Fire Recovery. Part 2

and strawberry peak in the san bernardino mountains a group of biologists looks down on a stretch of highway eight team below it are miles of blackened hills with no visible vegetation above the highway a lot of the landscape is thick with trees the mid day sun might close on their yellow and orange foliage but it's not a comforting site to forest service ecologist hugh safford from ever since amid the dead trees are still standing they weren't killed by fire but by drought and the infestation of bark beetles an estimated one million of them are dead or dying in the san bernardino mountains forester john rocha braga says it's a dangerous situation we still have a lot of acres that have extremely hazardous fuels us on most hazardous fuel conditions that any of us professionals i've ever seen in our careers rebel brew this is the problem is compounded by the fact that over the past century the forest service has aggressively suppressed fire in the conifer forests we know there's a lot of evidence the conifer forests used to burn more frequently and with more moderate intensity and severity then they're burning in modern times

rebel brigade says with suppression disrupting natural fires cycles the forest has no denser and more prone to devastating rather than beneficial fires fires that would not only threaten homes but could also wipe out wildlife habitat and burnham seeds the forest leads to regenerate over the next thirty years the forest service plans to spend millions of dollars to remove dead trees and plant seedlings but other changes brought by people will make restoration difficult at another stop ecologist hugh safford bends over a patch of cheap grass growing at the edge of a highway system a certain mythic the film on the two fifth for three brass is an invasive non native plant that was transported to the us in green seed from europe it drives after disturbances such as fire or logging and it makes the forest more flammable it spread so easily says straw mean this particular system will extend the

help of another big deal because the jews are our goals and the issue most reasonable guess jil seedlings the biologists including stanford and rebel group also stopped to look at a section of the forest next to the community of lake arrowhead nearly all the trees are dead and cheat grasses growing alongside the road one i think is an ecologist about where we really want to go and i think in general terms i think we wanna get back to some really pretty unspecified but some some situation from the distant past and can we ever get their hear a mechanic every do we ever any of the systems to where you can actually let these things burn i just don't see that happening and i still see full suppression all the time and then maybe some prescribe fire where and when possible michael gruber agrees it can be difficult to be because of the proximity of communities both adjacent to the forest and within the forest it would be we would be hard pressed to say we never have fuel conditions where we can allow nature to run its course and not have an undesirable adverse effects to the community but the loss of natural fires cycles in the

forest will likely mean more management is needed to simulate natural processes and the cost will be high the forest service's route when strom says fire suppression and other management may also be necessary to protect some wildlife because southern california has lost a lot of habitat she's especially worried about the forests population of spotted owls which rely on older conifer trees have put it has been officially involved as the belt will come back buyers will cause a prominent member of a it still scares me or nice when i see some of these areas are just so completely five years we need to look at what do we need to do to keep what we want as the dead trees are cut or fall communities of plants and animals in the san bernardino national forest will change oak trees will become more dominant birds that like open areas will thrive other species may decline encroached on by non native species may be inevitable and it will be decades before the mountains are crowned with tall green pines again with or without management the

forest will look very different over the next century in the san bernardino national forest hills as advil at nine point three kpcc