In the Sierras, New Approaches to Protecting Forests Under Stress

1. I already knew about the dramatically declining forest population numbers, especially in the United States. Due to previous research experience, I was aware of the methods which are used by restoration ecologists and the general ideas which they use to govern their practice – that of reintroducing all the species which existed in a given habitat before human practice altering that composition. I was also aware that climate change was causing heat waves, droughts, insects plagues and wildfires. I had read about the vast wildfires which are currently affecting the Sierra-Nevada region and the reason for them being that there is lots of dry brush and natural burning of that has been suppressed.

2. I learned about the realignment approach - how it differs, and is aided by a resistance and resilience approach. The resistance and resilience approach involves forest thinning (getting rid of that dry brush) and the creation of a vulnerability map in order to help choose what areas need the mechanical help of brush removal most. The realignment approach involves actively moving populations – sometimes through physically assisted migration – in order to create populations in the boundaries of a species habitat that are strong and will survive. Sometimes the realignment approach actually involves looking at the fossil record to understand exactly where populations have existed in the past and the potential usage of those areas in the future to establish populations in conditions which are optimal. Since climate change is changing the conditions of current habitats, it is these boundaries in the fossil record which might be necessary since temperature fluctuations like this have occurred in the 2.6 million years which Sequoias have been around.

3. This is relevant to class because it relates to the resilience of a ecosystem and how to increase the resilience of that ecosystem. This piece primarily discusses the environmental risk of wildfires and how to both reduce them and help the forest populations survive. Because of global climate change, caused by society we are experiencing more of these environmental risks which could be reduced through sustainability. Additionally, this article discusses the usage of knowledge from paleoecologists in order to better understand the adaptive cycles of the Sequoia ecosystem and what they both can withstand and cannot withstand according to the fossil record.

4. I think that this concept of using realignment, and sometimes physically assistant migration, as a way to save populations of trees is interesting and a tactic that could sound great on paper but be very difficult in practice. Essentially, this process will still utilize restoration ecology, which is a very challenging process in combination with finding new lands for these forests to survive on. I could not quite understand if the process is already underway or if there are just plans in place in the case that experts decide that it is necessary to start establishing native populations elsewhere. I do think that this article brings up a very important point in that when looking at how to handle this drastic climate change we should consult the fossil record. While our climate change is going to be more dramatic than what is “natural”, we can better understand how to help populations adapt to their best ability through looking at what strategies flora and fauna used in the past.