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CORVALLIS - Taking action to prevent abnormally intense wildfires like those that swept through western states this summer is much more complicated than simply thinning forests to remove "understory" trees and brush as the Bush Administration is proposing, an Oregon State University fire ecologist says.

Forest managers also are going to have to reintroduce natural fire cycles to achieve the desired result, said J. Boone Kauffman, who has studied fire in numerous types of forests and grasslands in the western United States, Mexico, Costa Rica, Brazil and Africa.

"Thinning - if done properly - is just one of the tools and first steps," said Kauffman. "Reintroducing the natural fire cycle is absolutely necessary to restore ecological balance and prevent catastrophes like this summer."

Conversely, the OSU professor said, removing taller, "overstory" trees can increase the fire danger by creating drier, hotter and windier conditions in a stand. "Forest management should consider the natural fire cycles," Kauffman said. "Following thinning, we need to attempt to mimic Mother Nature's beneficial effects through prescribed fire."

Prescribed fire, he said, is where fire professionals purposely burn areas when weather and fuel moisture conditions allow that in a controlled manner.

"Fire isn't a devastating event for natural ecosystems, as it can be for humans," Kauffman said. "Plants and animals evolved through the ages with fire resetting the clock, recreating biologically diverse ecosystems.

"Examples can be found everywhere in forests and on rangelands," he said. "Fires stimulate the germination of seeds of some plants that are important nitrogen fixers. These species are responsible for maintaining soil fertility and preventing erosion."

"Some conifers can only reproduce when their cones are burned," Kauffman added, "which causes the seeds to fall on the ground. Certain native grasses and wildflowers reappear after fires, producing seeds and seedlings in great abundance. The post-fire forest provides important habitat for many insects, birds, and mammals."

Also, Kauffman said thinning and prescribed fires are not needed in many forests of the West.

Because of human fire suppression and other land manager practices, "fuels have unnaturally accumulated in forests where fires historically occurred every decade or so," he said. "This includes the dryer areas, such as the Ponderosa pine and hardwood forests in central and southern Oregon."

"However, the natural fire cycles were much longer, perhaps centuries, in wet, dense conifer forests like those in western Oregon or in high elevations of the Rockies. In these types of forests, thinning and prescribed fire would do little to change the probability of fire."

Besides helping humans avoid the costs of abnormally intense wildfires, noted Kauffman, a member of OSU's fisheries and wildlife department, the restoration of natural fire cycles and forest communities would provide benefits such as healthier watersheds with diverse plant and animal life.