Science synthesis to support socioecological resilience in the Sierra Nevada and southern Cascade Range

Abstract

A team of scientists integrated recent research to inform forest managers, stakeholders, and interested parties concerned with promoting socioecological resilience in the Sierra Nevada, southern Cascade Range, and Modoc Plateau. Among the focal topics were forest and fire ecology; soils; aquatic ecosystems; forest carnivores including Pacific fisher, marten, and California spotted owl; air quality; and the social, economic, and cultural components of socioecological systems. The synthesis adopted a holistic perspective by focusing on issues that cross scientific disciplines and considering the integrated nature of terrestrial and aquatic systems and the interconnections between restoration of ecological processes and the social and economic concerns of communities. A central theme is the importance of restoring key ecological processes to mitigate impacts of widespread stressors to socioecological resilience, including changes in climate, fire deficit and fuel accumulations, air pollution, and pathogens and invasive species. Key findings from the synthesis were that (1) efforts to promote resilience of socioecological systems increasingly consider the interaction of social values and ecological processes in pursuit of long-term mutual benefits and social learning for local communities and larger social networks; (2) strategic placement of treatments to reduce hazardous fuel accumulations and to restore fire as an ecosystem process within large landscapes can lower the risk of uncharacteristically large, severe, and dangerous fires, and their associated impacts to sensitive wildlife species; and (3) science suggests a need for active treatment in some riparian and core wildlife habitat to restore fire and its ecological benefits. Forest landscape management will need to be adaptive as the impacts of stressors and treatments on a range of socioecological values are determined by further research and monitoring.

Titles contained within Science synthesis to support socioecological resilience in the Sierra Nevada and southern Cascade Range

• Introduction
• Integrative approaches: promoting socioecological resilience
• Synopsis of emergent approaches
• Synopsis of climate change
• Research gaps: adaptive management to cross-cutting issues
• Forest ecology
• Genetics of forest trees
• Fire and fuels
• Fire and tribal cultural resources
• Post-wildfire management
• Soils
• Watershed and stream ecosystems
• Forested riparian areas
• Wet meadows
• Lakes: recent research and restoration strategies
• The forest carnivores: marten and fisher
• California spotted owl: scientific considerations for forest planning
• Air quality
• Social/economic/cultural components
• Broader context for social, economic, and cultural components
• Ecosystem services
• Sociocultural perspectives on threats, risks, and health
• Strategies for job creation through national forest management
• Managing forest products for community benefit
• Collaboration in national forest management

Keywords

ecological restoration, socioecological systems, ecosystem resilience, forest planning, fire management, altered fire regimes, wildfire, climate change, anthropogenic disturbance, invasive species, water resources, species of conservation concern, California

Citation

Long, Jonathan W.; Quinn-Davidson, Lenya; Skinner, Carl N., eds. 2014. Science synthesis to support socioecological resilience in the Sierra Nevada and southern Cascade Range. Gen. Tech. Rep. PSW-GTR-247. Albany, CA: U.S. Department of Agriculture, Forest Service, Pacific Southwest Research Station. 723 p.