Yale Bulletin and Calendar

April 25, 2003|Volume 31, Number 27

F&ES events look at the role
of fire in forest management

Fire -- its role in forest management and what policymakers need to know about its impact on the wild -- will be the topic of a forum and workshop on Monday and Tuesday, April 28 and 29, at the School of Forestry and Environmental Studies (F&ES).

Experts will discuss the environmental, social and economic impact of Colorado's Hayman fire, which destroyed 137,000 acres of federal and private land last summer, on April 28, at 4 p.m. in Bowers Auditorium, Sage Hall, 205 Prospect St.

The forum, titled "Public Policy Tradeoffs in Forest Management, Fire Management and Restoration of Fire-damaged Watersheds: Lessons from the Hayman Fire," is free and open to the public.

The Hayman fire affected a municipal watershed that serves 1.3 million people in the Denver metropolitan area. Emergency efforts to rehabilitate burned areas began before the fire was completely contained, yet it will require several more years to restore the watershed and protect the Denver water supply, and alleviate fuel loading and overcrowding. The Forest Service of the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA), the Natural Resource Conservation Service, the State of Colorado, the Denver Water Authority and community organizations are coordinating efforts to plan and implement restoration projects.

The Yale forum will examine which wildfire impacts are monitored by federal, state and local agencies; how priorities are set for the rehabilitation and restoration of burned areas; and whether current federal policies assist or restrict recovery efforts.

Participants will include Carol Ekarius, executive director of the Coalition for the Upper South Platte; Corbin Neuman Jr., national fire plan coordinator for the USDA Forest Service; Merrill Kaufmann, research forest ecologist for the USDA Forest Service's Rocky Mountain Research Station; Mike Harvey, district forester for the Colorado State Forest Service; and Hamlet (Chips) Barry, general manager of the Denver Water Department.

Wildfire workshop

The dialogue on the availability of information on wildfire impacts and the usefulness of this information for risk assessment and wildfire management will continue at a workshop titled "Developing Strategies to Collect and Utilize Critical Wildfire Impact Information," to be held on April 29, from 8:30 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. in Marsh Hall, 360 Prospect St.

The workshop will focus on several key questions: "What information do policy makers need to know about the impacts from wildfire?" "How can consistent and meaningful information be collected at a variety of levels for this purpose?" "How can wildfire impact data be incorporated into wildfire management?" "What are the critical components of the wildfire risk landscape?" And: "How can these risks be evaluated both spatially and temporally?"

For more information on the forum or to participate in the workshop on April 29, contact Page Bertelsen at (203) 432-5117 or yff@yale.edu.

Both events are sponsored by the Global Institute for Sustainable Forestry and the American Forest & Paper Association.

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