Drought: An Agency and Interagency Perspective

Harv Forsgren

Regional Forester, Southwestern Region, U.S. Forest Service

and

Co-Chair, Southwest Strategy

On Earth Day, Dale Bosworth, Chief of the Forest Service identified what he believes to be the four most significant threats to the 192 million acres that make up the National Forest System:

§ Unmanaged Recreation – in particular unbridled OHV use

§ Invasive Species

§ Fragmentation of Habitat

§ Forest Health and Fire

Here in the Southwest, drought conditions contribute to or are exacerbating our efforts to effectively deal with those threats. Let me briefly highlight the connections for each.

Unmanaged Recreation. In some cases drought has magnified the impacts of unbridled OHV use – the lack of moisture extends the recovery period associated with damage done by OHVs traveling cross-country.

Invasive Species. In some areas, disturbance created by abnormally severe fires fueled by drought related conditions and drought tolerant invasive plants have combined to change the ecological landscape. Non-native invasive species are threatening the rich diversity of the Southwest’s flora and fauna. Areas infested with invasive species often lose their forage value for both livestock and wildlife, provide poorer erosion control, and inhibit or interfere with natural processes such as fire essential to the health and function of our Southwestern ecosystems.

In our riparian areas salt cedar and Russian olive are replacing native species. These invasives use water less efficiently than natives, affecting water availability in our desert environment – especially during droughty conditions.

Fragmentation of Habitat. Drought has resulted in substantial reductions in permitted livestock grazing on the National Forests of the Southwest. This year, grazing throughout the Southwestern Region is being authorized at a level of about 50% of that permitted. This varies from a low of 6% of permitted numbers on the Tonto National Forest in central Arizona to a high of approximately 65% of permitted numbers on the national forests in southern New Mexico.

These reductions are straining the economic viability of ranching operations, pushing livestock operators toward subdivision of their base ranch properties. From the early eighties to 1997 over 3 million acres of western rangelands were converted to ranchettes and subdivisions. This is occurring with the resulting loss of open space and fragmentation of important wildlife habitats.

Forest Health and Fire. About two-thirds of the 36 million acres of forested land in the Southwest are at moderate to high risk of catastrophic wildfire – fires that sterilize soils, reducing their ability to capture and hold moisture; fires that destroy remaining old growth and wildlife habitat rather than perform the role of ecological renewal that they have for eons.

Drought has exacerbated the problem, stressing trees in our overly dense forests making them more susceptible to attack by insect and disease. Between 2001 and 2002 the areas affected by bark beetles in Arizona increased by seven-fold and there is a 20-fold increase over the 1998-2001 average. Hundreds of thousands of acres of dead pinion and ponderosa pine and other tree and shrub species contribute to a “fuel” situation that is manifesting itself in more fires, and fires that are uncharacteristically large, intense, damaging, and threatening to communities in the wildland interface.

Beyond these four threats, drought in the Southwest is amplifying other issues and impacting local communities. Let me illustrate with just a few examples:

§ Elk/livestock – Drought has escalated the debate over allocation of forage resources between domestic and wild ungulates across much of the Southwest.

§ Range impacts -- Drought is exacerbating grazing impacts by concentrating wildlife and domestic animals onto small portions of the landscape such as riparian areas that provide the most nutritious forage.

§ Conservation of T&E species -- Drought can be expected to reduce production of prey animals with a related decrease in reproduction of predatory avian species such as the Mexican spotted owl and Northern goshawk. Obviously, drought can be expected to significantly modify aquatic systems and the many associated threatened and endangered species.

§ Recreation use -- Drought is having both direct and indirect impacts on recreation. Affects on water based and water enhanced recreation are obvious. Affects associated with forest closures and restrictions due to heightened fire danger are also obvious. These are having serious impacts on the economy of local communities, concessionaires, outfitter-guides, and our own ability to collect fees needed to maintain our facilities. Perhaps no less obvious, but more difficult to define are the indirect impacts on recreation of scenic degradation associated with increasing areas of forests that are red, brown, or black rather than green.

§ Fire suppression -- Finally, drought is affecting our fire suppression tactics and capability. Low lake levels and stream flows limit our ability to use large helicopters for tactical water bucket use, and our ability to use streams as effective fuel breaks.

In response to drought related impacts we are taking, or are preparing to take, a number of actions. Most significant:

§ Development of a Regional Drought Policy to improve consistency in adjusting livestock grazing and to guide restocking of livestock following drought.

§ Development of interagency guidelines to improve consistency in issuing restrictions and or closure orders in response to fire danger.

§ Significantly shifting our resources to:

o Accelerate landscape scale thinning of overly dense forests.

o Contribute to the development of industrial infrastructure needed to process the associated biomass.

o Help communities protect themselves from wildland fire threats through education and grants for fuel reduction and improved local fire suppression capability.

o Prevent the introduction of invasive plants and eliminate or arrest the spread of existing invasive species.

§ Working much more closely with state, federal and tribal managers on drought related issues.

In regard to this last point, I wanted to acknowledge the interagency focus on drought. I co-chair the Southwest Strategy – a state, federal, and tribal collaborative whose goal is to maintain and restore the cultural, economic, and environmental quality of life in Arizona and New Mexico. This group is currently focusing their collective attention on just three areas: U.S. –Mexico Border issues, Forest Health and Fire, and Water. Although there are drought related issues associated with each of these focal areas, I’ll only highlight those within the Water focal area. Here we believe by combining and better aligning our individual authorities and resources we have an opportunity to make a significant difference in three areas:

§ Managing invasive species to improve water quantity and quality.

§ Assisting communities in developing mechanisms and institutions for improved management of water resources.

§ Developing strategies to prepare for and deal more effectively with the effects of drought.

We hope to approve a detailed action plan for these three objectives at the June meeting of the Southwest Strategy’s executive committee. When adopted, the action plan will be available on our website: www.swstrategy.org.

Let me conclude by briefly highlighting what we believe to be six of the more important outstanding information needs.

§ Ecological -- Additional scientific effort is needed to increase our understanding of:

o The cumulative impacts of extended drought at the species, community, and ecosystem levels.

o Quantifiable indicators of drought “recovery” at those same scales.

o Practicable approaches to monitor drought impacts and ecological recovery.

§ Sociological -- Additional scientific effort needs to be brought to bear to increase our understanding of:

o Societal values related to natural resources in general, and water in particular, and how those values are formed and shaped.

o How information is effectively communicated to prompt action.

o How the results of collaborative problem solving and conflict resolution efforts can be enhanced.