This report documents an ecological assessment of forest ecosystem health in the Southwest. The assessment focuses at the regional level and mostly pertains to lands administered by the National Forest System. Information is presented for use by forest and district resource managers as well as collaborative partners in the stewardship of Southwestern forests. The report establishes a scientific basis for conducting forest health projects, provides a context for planning ecosystem restoration, and contributes to the understanding of the physical, biological, and human dimensions of these ecosystems. Chapters describe Southwestern forest ecosystems of the past, changes since the Colonial Period, and the implications of those changes for the health of current and future forests. Opportunities, tools, and research needs for improving ecosystem sustainability are also identified.

This edited volume presents original scientific research and knowledge synthesis covering the past, present, and potential future fire ecology of major US forest types, with implications for forest management in a changing climate. The editors and authors highlight broad patterns among ecoregions and forest types, as well as detailed information for individual ecoregions, for fire frequencies and severities, fire effects on tree mortality and regeneration, and levels of fire-dependency by plant and animal communities. The foreword addresses emerging ecological and fire management challenges for forests, in relation to sustainable development goals as highlighted in recent government reports. An introductory chapter highlights patterns of variation in frequencies, severities, scales, and spatial patterns of fire across ecoregions and among forested ecosystems across the US in relation to climate, fuels, topography and soils, ignition sources (lightning or anthropogenic), and vegetation. Separate chapters by respected experts delve into the fire ecology of major forest types within US ecoregions, with a focus on the level of plant and animal fire-dependency, and the role of fire in maintaining forest composition and structure. The regional chapters also include discussion of historic natural (lightning-ignited) and anthropogenic (Native American; settlers) fire regimes, current fire regimes as influenced by recent decades of fire suppression and land use history, and fire management in relation to ecosystem integrity and restoration, wildfire threat, and climate change. The summary chapter combines the major points of each chapter, in a synthesis of US-wide fire ecology and forest management into the future. This book provides current, organized, readily accessible information for the conservation community, land managers, scientists, students and educators, and others interested in how fire behavior and effects on structure and composition differ among ecoregions and forest types, and what that means for forest management today and in the future.

Inland West, their historical origins, assessments of available management tools, and analyses of the various choices available to policymakers. Its goal is to help people understand the Inland West forests so that public policies can reflect a constructive and realistic framework in which forests can be managed for sustained health. This resource is the product of a scientific workshop where 35 participants, including scientists, resource managers, administrators, and environmentalists, addressed the forest health problem in the Inland West. Synthesis chapters integrate the diverse knowledge and experience which participants brought to the workshop. They identify and link together many of the ecological, social, and administrative conditions which have created the forest health problem in the West. The book is unique in that it reflects a process that fostered the use of academic research, field realities, and industrial knowledge to define an interdisciplinary problem, establish rational policy objectives, and set-up “do-able” management approaches. The following topics are analyzed: Assessing forest ecosystem health in the Inland West Historical and anticipated changes in forest ecosystems in the Inland West Defining and measuring forest health Historical range of variability as a tool for evaluating ecosystem change Administrative barriers to implementing forest health problems Economic and social dimensions of the forest health problem Fire management Ecosystem and landscape management