This report from the Sierra Club reviews the science of forest fire ecology and how it is currently being misused or ignored altogether in the Bush Administration's "Health Forests" initiative. It draw upon a wide range of federal reports, peer-reviewed forest ecology research, and a wide range of press and lobbyist reports showing that ultimately, the initiative is not driven by forest ecology science or even a desire to protect communities from danger, but by the timber industry and the ideological passions of Bush's conservative voter base who perceive forestry science to be an infringement of the wishes of rural property owners.

This report from the American Lands Alliance provides another thorough, yet readable overview of forest fire ecology, and why it must be a part of any sound forest management plan.

In this article from the Jan. 2001 edition of Audubon magazine, Ted Williams discusses the year 2000 fire season and the futility of trying to fight the natural cycle of fire in forest ecosystems. He also shows how timber industry logging practices exacerbate the destructiveness of such fires, and the foolishness of using logging in unpopulated (but highly profitable) areas to solve problems created by logging in populated ones. Naturally, this policy is the foundation of the Bush Administration's "Healthy Forests" initiative that is so loved by the timber industry and ultra-conservative special interests, who are ultimately interested in the large short-term profits to be made, have little understanding of the role fire plays in the life cycle of forests, and hysterically blame forest fire damage on environmentalists and scientists who do. An archive of Ted’s works including this one is available in my Ted Williams Archive.

These reports from the U.S. Forest Service present refereed scientific research overviews of the relationships between forest fires and biodiversity. Three separate ecological niches are examined in detail: arthropods, flora, and aquatic ecosystems including stream and riparian habitats and the fish and wildlife they support.

This report from a year 2002 U.S. Forest Service conference provides a knowledge base and summary of lessons learned regarding various fuel treatments and their role in managing forest fires for the restoration of damaged and/or threatened forested regions.

These papers provide research on forest fire dependent ecological regions and their management in several regions of the United States. Specific case studies are investigated including Southern U.S. hardwood forests and the ponderosa pine based forested ecosystems of the Eastern Cascade mountains in Washington state, just two or three hours east of my home.

This report examines the role of fire in shortgrass prairie ecosystems and the effects of proscribed burns in their management.