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Resolving conservation conflict through fire refugia: Integrating landscape resilience into forest management.

Damon B. Lesmeister,Raymond J. Davis,Jeremy T. Rockweit

Published 2025 in Journal of Environmental Management

ABSTRACT

Increasing wildfire activity and uncharacteristically severe fires in fire-prone forests have intensified longstanding tensions between biodiversity conservation and wildfire risk reduction. In the Pacific Northwest, USA, fire exclusion has been practiced for over a century, driven largely by the perception of wildfire as a destructive force to be minimized. Over the past 35 years, northern spotted owl (Strix occidentalis caurina) conservation has emphasized the protection of closed-canopy, structurally complex, older forests, which are habitat conditions associated with long-term population viability. Together, these approaches have inadvertently contributed to fuel accumulation and increased vulnerability to high-severity fire. This creates a conservation conflict: how to protect an old-forest species adapted to historical fire regimes that produced heterogeneous landscapes but sensitive to large, high-severity disturbances. We propose a spatially explicit management framework that uses the concept of fire refugia-areas that consistently burn at lower severity than the surrounding landscape-for aligning habitat conservation with wildfire resilience. Historically, spotted owl nesting forests were likely disproportionately located within fire refugia, yet fire exclusion has allowed nesting habitat to expand into uncharacteristic locations at greater risk of loss and can contribute to abnormal fire behavior. Identifying where owl habitat aligns with fire refugia can guide protective strategies, while fire-excluded habitat may warrant active restoration to improve resilience and reduce risk. We draw on spatial modeling, empirical case studies, and fire ecology to demonstrate how fire refugia can serve as a decision-support tool in forest planning. We conclude with policy alternatives for integrating refugia-based approaches into forest management frameworks.

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