Abstract

For over 20 years, forest fuel reduction has been the dominant management action in western US forests. These same actions have also been associated with the restoration of highly altered frequent-fire forests. Perhaps the vital element in the compatibility of these treatments is that both need to incorporate the salient characteristics that frequent fire produced—variability in vegetation structure and composition across landscapes and the inability to support large patches of high-severity fire. These characteristics can be achieved with both fire and mechanical treatments. The possible key to convergence of fuel reduction and forest restoration strategies is integrated planning that permits treatment design flexibility and a longer-term focus on fire reintroduction for maintenance. With changing climate conditions, long-term forest conservation will probably need to be focused on keeping tree density low enough (i.e., in the lower range of historic variation) for forest conditions to adapt to emerging disturbance patterns and novel ecological processes.

中文翻译：

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森林恢复与减少燃料：趋同还是趋异？

摘要

20多年来，减少森林燃料一直是美国西部森林的主要管理措施。这些相同的行动还与高度变化的频繁火灾森林的恢复有关。这些处理方法的兼容性的关键因素可能是两者都需要结合经常发生火灾的显着特征，即景观之间植被结构和组成的变化以及无法支持大片高强度火灾。这些特性可以通过防火和机械处理来实现。减少燃料和森林恢复战略融合的可能关键是综合规划，使处理设计具有灵活性，并长期关注重新引入火力进行维护。随着气候条件的变化，