Oct 4, 2020
Today’s forest restoration is based on the mistaken idea that historic fires often burned frequently
and stayed on the ground (“Forest restoration will prevent disaster here,” Letters to the Editor, Sept.
27). In fact, before European settlement, fires burned much less often than generally assumed and
occasionally flared up to kill all the trees. For example, the driest forest types in the Santa Fe
watershed experienced a fire on average once every forty years, not the once every 5 to 10 years
commonly reported.
Restoration efforts are thrown off course by sampling only mature trees that have survived low intensity fires to generalize about fire histories. Non-random sampling fails to see that the majority
of Western landscapes were once made up of younger forests shaped by and adapted to fires of all
types.
The smoke from intentionally started fires not only threatens public health during the pandemic but
also harms microbial communities that replenish soil nutrients and organic matter and enhance
water absorption. Standing dead trees, down logs and native shrubs important to wildlife are also
depleted by continuous burning at short intervals. Most significantly, restoration that eliminates 90
percent of the younger trees slows recovery following wildfires and works against forest adaptation
to a warmer and dryer world.
Sam Hitt
Preserving Southwestern forests and wildlife