climb by about 3.5 degrees Fahrenheit by 2050.
68. 2 in Field Experiments: Implications for the Future Forest," Plant, Cell and Environment 22 (1999): 683-714.
69. 2 Enhancement in Ponderosa Pine," Ecology 58 (1977): 687-692.