252 



Silvicultural responses that relate to fire and the regeneration of giant 

 sequoia pose a set of paradoxes for the sequoia - mixed conifer forest, visual 

 impacts, and the goals of fire use. The paradoxes will persist. Nonetheless, 

 the National Park Service as a management agency has to satisfy politicEil 

 criticism, scientific criticism, and visitor satisfaction at the same time as 

 it seeks to reintroduce functions of fire into forest ecosystems that have been 

 altered by long term suppression of fire. It appears that the restoration of 

 something akin to an earlier state of diversity and then, hopefully, its future 

 continuation, will take a considerable number of years. A single pass of fire 

 will not do it. There are tough questions: What will " natural -ness" look 

 like? Can we restore it? How long will it take? 



It also appears that various forms of human intervention not now envisioned 

 in prescription fire management will be called for before the eventual goal of 

 restoring natural fire into the ecosystem can be accomplished. 



