Forest managers are increasingly looking to restore ponderosa pine forests to more ecologically diverse conditions - forests with clusters of trees, openings, and multiple age classes instead of the evenly spaced, uniform stands produced by traditional forest management.

Key Management Implications:

• Ecological restoration and fuel hazard reduction are compatible—variable retention treatments that create structural heterogeneity for wildlife and plant diversity can achieve substantial fire behavior reductions when surface fuels and small trees are treated.
• Surface fuel treatment is key—surface fuel load and fuel moisture influenced fire severity more than overstory arrangement. Thinning without reducing surface fuel limits how much treatment reduces fire severity.
• Small tree removal is significant—removing small trees produced consistent reductions in fire behavior across weather conditions, offering predictable results that are especially important in wildland-urban interface areas.