Ecologists say the treasured ponderosa pine and dry mixed conifer forests of the American West are under attack from seemingly every direction. Armies of bark beetles, devastating disease outbreaks and unstoppable infernos threaten the beauty, function and life of these important wildlands and the people who depend upon them.<\/p>\n
How these forests became degraded, how the damage has escalated in the last century and how time is running out to restore health and sustainability to these landscapes are explored in a 30-minute documentary produced by Northern Arizona University’s Ecological\u00a0Restoration\u00a0Institute.\u00a0Forests Under Fire: The Race to Restore the American West<\/em>\u00a0airs\u00a0at 7 p.m. Saturday, April 28, on Flagstaff cable channel 4.<\/p>\n As wildfire season approaches in Arizona\u2014one of the most fire-ravaged states in the country\u2014the combination of a dry winter, windy spring and warming climate has unhealthy landscapes at risk again.<\/p>\n \u201cThere are three zones in northern Arizona that are particularly vulnerable right now and at risk for dangerously large, unnaturally intense crown fires,\u201d said\u00a0Wally Covington<\/strong>, executive director for the Ecological Restoration Institute. \u201cIf a fire were to get started on a typical dry, windy day in Oak Creek Canyon, in the Payson area or in the White Mountains, we could see the same destructive fire behavior on a scale of hundreds of thousands of acres as we experienced with last year\u2019s Wallow Fire.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"