 Thicket of trees in a ponderosa pine forest located on the Long Valley Experimental Forest depicts unhealthy forest conditions. Richard T. Reynolds, USDA Forest Service. | Snapshot : Forest Service and university scientists and managers synthesized 100 years of published forestry science to help forest managers better understand the ecology of "frequent-fire" forests. This forest type, found throughout the western United States, historically experienced frequent, but low-severity surface fire events.The report provides a science-based framework that will assist land managers in developing management plans and practices to restore an uneven-aged forest structure with tree groups and grass-forb-shrub interspaces between the groups that characterized these forests before the introduction of intensive management in the 19th and 20th century. Returning frequent-fire forests to their historical species composition and structure will increase their resilience to fire, insects, disease and climate change.
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