National Fire
Roundtable
March 13–15,
2001
Flagstaff, Arizona
Co-sponsored
by
The Nature Conservancy
USDA Forest Service
Executive
Summary
The Nature
Conservancy (TNC) and the USDA Forest Service (USFS, Forest Service) sponsored
a highly successful three-day National Fire Roundtable March 13.15, 2001. The
meeting, which took place in Flagstaff, Arizona, was attended by 60 Conservancy
staff and key partners from federal and state agencies across the United
States.
'Altered fire regimes/fire exclusion' is one
of the top five threats identified in a recent analysis of TNC.s U.S.
ecoregional conservation portfolio. Because state and federal agencies are
majority owners of many Conservancy portfolio sites, the Roundtable was a
critical step in the Conservancy.s efforts to address the threat of altered
fire regimes at meaningful conservation scales. The meeting coincided with the
emerging National Fire Plan and congressional funding aimed at reducing
hazardous fuels and restoring fire-adapted ecosystems on public and private
lands across the country. Congress added $1.8 billion to the FY 01 budget to
address these issues and is expected to provide similar levels of funding over
the next decade.
The goals of the roundtable were to: (1)
educate Conservancy staff about opportunities available under the National Fire
Plan; (2) establish formal and informal partnerships and a national-level
dialogue among Conservancy and fire-related federal and state agencies; (3)
identify areas of overlapping needs and interests, respective strengths, and
compatible strategies; and (4) use ecoregional portfolios to identify a draft
national-scale list of landscape projects of mutual interest to all or many
partners.
Key Conclusions and
Outcomes
• The National Fire Plan offers an exceptional opportunity
to restore fire-adapted ecosystems at meaningful scales;
• The appropriate scales of restoration are landscapes and
ecoregions, and Conservancy ecoregional portfolios should be an important
factor in federal and state priority setting;
• Creative, outside-the-box approaches are greatly needed to
break down barriers;
• Community-based and adaptive management strategies with
multiple objectives are among
the most important strategies;
• Demonstrating immediate, short-term success on the ground
will be critical to maintaining
Congressional and public support;
• Success will require that the fuel reduction strategies in
the National Fire Plan (e.g., logging
and tree thinning) are matched with
ecologically oriented restoration goals;
1
USDA Forest Service, 2000,
Protecting People and
Sustaining Resources in Fire-Adapted Ecosystems: A Cohesive
Strategy; A Collaborative Ten-Year Strategy
For Restoring Health To Fire-Adapted Ecosystems, Version 5,
February 20, 2001.
: