Uploaded August 2025 | Updated September 2026, 1 week ago
What is forest resilience? Does fuel reduction in western conifer forests make them resilient? Building on ecological theory, recent studies, and historical data, I suggest that fire-dependent forests were resilient in large part because they evolved in low competition stands that supported vigorous tree growth. I discuss how relative stand density index provides a ready measure of competition and the forest management implications of creating and maintaining ‘free growth’ conditions.
Malcolm North is a Research Forest Ecologist with the U.S.F.S. PSW Research Station, and an Affiliate Professor of Forest Ecology, Department of Plant Sciences at the University of California, Davis. His research includes work on examining forest restoration and ecosystem response, wildfire, and forest carbon dynamics. His lab (students and postdocs) primarily focus on forest and fire ecology of western US conifer forests.
The Forest Health Research Program is part of California Climate Investments, a statewide initiative that puts billions of Cap-and-Invest dollars to work reducing greenhouse gas emissions, strengthening the economy, and improving public health and the environment — particularly in disadvantaged communities.
What is forest resilience? Does fuel reduction in western conifer forests make them resilient? Building on ecological theory, recent studies, and historical data, I suggest that fire-dependent forests were resilient in large part because they evolved in low competition stands that supported vigorous tree growth. I discuss how relative stand density index provides a ready measure of competition and the forest management implications of creating and maintaining ‘free growth’ conditions.
Malcolm North is a Research Forest Ecologist with the U.S.F.S. PSW Research Station, and an Affiliate Professor of Forest Ecology, Department of Plant Sciences at the University of California, Davis. His research includes work on examining forest restoration and ecosystem response, wildfire, and forest carbon dynamics. His lab (students and postdocs) primarily focus on forest and fire ecology of western US conifer forests.
The Forest Health Research Program is part of California Climate Investments, a statewide initiative that puts billions of Cap-and-Invest dollars to work reducing greenhouse gas emissions, strengthening the economy, and improving public health and the environment — particularly in disadvantaged communities.
