November 2008
“There was too much of a good thing,” explained Jon Bakker, assistant professor in the College of Forest Resources.
In this case, Bakker was referring to trees.
Bakker’s work focuses on the restoration and management of ecosystems. And sometimes forest restoration requires the removal of trees – a strategy many of us would associate as destructive to the environment.
One of Bakker’s research projects involves Ponderosa pines in the Southwest region of the United States. Here, an increase of trees has provided fuel for larger, and historically unnatural, crown fires.
“There used to be fewer trees and large enough spaces between them that fires would burn along the ground without killing many of them. Now when the fire burns, it climbs into the crowns of trees and kills a lot of them,” Bakker said. “That area has one of the highest numbers of lightning strikes in the US, so there are a lot of fires that happen because of that. If we hadn’t put them out, they would have continued to burn across those areas.”
But it isn’t just an increase in tree vegetation and frequent lightning strikes that have caused such devastating fires, other factors have also contributed to this shift.
“There were a number of events that coalesced,” Bakker explained. “Grazing by livestock is one factor. Particularly in the late 1800s, areas were grazed really heavily, which reduced the grass and other plants that would have been growing on the forest floor, and allowed many trees to get established as well.”
Bakker explains more about the delicate and necessary balance of trees in “Ecosystem Restoration: Examples of Ecosystem Restoration and Community Involvement,” part of the Denman Forestry Issues series on UWTV. The Denman Forestry Issues Series is funded with support from Mary Ellen and the late W. Richard Denman. Catch Bakker’s presentation and learn more about restoration, conservation, sustainability, natural resources and other pressing issues in this new UWTV video.
But what of all the hustle and bustle around planting trees to better the environment? Will planting trees on Arbor Day become an outdated practice? Have we contributed to horrible changes in nature by overpopulating areas with trees?
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“I think tree planting campaigns are good things, they serve dual purposes. You have the trees growing, but you also have a lot of public education as well,” Bakker said. “The Southwest had too many trees, but it’s still important to have trees physically; they are an important part of our ecosystems. Those types of programs are very necessary and important. It is important to realize that not all restoration projects require thinning trees; many restoration projects involve planting trees.”
Bakker cites three aspects that are crucial to ecosystem restoration efforts: adaptive management, site-specific solutions and community involvement.
“There are lots of opportunities going on, such as volunteer work days and educational opportunities through the UW or other agencies. People can do many different things, including controlling invasive species and planting native plants in restoration areas,” Bakker said.
But as important as community involvement is, sometimes the work must be done by experts.
“Some things can be done by volunteers, while other tasks are more technical and might require more expertise. It also depends on the scale that you’re working at. Restoring a neighborhood park, that’d be a good opportunity to get volunteers involved,” explained Bakker. “Trying to restore the dry forests of eastern Washington, that’s a much bigger task than you can expect to do with just volunteers.
Volunteers are an element, but they’re not going to be able to accomplish something like that.”
An overpopulation of trees is not always to blame for the severity of forest fires. The recent wildfires in California, for instance, have little to do with tree population.
“Fire regimes differ a lot from spot to spot, depending on which ecosystem you’re in,” Bakker explained, “Southern California’s environment is a different ecosystem called chaparral. Ecological studies of that ecosystem indicate that it has historically burned like it’s burning now. Those fire regimes haven’t really changed. What’s happening there is we’re building our houses in the midst of these very fire-prone ecosystems and those houses aren’t built as well as they could be in terms of making them fire safe,” Bakker explained.
In regard to restoration efforts, however, there is still a lot of work to be done, even within Washington state.
“There definitely are big needs in terms of restoration. On the east side, we have similar but not exactly the same issues as the Southwestern Ponderosa pine forests, where we have too many trees and altered fire regimes. We also have concerns about endangered species and restoring habitat for endangered species,” Bakker said.
To address these problems, the community can help and so can UW students.
“Undergraduate ESRM (Environmental Science and Resource Management) students can specialize by receiving an option in restoration ecology,” explained Bakker. “We also have many stellar graduate students, and a very active group focused on restoration ecology here at the UW.”
Late in the spring quarter of 2008, the Board of Regents approved the creation of a College of the Environment at the University of Washington. In the midst of growing concerns about the environment, the college is expected to incorporate science, policy and management. The College of Forest Resources is in discussions about its relationship with the new college.
“We, along with several other units on campus, are discussing and considering what type of relationship we’ll have with the College of the Environment, whether to become part of it or to work alongside it,” explained Bakker.
What exactly will this new college mean for the College of Forest Resources? And where will a degree from the College of the Environment take graduates?
“That depends on the unit you’re in,” explained Bakker, although those units are not yet set in stone. “Most of them are still talking about it. The ones that are in discussion are the College of Forest Resources, the College of Ocean and Fishery Sciences, which has three schools within it, and the Department of Atmospheric Sciences.”
But as far as career prospects go, Bakker referred to the College of Forest Resources to shed light upon the types of career paths graduates may take.
“In our College of Forest Resources, for example, we have students who go on to become restoration ecologists, land managers, research scientists, we have people who work in the pulp and paper industry or biofuels, researching how to create fuels from other biological, non-food resources,” Bakker said. “We also have people who work with wildlife, work for the state government, work for the federal government, cities, counties, nonprofits; so there’s a really wide range of careers that people are able to follow through our degrees.”
Bakker hopes that the creation of the new college will provide even more opportunities to collaborate with other departments.
“One benefit of the College of the Environment is that it increases the visibility of our work. People don’t always realize the scope and importance of the environmental work that happens here at the UW.”
For more information about Insider features, contact Erin Lodi at erinlodi@u.washington.edu.
