The task of saving the forest — and places like Payson — keeps getting more complicated.
A series of comprehensive studies suggest large-scale restoration logging can play a key role — but not without a dramatic change in the use of fire. However, without such a delicate balance between managing fire and fighting it — the southwest will likely lose most of its pine forests. These conclusions emerge from some of the most recent studies on the impact of wildfires, logging, rising temperature and controlled burns on the forest.
The studies have sobering implications for Rim Country, where a dense, often-sickly forest poses an existential threat for forested communities. The U.S. Forest Service hopes to dramatically reduce tree densities across more than a million acres through the Four Forest Restoration Initiative (4FRI), which would rely on small-tree logging.
A massive study in California demonstrated that without big changes in forest management and restoration, northern Arizona could easily lose most of its current ponderosa pine forests after a big fire.
A study of 14 burned areas in 10 national forests found that in 40 percent of the areas almost no pine seedlings returned, even seven years after a high-intensity wildfire. The scientists were shocked to find not a single returning pine seedling in 43 of the 1,500 plots they monitored. Previously, the burned areas had been thickly forested, according to the study published in Ecosphere, a peer-reviewed scientific journal.
From the Payson Roundup: https://www.paysonroundup.com/news/2017/jan/10/forest-health-and-fire-dangerous-balance/