Ponderosa pine ecosystems restoration and conservation: Steps toward stewardship

This volume is divided into three sections: (1) Ecological, Biological, and Physical Science; (2) Social and Cultural; and (3) Economics and Utilization. Effective ecological restoration requires a combination of science and management. The authors of the first section exemplified this integration in the course of addressing a broad range of topics, from detailed microsite and small-scale changes in fungal, plant, and animal communities, up through landscape, regional, and subcontinental scales. Although the themes were diverse, papers were linked by underscoring the relationship between restorative management actions and ecological effects. Social sciences play a key role in ecosystem restoration because collaboration, development of common goals, and political and economic feasibility are essential for success. The authors of the second section focused on public attitudes, partnerships, and the relationship between social and ecological factors. In the third section, the economics and utilization of products from forest restoration were compared in several Western locations. Both the markets for these products and the range of utilization opportunitiesfrom small-diameter logs to energy creationwill surely evolve rapidly as society moves to address the fire hazards and other problems caused by stressed and weakened ecosystems. The turn of the century is an appropriate point to capture dramatic changes in perspective: consider how attitudes toward Western forests have evolved between 1900 and 2000. The papers in this volume chronicle adaptive research that continues to deepen our understanding of restoration in ecosystems and social systems.