Prescott National Forest in crisis : AZ IMC

Looking out over the hills surrounding Prescott lately, one is surrounded by images reminscent of a fall in New England - the deep greens turning to brown for the winter. But wait - the Prescott National Forest is predominantly comprised of Ponderosa Pines. It's not that the leaves are changing for the fall - it's that the trees are dying.

For over two years the southwest has experienced extreme drought and as a result the Ponderosa forests that surround Prescott are undergoing an Ips beetle epidemic and an increasing risk of fire.

Ips bark beetles that carry a blue fungus are fatal to trees. A lack of water and increased competition has decreased the trees' ability to defend themselves from the beetles. Due to drought and the inability of the trees to produce chemical repellant and sap, live trees are now being attacked on a massive scale by the Ips.

To combat the beetles and fire, the Forest Service has recently begun a thinning and clearing project in Prescott National Forest (PNF). There is currently no timber industry in the Southwest and much of the timber is being exported to California.

Said Ian Fox, of the US Forest Service "One of my primary goals is to help bring [the timber industry] back so that we can maintain a healthy ecosystem _ through the industry we can maintain a healthy forest."

Fox said the PNF has "75,000 acres in some way impacted by Ips and drought." Fox estimates half a million dead trees in the PNF, which does not include trees recently infected by the beetles. According to the US Forest Service, some 50-70 percent of PNF trees have already been lost, and if the cycle continues, the forest may see a loss of 80-100 percent of its trees.

Unless rain and winter snow accumulation returns, next years summer could see approximately 90 percent of the trees in the forest dead. With so little canopy cover, the soil will be exposed to extremely dangerous levels of sun, heat, and erosion, possibly limiting any future growth.

"If you're not doing something on a large scale you're not going to be able to do anything" said Fox in reference to the Forest Service's response to this crisis.

However, Brian Bird (of Santa Fe's Forest Conservation Council), in reference to 1995 Salvage Rider and Bush's proposed Healthy Forest Initiative, said "I think they are using the SW as an experiment for how quickly they can get in and salvage."

Past and present clear cutting techniques including commercial thinning practices are known to be detrimental to the health of a forest.

Forest Service attempts to correct the forest will most likely damage it even more. The Forest Service is thinning where trees have grown in dense conditions, and therefore trees may now be subject to increased blow down by wind and storms when southwest seasonal monsoons do return. Heavy machinery causes soil compaction, which reduces the soil's ability to maintain water. Live trees may be exposed to more harsh conditions, accelerated flash floods and runoff effects.

To complicate matters, human interference is responsible for the unstable state of the forest today.

Healthy Ponderosa Pine forests normally consist of single and small groups of trees interspersed with meadows. In a native setting one would historically see only 17-20 large trees per acre plus an assortment of smaller trees, according to the Forest Service.

Bark beetles naturally live in the forest and play a vital part in healthy forests. They break down and accelerate decomposition of downed or standing snags, thus returning nutrients and water absorbing material back into the Earth.

Under normal circumstances, low intensity fire acts to maintain open areas and stabilize the forests. However, the PNF is far from its natural state.

Around 1900, much of the PNF was clear-cut and reseeded for timber products. May of 1919 was an unusually wet season and there was an extremely high germination rate of Ponderosa Pines. Fire suppression allowed these seedlings to grow and encroach into native forest meadowlands.

PNF is currently very dense ranging from 200-600 trees per acre with predominately 90 year old single species trees. Due to overcrowding trees must compete for available nutrients and water, thus intensifying the drought effects.

In addition to the Ips beetle epidemic, fires caused by human actions as well as lightning have been fast to burn in areas of dead, dry trees. Many in the Prescott area remember last summer's so-called "Indian fire", which within 6 hours of starting spread to over 5,000 acres and threatened the city. Due to fire suppression and litter accumulation, the forest now burns at unnaturally hot levels, killing many mature trees in its way.

As for the many standing dead snags -torches waiting for flames to fuel dangerously hot fires- the forest service may have to remove them in order to protect the live trees. However, some snags need to be left in order to provide critical habitat for many nesting cavity birds including endangered indicator management species such as the Mexican Spotted Owl. Some dead standing snags should also be left intact with the aim of eventually recycling nutrients and moisture absorbing material back into the ground.

The Prescott National Forest is undergoing a crisis. In the chaos of the Ips epidemic nature may only be trying to regain control and mend her self. The past few weeks have seen this season's first heavy rain and cloudy skies allowing for moisture retention. If the rains keep up and if we see our winter snows, those trees still alive may regain the power of their natural defenses. The forest may return to its once native and healthy state.

If the drought continues into another year, it is likely we will lose the Prescott National Forest as we know it forever.