Furthering Connections between Fire Science and Ecological Restoration

Fire interfaces with ecological restoration in at least three major ways. First, a common restoration practice is reintroducing fire or fire surrogate processes in ecosystems with a long evolutionary history of fire but where contemporary fires have been missing or disrupted. Moreover, rather than just the presence or absence of fire, the type of fire may be critical when evaluating departure from reference conditions and when reintroducing fire. Some ecosystems have long experienced specific types of fires, such as low-severity surface fires or stand-replacing crown fires consuming the canopies of trees or shrubs. Consequently, reintroducing the “correct” type of fire (or partial fire surrogate, such as mechanical cutting of woody vegetation) is often critical for effective restoration. Indeed, an ecosystem at risk of or experiencing an unnatural type of fire, inconsistent with reference conditions, may provide impetus for restoration in the first place. For example, many ecosystems that historically experienced frequent, low-severity fires but have had these fires suppressed or fuels otherwise altered by humans in contemporary environments are now at risk of unnaturally severe wildfires. Fuel accumulates at faster rates than it decomposes in many ecosystems, resulting in fuel buildups in fire’s absence. Woody plant encroachment or infilling into formerly more open habitats (e.g., savannas, grasslands, open forests) is among the most common factors invoking ecological restoration globally (Buisson et al. 2022). Encroachment not only changes fire hazard but habitat structure also. In addition to fire as a process that reduces fuels and shapes ecosystem structure, some fauna and flora benefit from fire such as seeds being stimulated to germinate through exposure to heat or smoke. Understanding the long-term history and role of fire in ecosystems is critical to determining reference conditions and restoration practices among ecosystems.

Second, preventing fires or undesired types of fires is a common ecological restoration objective. For example, restoration may seek to reestablish dominance of native plants while reducing non-native plants that have changed ecosystem structure by producing copious or more persistent and continuous fuels than native species. Lack of disturbance, or altered disturbances (e.g., hydrological changes), can shift the amount, continuity, and flammability of fuels, requiring consideration in ecological restoration. In addition to the importance of these changes of fuels in wildlands, expanding wildland-urban interfaces have connected restoration of natural fuels and fires with protecting urban infrastructure and human quality of life around human population centers (Tang et al. 2025). This applies directly to fire risk and to other features of human life affected by fire, such as conserving watersheds, maintaining air quality, and limiting persistent pollution (e.g., if urban infrastructure is burned and deposits contaminants in homes, properties, and other human use areas).

Third, restoration may be needed after wildfire occurrences inconsistent with reference conditions. An example is ecosystems with little evolutionary history of fire or with a history of low-severity fire that experience unnaturally severe fires associated with non-native plant invasions or other anthropogenic alterations of fuels (Fusco et al. 2022). In this case, unnatural fires can damage or even destroy an ecosystem, invoking ecological restoration.

Fire seems likely to continue playing a significant role in many restoration projects. Plants are continuing to grow and produce fuels, ignitions are prevalent from natural and human origins (including intentional and unintentional ignitions), and dynamic biophysical influences can be expected to shape the nature of fuels. Shifting climates, interacting with underlying biophysical ecosystem structure, may increase fire activity in some areas while reducing it in others. In turn, fire can shape atmospheric chemistry locally and globally (Jerrett et al. 2022).

While also including non-fire-focused papers for our varied readership, this issue of Ecological Restoration features an overall theme of fire-related papers and a themed section highlighting papers from the U.S. Fire Science Exchange Network. This network, consisting of 15 regional hubs covering different habitats, is supported by the national Joint Fire Science Program. The exchange network focuses on applied science and distributing the science to a variety of audiences interested in and involved with fire management. Although fuels and fire management can be conducted for purposes other than for ecological restoration, often it is wholly or partly conducted for restoration including in the three main interface areas discussed in this editorial. Moreover, restorative elements can be incorporated into primarily fire management-focused projects. In turn, fire management considerations can be strengthened in restoration by further incorporating advances in fire science. This special issue of Ecological Restoration is intended to deliver fire-related information to restoration practitioners and fire managers and strengthen connections between them.

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Figure 1.

Examples of three types of interfaces of fire with ecological restoration: A) reinstating fire as an ecological process to ecosystems (in this case to Midwestern USA oak savannas in Ohio), B) limiting unnaturally severe wildfires by reducing fuel amount and continuity via tree thinning to restore open forest structure (Pinus ponderosa forests in Arizona, USA), and C) restoration after wildfires that were incongruent with reference conditions (out-planting native shrubs on a desert burn fueled in part by non-native annual grasses artificially increasing fuel load and connectivity in the Mojave Desert, Nevada, USA). (Image credits: S.R. Abella and associated with A] Abella et al. [2023b], B] Abella [2022], and C] Abella et al. [2023a]).