Fire in Sierra Nevada Forests by George E. Gruell

Fire in Sierra Nevada Forests - A Photographic Interpretation of Ecological Change Since 1849
by George E. Gruell

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Published by Mountain Press Publishing Company
In Cooperation with The Forest Foundation
ISBN: 0878424466

Books on repeat photography are fascinating. They usually compare two photos taken a century or more apart and offer readers a visual time machine. The photos beg to be viewed over and over.

This book called Fire in Sierra Nevada Forests - A Photographic Interpretation of Ecological Change Since 1849 uses an extensive collection of past and present images of the Sierra Nevada to support evidence documenting how "post disturbance" land management techniques might actually be loving the land to death. In certain cases, limiting logging and removing fire is increasing the risk of catastrophic fire and weakening forest's ability to ward off damaging insects and disease.

Fire in Sierra Nevada Forests suggests that "the process of periodic disturbance" associated with logging and fire, improves water quality and yield, enhances wildlife habitat, renews scenic and aesthetic quality, and elevates wood and livestock production. Even John Muir, in 1894, writes about the benefits of disturbance when noting that "The trees of all the species stand more or less apart in groves, or in small irregular groups, enabling one to find a way nearly everywhere, along sunny colonades and through openings that have a smooth, park-like surface." Muir liked to look at the disturbed forest.

This photographic album and analytical report, supported by 93 past and present photographic sets, provides evidence that present land management practices may be failing. The use of repeat photographs and historical ecology forms the basis for an analysis presented in Fire in Sierra Nevada Forests. The analysis uses baseline "predisturbance era" photos to show how latter-day changes in the land's vegetative cover has increased the risk for "devastating, extra-hot wildfires that destroy property and wildlife".

Fire forces you to take a long, hard look before acting on conservation plans that continue to exclude fire and logging. It begs for the development of new plans outlining techniques for clearing away unnatural and excessive levels of flammable vegetation from the forest floor. Fire suggests that planning should re-introduce thinning and harvesting trees and restore fire by prescription.

This is a must buy for people who love Sierra Nevada forests and for those interested in an analysis of the effects of forest disturbance.

Fire in Sierra Nevada Forests was written by wildlife biologist George E. Gruell. Gruell has worked in several western North American states for five decades and done extensive work in the area of repeat photography. He has written on vegetation succession, wildlife habitat condition and trends, and fire ecology.