"The thing I worry about most are the big, burned out patches. They are not characteristic in an evolutionary sense...."
Because such fires inflict so much damage, tree-planting efforts are critical, he said. Nature needs an assist. But as temperatures rise, planting strategies need to change. "The good news is that most of these planted trees are reasonably able to adapt to changing conditions once they get established. But if we think the temperature is going to increase six degrees - and we know the place we are working is already at the warmest edge of where it will grow - don't bother to plant it."
Instead, plant what you expect to grow there in the future. "We call that assisted migration," he said. "That is something the reasearch community is aimed at trying to help us to do."
Change is inevitable. Forests today don't look like they did during the Gold Rush. "We can rest comfortable that the future will be different than today," Landram said.
But the important thing, he said, is to do something.... to plant a tree. "We as a society usually want to focus on the controversy of the day - not on the kind of forest we are going to create for future generations. And we lose focus on what kind of legacy we are leaving the next generation."
To read more about Mike and his award from the National Association of Forest Service Retirees, click on this link: http://www.fs.fed.us/r5/news/2009/nafsr-fs-award.shtml
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