Batcheler Mark, Smith Matthew M, Swanson Mark E, Ostrom Marcia, Carpenter-Boggs Lynne
Corvallis Forestry Sciences Laboratory, USDA National Agroforestry Center, 3200 Southwest Jefferson Way, Corvallis, OR, 97331, USA.
USDA National Agroforestry Center, 1945 North 38Th Street, Lincoln, NE, 68583, USA.
Sci Rep. 2024 Mar 12;14(1):5954. doi: 10.1038/s41598-024-56104-3.
Managing private forests for wildfire resilience is challenging due to conflicting social, economic, and ecological decisions that may result in an increase of surface fuel loads leading to greater fire risk. Due to fire suppression and a changing climate, land managers in fire-prone regions face an increasing threat of high severity fires. Thus, land managers need fuel treatment options that match their forest types and management objectives. One potential option for producers that graze livestock is silvopasture management, where livestock, forages, and overstory vegetation are carefully managed for co-benefits on the same unit of land. This study compared forest composition and structure, fuel types, and vegetative biomass between silvopasture and non-grazed managed forests in Washington, U.S. We show that silvopasture management results in reductions in grass biomass, litter, and duff depth when compared to non-grazed managed forest. These findings point to the integrated nature of silvopasture, where management of overstory composition and structure, understory vegetation, and grazing can reduce fuel loads and potential wildfire risk.
由于社会、经济和生态决策相互冲突，管理私有森林以增强其野火抵御能力具有挑战性，这些冲突可能导致地表燃料负荷增加，进而带来更大的火灾风险。由于火灾抑制和气候变化，火灾易发地区的土地管理者面临着高强度火灾的威胁日益增加。因此，土地管理者需要与他们的森林类型和管理目标相匹配的燃料处理方案。对于放牧牲畜的生产者来说，一个潜在的选择是林牧结合管理，即在同一土地单元上对牲畜、草料和上层植被进行精心管理，以实现共同效益。本研究比较了美国华盛顿州林牧结合管理的森林和非放牧管理的森林之间的森林组成和结构、燃料类型以及植被生物量。我们发现，与非放牧管理的森林相比，林牧结合管理会使草本生物量、枯枝落叶和腐殖质层深度减少。这些发现表明了林牧结合的综合性，即对上层组成和结构、下层植被以及放牧的管理可以减少燃料负荷和潜在的野火风险。
