San Bernardino National Forest Land Management Plan - Part 2

September 2005 Land Management Plan Part 2
San Bernardino National Forest Strategy
effects of fires, such as stand replacement, type conversion or increased post-fire erosion and
debris flows.
Urban communities and infrastructure are protected from fire by reducing the flame length and
intensity of fires to allow suppression opportunities. While in many cases the greatest benefit
from this protection is achieved by reducing fuel loads near the infrastructure needing protection,
fuel treatments some distance from the improvements can also be effective if strategically placed
on the landscape relative to the direction fire is most likely to come from. Strategically placed
fuel treatments can be used to stop fires, change their direction of spread, or reduce their
intensity, all of which can contribute to protecting communities and infrastructure from damage.
Severe ecological effects of fires typically result from either extreme fire behavior or from large
areas being burned in a single event, particularly with high intensity. Fuel treatments that reduce
the amount of fuel, reduce the continuity of fuels, or result in less favorable fuel arrangements
generally reduce the potential for severe ecological effects of fires. Locating fuels treatments
strategically with respect to a value to be protected, such as an important watershed, or
threatened or endangered species habitat, can result in benefits proportionally greater than the
amount of area treated. Particularly in pine and mixed conifer forest types, fuel conditions are
generally considered worse and the amount of destructive stand replacement fire is greater than
what occurred historically, due to the disruption of the historic fire regime of more frequent,
moderate severity fires. Fuel reduction treatments can reduce the severity of future fires and
therefore contribute to sustaining healthy forests.
Fuel reduction treatments may be accomplished mechanically, or with the use of prescribed fire
or herbicides. Mechanical treatments involve removing dead trees, thinning live trees, and
thinning or removing shrubs, and disposing of the resulting slash. The resulting reduction in
amount and continuity of surface and ladder fuels moves forested stands from Condition Class 3
towards Condition Class 1, and reduces the flame length, and intensity of fires in chaparral and
forest stands. Prescribed burning is used to dispose of slash from mechanical activities, to
reduce fire hazard in chaparral near communities, to break up fuel continuity across the
landscape to limit wildland fire patch size, and for restoration and maintenance of healthy conifer
forests. In many cases, mechanical fuels reduction treatments are needed to restore conifer
forests to a condition suitable for successful reintroduction of fire, that is, to restore fire behavior
and effects to be similar to the historic fire regime. Herbicides may be used for maintenance of
mechanical fuel treatments or to eradicate invasive nonnative plants that displace native
vegetation.
In addition to the benefits of thinning in reducing ladder fuels, thinning also reduces competition
for water, sunlight, and nutrients among trees, or between trees and other vegetation such as
grasses and shrubs. This reduction of competition is important for improving survival of planted
trees, increasing growth, and reducing mortality resulting from trees having inadequate
resources.
Planting of desirable species (generally native species from local seed sources) is another
common technique in vegetation management. Planting of trees or shrubs is used to facilitate
regeneration of vegetation following events, such as stand replacement fire or extensive
mortality caused by drought in combination with insects and diseases.
The combination of all of these techniques (applied according to site specific prescriptions)
allows managing vegetation for various purposes, such as more rapidly growing larger trees for
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