Fire and Forest Ecology
Fire has long been an essential and natural force that has influenced the ecosystems of the Sierra Nevada. Natural and vital ecological functions such as plant regeneration, soil function, nutrient cycling, habitat revitalization, disease control, predator prey dynamics, biological diversity, and vegetation development, have long been influenced by a natural fire regime. After a century of suppressing fires in the Sierra Nevada the forest ecosystems throughout the range have been altered, but fire must still play an important role in the future health of our forests. Focusing on the removal of surface and ladder fuels, while protecting the largest most fire-resistant trees, is essential to returning the Sierra to a natural fire cycle while maintaining the integrity of a healthy forest.
Information about the role of fire in maintaining Sierra Nevada forest biodiversity, structure, and reliency is found throughout the Sierra Forest Legacy website. That's because the role of fire is really inseparable from all other aspects of forest ecology here. Read more about fire science in the links in the panel to the left, and also check out the links to climate change and other forest threats under the bars to your left. Each of these opens up to a new webpage with lots of information, including many scientific research papers that you can read or download.
The forests of the Sierra Nevada are dynamic and interconnected ecosystems which are among the most diverse ecoregions on the planet. The many varied habitats and topography of the region coupled with the frequent fire regime has resulted in unique adaptations and high levels of diversity. The forests contain a wide range of habitats and plant communities including meadows, springs, streams and rivers, oak woodlands, montane chaparral, diverse hardwoods, conifer forests, and a host of unique communities in the sub-alpine and alpine regions. Twenty-five different species of coniferous trees are found in the Sierra Nevada, making it one of the most conifer-diverse regions on the planet. Appropriate management is essential to ensure their long-tem protection and restoration. Sensitive and unique habitats are frequently the home to the region's rarest species.
Ensuring that projects proposed by land managers of our publicly owned lands do not irreparably harm ecologically rich habitat or change the natural cycles of the forest environment is an essential part of the work that we do.
The forests of the Sierra Nevada provide wildlife habitat, fresh water, biological diversity, and clean air, and they also provide opportunities for recreation and employment. The future of Sierra Nevada forests lies not with intense resource extraction at its center, but with a new era in which forest communities thrive and depend upon the ecosystem services that our forests provide. The economic value of our forests can be difficult to ascertain but we believe that providing jobs and recreation opportunities can and should work in concert with protecting wildlife habitat and the ecological systems that make the Sierra Nevada so unique and valuable. You can read more about that aspect of our work in the Community Forestry sections of the website.