Brings together the writings of practitioners and thinkers from a variety of fields--including forestry, biology, philosophy, ecology, political science, archaeology, botany, and geography--to synthesize what is known about ecological restoration in ponderosa pine forests and to consider the factors involved in developing and implementing a successful restoration effort.

Restoration treatments that include prescribed burning, often preceded by thinning to reduce fuel loads, have the potential to improve the ecological health of these forests. In order to wisely set the goals that underlie these treatments, it is useful for us to know as much as possible about past forest conditions, especially the reference conditions that existed before forest structure and function were altered by Euro-American settlers. They formed the evolutionary environment of southwestern ponderosa pine trees a fairly stable environment, in other words, in which this tree species and many other plants and animals evolved and adapted. Restoring conditions similar to those of the evolutionary environment is not a matter of trying to return to the past; rather, it is only a way to assure the long-term health of these forests into the future.

This Working Paper is one of a series that describes the planning and implementation of restoration treatments in southwestern ponderosa pine forests. In this paper the treatment type is designed to emulate the forest structure prevalent before the landscape-level disturbances that followed Euro-American settlement. It represents the best scientifically based knowledge currently available about treatment types and effects. But this Working Paper is not a prescription. Restoration decisions need to be made with close attention to local conditions there is no one size fits all approach, and specific prescriptions must be determined according to project objectives. Use this publication as an aid in making informed decisions about how to restore more natural conditions, and greater health, to the southwestern ponderosa pine forests.

This Working Paper is one of a series that describes the planning and implementation of restoration treatments in southwestern ponderosa pine forests. In this paper the treatment type is based on the Stand Treatment Impacts on Forest Health (STIFH) restoration treatmentsmulti-aged group selection. It represents the best scientifically-based knowledge currently available about treatment types and effects. But this Working Paper is not a prescription. Restoration decisions need to be made with close attention to local conditionsthere is no one size fits all approach, and specific prescriptions must be determined according to project objectives. Use this publication as an aid in making informed decisions about how to restore more natural conditions, and greater health, to the southwestern ponderosa pine forests.

Until recently, forest managers have largely ignored the value of maintaining dynamic spatial patterns in forested ecosystems. In the America Southwest, where the norm in overstocked forests that are extremely susceptible to catastrophic fires and/or insect infestations and disease, restoring a spatial pattern of openings and tree groups would help alleviate these threats and move the forests within their historic range of variability. This ERI working paper focuses on restoring a dynamic spatial pattern to ponderosa pine forests in the American Southwest. It also addresses basic questions that land managers and others have about how to restore active spatial patterns across the forested Southwest.

Since 1995, the Ecological Restoration Institute (ERI) at Northern Arizona University (NAU) has been working with the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) and Arizona Game and Fish Department (AGFD) to implement and monitor large-scale ponderosa pine forest ecosystem restoration in northwest Arizona. This work has already produced many valuable lessons that have been applied to restoration in the Uinkaret Mountains on the Arizona Strip, but many of those lessons may also be useful elsewhere. This document summarizes operational lessons learned during more than five years of intensive research, and suggests how it may be applied at other ponderosa pine restoration sites in the Southwest.

We describe the distinguishing physical characteristics of old ponderosa pine trees in the Front Range of Colorado, the processes that tend to preserve them, their past and present ecological significance, and their role in ecosystem restoration. Photographs illustrate identifying features of old ponderosa pines and show how to differentiate them from mature and young trees. The publication includes a photographic gallery of old ponderosa pine trees growing on poor, moderate, and good sites. We illustrate trees growing under various forest conditions and with different injuries and histories. We discuss dendrochronological methods of aging old trees and determining their fire history. The companion field guide includes a condensed description of ponderosa pine ecology, distinguishing characteristics of old ponderosa pines, and a photographic gallery illustrating their identifying features.