The U.S. Forest Service is responsible for managing over 35 million acres of designated wilderness, about 18 percent of all the land managed by the agency. Nearly all (90 percent) of the National Forests and Grasslands administer designated wilderness. Although the central mandate from the 1964 Wilderness Act is that the administering agencies preserve the wilderness character in these designated areas, the concept of wilderness character has largely been absent in Forest Service efforts to manage wilderness. The purpose of this publication is to help National Forest planners, wilderness...

The USDA Forest Service completed its Strategic Plan (2000 Revision) in October 2000. The goals and objectives included in the Plan were developed with input from the public, some of which was obtained through a telephone survey. We report results of the survey. Members of the American public were asked about their values with respect to public lands, objectives for the management of public lands, beliefs about the role the agency should play in fulfilling those objectives, and attitudes about the job the agency has been doing. The public sees the promotion of ecosystem health as an important...

This state-of-knowledge review about the effects of fire on soils and water can assist land and fire managers with information on the physical, chemical, and biological effects of fire needed to successfully conduct ecosystem management, and effectively inform others about the role and impacts of wildland fire. Fire is a natural disturbance that occurs in most terrestrial ecosystems. It is also a tool that has been used by humans to manage a wide range of natural ecosystems worldwide. As such, it can produce a spectrum of effects on soils, water, riparian biota, and wetland components of...

Fires affect animals mainly through effects on their habitat. Fire regimes-that is, patterns of fire occurrence, size, uniformity, and severity-have been a major force shaping landscape patterns and influencing productivity throughout North America for thousands of years. Faunal communities have evolved in the context of particular fire regimes and show patterns of response to fire itself and to the changes in vegetation composition and structure that follow fire. Animals' immediate responses to fire are influenced by fire season, intensity, severity, rate of spread, uniformity, and size....

This state-of-knowledge review about the effects of fire on flora and fuels can assist land managers with ecosystem and fire management planning and in their efforts to inform others about the ecological role of fire. Topics include fire regime classification, autecological effects of fire, fire regime characteristics and postfire plant community developments in ecosystems throughout the United States and Canada, global climate change, ecological principles of fire regimes, and practical considerations for managing fire in an ecosytem context.