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L/FOG Temp: 46 °F Wind: CLM at 0 mph Friday, November 22, 2002 SECTIONS Home Page Local News Sports Business Obituaries Life Opinion - Politics AP News Weather Classified Archives Site Map EXTRA HomeLife Magazine W3 Magazine Jobs @ Mail Tribune Tempo A & E Oregon CarZone Wellness Connection Real Estate Newspaper in Education Prime Times Outdoor Journal Personals Movie Times TV Times E The People CLASSIFIEDS Find a Car Find a Home Find a Job Find Everything E SOUTHERN OREGON Automotive Communities Entertainment Publications Recreation Calendar ABOUT US FAQ What's New Advertise Home Delivery Classified Ad Contact Us Media Kit Email Story to a Friend October 6, 2002 Ecologists seek better fire response A two-day workshop at SOU begins a process for future forest management By PAUL FATTIG Mail Tribune ASHLAND — It wasn’t exactly a stealth session, but fire ecologists from around the nation gathered for a wildfire workshop at Southern Oregon University didn’t broadcast their presence. The roughly 30 prominent scientists from institutions such as Pennsylvania State University and U.S. Geological Survey didn’t meet with the media or make speeches. Instead, they gathered to debate and come up with a common ecological foundation on which to build a community response to wildfires. "It was a roll-up-your-sleeves workshop," said participant Jack Williams, senior fellow and science coordinator at SOU’s AuCoin Institute. "There is a tremendous scientific interest in what’s going on in the Klamath-Siskiyou area now." The two-day workshop, which concluded Thursday, was sponsored by the institute and the Ashland-based Headwaters environmental group. The institute is an interdisciplinary center for ecological, economic and civic studies. The workshop marked the beginning of a process that will involve continuing communications among the scientists until they largely agree on a basic ecological framework, organizers said. A series of local public workshops will be held next spring to discuss the scientific guidelines that are developed by the group. A fishery scientist and former supervisor of the Rogue River and Siskiyou national forests, Williams acknowledged that land management decisions are not based on science alone. "We recognize that scientific principles in and of themselves are not adequate to form the basis of future land management and project planning," he said. "However, these principles should provide a solid foundation from which we can initiate a broad-based community discussion." His wife, Cindy Williams, a workshop participant, fellow fisheries scientist and Headwaters’ forest watch monitor, said everyone agrees that public forestlands need to be managed better. "Unfortunately, what is better remains subject to debate," she said. "Political efforts to reach a definition are proving to be divisive and uncertain. This gathering of experts will help us understand what a scientifically sound definition should mean." In addition to fire ecologists, the group also included forest, aquatic and wildlife ecologists along with soil scientists, hydrologists and other experts. They represented the U.S. Forest Service, Humboldt State University, SOU, University of Washington, Oregon State University, Idaho State University, National Park Service, World Wildlife Fund, Defenders of Wildlife, The Nature Conservancy and the Lomakatsi Restoration Project. Nearly 30 pages of scientific notes were generated out of the workshop. "We’ve identified some preliminary ecological principles," Cindy Williams said. "We’re nailing them down. But we’ll be working through the fall and winter to elaborate and flesh them out. We’ll use the final document for public outreach in the spring." The goal of the group is to make sure the science is sound and that fear of fires does not drive management decisions, she said. "The general consensus is there is enough knowledge to act with intelligence but we need to be very clear about what we don’t know," she said. The workshop was merely a starting point, Jack Williams said. "There was clearly an agreement in the valuable role wildfire has played in the region’s ecology and the role it will continue to play in the future," he said, later adding, "It was also clear that we need to work across scientific disciplines, that fire ecologists need to talk to fish scientists who need to talk to hydrologists and soil scientists. "This will take more than a two-day effort," he added. "We’ve got a lot of work ahead of us." Reach reporter Paul Fattig at 776-4496 or e-mail him at [email protected] Printer Friendly Version Email Story to a Friend Subscribe Archive: Click to Search Mail Tribune Home Local News | Sports | Business | Obituaries | Life Opinion - Politics | AP News | Archives | Site Map E Southern Oregon | Classified Copyright 1997-2002 Mail Tribune. All rights reserved. Privacy Policy webmaster feedback A D V E R T I S E R S