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These eight frequently asked questions and my responses pertain to 

 forest health and fire exclusion. 



1 . The forest health crisis has brought to light the mistakes of past 

 forest management. A key issue has been the decades old crusade to 

 suppress forest fires and how this effort has adversely affected 

 forested ecosystems. Please explain the history and the 

 consequences. 



Forest health is a call for action to restore ecosystems altered by past 

 and present human activities. These activities began with European 

 settlers clearing the land, farming, ranching, lumbering, mining, road 

 and rail building, and suppressing wildfires. At first, settlers used 

 fire as a management tool but, with increasing urbanization, fire was 

 excluded. Over time, shade tolerant trees and surface organic debris 

 have accumulated. Rates of accumulation increased dramatically 

 after W.W.II, as fire suppression became more effective. Had fire 

 been allowed to play its natural role there would have been fewer 

 shade tolerant trees and less surface organic debris. Today, the 

 resulting late successional forests promote even more shade tolerant 

 trees that are less fire, insect, and disease resistant. 



Eventually, the land cannot support increased tree densities. Tree 

 growth stagnates and mortality follows. Old growth fire resistant 

 trees that survived past wildfires are either crowded out by smaller 

 trees, succumb to insects and disease, or are killed by wildfire. 

 Majestic old trees are replaced by a non forest type or become snag 

 skeletons. Some forests in this condition are a ghostly gray, waiting 

 their turn to burn. 



Wildfires burn very differently in fire deprived forests because of fuel 

 build-up. Fuel build-up is a collective term that includes the change 

 in forest composition, structure, and surface organic material fuel 

 accumulation. In forests altered by the exclusion of fire, wildfires no 

 longer burn on the surface, creeping along the forest floor; instead, 

 they are likely to burn the entire tree or the entire forest. Old growth 



