Climate forces fires, salvage logging makes ’em worse
Lance Olsen
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Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (US)
PNAS | *June 19, 2007* | vol. 104 | no. 25 | *10743-10748*
*BIOLOGICAL SCIENCES / SUSTAINABILITY SCIENCE*
* Reburn severity in managed and unmanaged vegetation in a large wildfire*
* Jonathan R. Thompson^* ^,{dagger} , Thomas A. Spies^{ddagger} , and
Lisa M. Ganio^* *
*Department of Forest Science, Oregon State University, Corvallis, OR
97331; and ^{ddagger} Pacific Northwest Research Station, U.S.
Department of Agriculture Forest Service, Corvallis, OR 97331
Edited by Ruth S. DeFries, University of Maryland, College Park, MD,
and approved April 26, 2007 (received for review January 10, 2007)
Debate over the influence of post-wildfire management on future fire
severity is occurring in the absence of empirical studies. We used
satellite data, government agency records, and aerial photography to
examine a forest landscape in southwest Oregon that burned in 1987
and then was subject, in part, to salvage-logging and conifer
planting before it reburned during the 2002 Biscuit Fire. Areas that
burned severely in 1987 tended to reburn at high severity in 2002,
after controlling for the influence of several topographical and
biophysical covariates. Areas unaffected by the initial fire tended
to burn at the lowest severities in 2002. Areas that were
salvage-logged and planted after the initial fire burned more
severely than comparable unmanaged areas, suggesting that fuel
conditions in conifer plantations can increase fire severity despite
removal of large woody fuels. Continue reading