Sponsors:

Oregon State University, College of Forestry
USDA Forest Service, Region 6
USDI Bureau of Land Management
Oregon Forest Resources Institute (OFRI)

Problem:

Throughout the West wildland fire continues to affect large areas of forest and rangeland ecosystems and resource values. This has elevated the debate among the public, various interest groups, and policy-makers about federal land management policies and direction now and in future.

This conference is geared toward communities, private and public land managers and on-the-ground forest practitioners. The conference will explore the science, tools, and practical methods used for creating landscapes that are more resilient to disturbances with a particular emphasis on wildland fire.

The occurrences of uncharacteristic wildfires - those that burn with unusual intensity and size - have become a major problem in drier forest ecosystems. These include the ponderosa pine, and the dry Douglas-fir and grand fir forest types as well as rangeland and juniper woodlands. This is a direct result of increased numbers of trees and fuel loading over the last century. Intense wildland fires are increasingly expensive to suppress and the costs for watershed rehabilitation following wildfire are also high and long-term. Currently, many dry-site forests are not in a sustainable condition (e.g., resilient to natural and human-caused disturbances). However, creating fire-resilient landscapes will involve more than just placing "fuel breaks" on the landscape. Creating fire-resilient landscapes will require large-scale changes in forest and fuel structure and will require careful integration of all resource values and community assets in landscape-level plans.

Goal:

Provide timely research and practical information to resource managers and practitioners for planning and implementing fuel and restoration treatments to improve long-term sustainability of landscapes, resource values, and communities.

Objectives:

• Assess fire regime and condition class as a basis for designing fire-resilient landscapes.
  
• Summarize the effects of fuel and fuel arrangement and loading on fire behavior.
  
• Summarize fire effects on soils and watershed processes.
  
• Involving the public and incorporating public concerns in designing landscape-level treatments.
  
• Illustrate the economic realities of fuel reduction and restoration treatments.
  
• Provide an overview of landscape planning tools for managers and practitioners.

Focus Questions:

• What does it take to do landscape level treatments: costs, planning, and politics?
  
• How much of the landscape requires treatment to effectively modify wildland fire behavior?
  
• What do landscape-level treatments look like and how do managers integrate other resource values?
  
• What does fire-resiliency mean in rangeland and juniper woodland ecosystems?
  
• What kinds of new landscape planning tools are available to assist resource managers?
  
• How do managers effectively collaborate with the public to get landscape treatments accomplished?
  
• How will the Healthy Forest Legislation facilitate landscape treatments on federal lands?
  
• How do work effectively and in a timely manner in wildland-urban interface areas?

Conference Format:

Plenary sessions will occur on Day 1 and 2. A field trip is planned for Day 3 to view landscape-level treatments. There are concurrent sessions on Day 4 and an optional field trip to the Biscuit Fire on Day 5.