HomeMy WebLinkAboutUpper Desch Basin - Fire Learning NetworkUpper Deschutes Basin Fire Learning Network
Letter of Agreement and Principles of Restoration
This Letter of Agreement represents the interest of Fire Learning Network Participants, a non -chartered
group, to advance the mission of the Upper Deschutes Basin Fire Learning Network and to honor the
agreements that are collaboratively developed. Participants include federal and state agencies, local
governments, local community groups, conservation organizations, and forest products industries.
Mission:
Operating under the self directed mission of Accelerating the restoration offire-adapted systems while
protecting communities from fire, the team has developed 2 general goals;
1) Implement ecosystem restoration strategies and fuels reduction at ecologically meaningful scales: and
2) Foster innovation and transfer lessons learned to other projects, scientists and decision makers. As a
fundamental step in achieving these goals the Upper Deschutes Basin team wants to develop a commor.
vision or desired condition for the entire Deschutes Basin Landscape utilizing the best available science
and incorporating values through collaborative partnerships.
What participation means:
The Fire Learning Network incorporates the interests of multiple stakeholders, and uses the best available
science to try to find a balanced desired condition that promotes the resilience and sustainability of our
fire -adapted forests. Fire Learning Network participation and involvement on federal projects does not
necessarily reflect endorsement of that project by all participants.
We agree to:
• Work collaboratively on multiple phases of forest restoration projects:
o Develop a common desired condition and vision for our forest.
o Identify priority areas for forest restoration.
o Participate in federal project planning in priority areas.
o Engage and support multiparty monitoring.
• Actively participate in the Fire Learning Network Collaborative through its meetings, committees,
field tours and other activities.
Together, we have developed these Principles of Restoration:
• Collaborate with diverse stakeholders at the front-end of project planning in an open, transparent
process.
• Restore natural processes and function within the biophysical setting's natural range of variability.
• Plan restoration projects with landscape scale objectives, with project treatments placed on the
landscape in a strategic way.
• Prioritize treatments so that placement can benefit multiple values; incorporate fire risk and threats,
biodiversity, old-growth maintenance and development and wildlife attributes.
• Incorporate lessons learned into adaptive management strategies as validated by monitoring.
• Integrate ecological restoration with public values and funding feasibility.
• Incorporate best science to ensure biodiversity is restored and ecosystem resilience and resistance
to natural disturbances is sustainable.
• Make by-products of forest restoration treatments available for utilization in ways that support
local businesses and workers and that build local capacity to implement further restoration w ork
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Upper Deschutes Basin Fire Learning Network
Letter of Agreement and Principles of Restoration
Signature Affiliation
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Upper Deschutes Basin Fire Learning Network
Terminology
Adaptive Management :A type of natural resource management in which decisions are made as part of an ongoing process.
Adaptive management combines planning, implementing, monitoring, research, evaluating, and incorporating new knowledge
into management approaches based on scientific findings and the needs of society. Results are used to modify future
management methods and policy. (AZ Guiding Principles)
Biodiversity : The variety of life forms and processes including complexity of species, communities, gene pools, and
ecological functions (Rickleffs, 1986, Ecology).
Biophysical Settings (BpS): Represents the vegetation that may have been dominant on the landscape prior to Euro -American
settlement and is based on both the current biophysical environment and an approximation of the historical disturbance regime.
It is a refinement of the Environmental Site Potential layer; in this refinement, we attempt to incorporate current scientific
knowledge regarding the functioning of ecological processes — such as fire — in the centuries preceding non -indigenous hurr:an
influence. (Landfire 2007)
Ecologically sustainable :Emphasizing and maintaining the underlying ecological processes that ensure long-term
productivity of goods, services, and values without impairing the productivity of the land. (Source: ICBEMP Draft EIS)
ALSO: Meeting the needs of the current generation without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their needs.
Ecological sustainability entails maintaining the composition, structure and processes of a system, as well as species diversity
and ecological productivity. The core element of sustainability is that it is future -oriented. (Committee of Scientists Report,
1999.)
Economic feasibility: The ability to obtain the financial resources necessary to conduct restoration projects on the ground It is
anticipated that these resources may come from congressionally appropriated funds, the commercial value of byproducts
removed during restoration, and/or private philanthropy. An assessment of economic feasibility will include both a project
budget and anticipated sources of funding to carry out the work proposed. (MT Guiding Principles)
Ecosystem Function: The interactions among organisms and interactions between organisms and their environment. (SER
2004)
Ecosystem Process: Ecosystem Function (SER 2004) and the actions or events that link organisms and their environment,
such as predation, mutualism, successional development, nutrient cycling, carbon sequestration, primary productivity, and
decay. Natural disturbance processes often occur with some periodicity (From Webster's dictionary, adapted to ecology).
Ecosystem Resilience: The ability of a system to regain structural and functional attributes that have suffered harm from stress
or disturbances. Resiliency is one of the properties that enable the system to persist in many different states or successional
stages. (SER 2004)
Ecosystem Resistance: The ability of a system to maintain its structure and functional attributes in the face of stress ant
disturbances. (SER 2004).
Ecosystem Restoration: The intentional process which initiates the recovery of an altered ecosystem to a state of ecolorical
integrity. (MT Guiding Principles)
Ecosystem/Ecological Integrity: The condition where an ecosystem maintains its characteristic diversity of biological and
physical components, spatial patterns, structure, and functional processes within its approximate range of historic variability or
the reference condition. These processes include: disturbance regimes, nutrient cycling, hydrologic functions, vegetation
succession, and species adaptation and evolution. (SER 2004) Ecosystems with integrity are resilient and sustainable.
Forest Ecosystem Health: (often used interchangeably with integrity) A condition where the parts and functions of an.
ecosystem are sustained over time and where the system's capacity for self -repair is maintained, allowing goals for uses,
values, and services of the ecosystem to be met (AZ Guiding Principles).
Historic Range of Variability: The range of variability of a given metric (for example, tree density, grass and forb diversity,
insect outbreak levels) during a time when natural processes were intact.
Landscape Scale: The scale, or size of a landscape, that incorporates the natural processes, function and biodiversity;it a
sustainable level. A landscape consists of a mosaic of two or more ecosystems that exchange organisms, energy, water and
nutrients. (SER 2004)
References:
AZ (Arizona) Guiding Principles. From Arizona Forest Health Advisory Counci. 2003. Guiding principles for forest ecosystem restoratimn. and
community protection. www.governor.state.az.us/fhc/documents.
Committee of Scientists Report. 1999.
LANDFIRE. (2007, January - last update). [Homepage of the LANDFIRE Project, U.S. Department of Agriculture, Forest Service; U.S. I:epartment
of Interior], [Online]. Available: http://www.landfire.gov/index.php [2007, February 8]..
MT (Montana) Guiding Principles: Altemus, J. et al. September 2007. Restoring Montana's National Forest Lands: Guiding Principles ar 1
Recommended Implementation, www.montanarestoration.org.
Ricklefs, R.E. 2001. Ecology. Harper and Collins, New York.
SER (2004). Society for Ecological Restoration International Science and Policy Working Group. 20004. The SER International Primer i. n
Ecological Restoration, Version 2. Society for Ecological Restoration Science and Tucson: Society for Ecological Restoration
International. http://www.ser.org/
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