What is a reserve?Reserves are fore

What is a reserve?
Reserves are forests managed primarily to maintain the
natural processes and conditions present prior to European
settlement. These conditions and processes are recognized
as fluctuating within a range of historic or natural variability.
Given the primary emphasis on natural conditions, reserve
management typically excludes overt manipulative activities
such as timber harvest and road building that introduce
direct human influences.
Nevertheless, forest reserves are managed. Management
can and often does include activities designed to maintain or
restore desired conditions or processes. A common example
is the use of prescribed fire and/or managed natural wildfire
programs to achieve goals related to maintenance of forest
conditions (such as early successional pine forests) and processes
(especially fire, which has historically been suppressed).
There are many examples of forest reserves being actively
and successfully managed to maintain particular forest conditions. Examples include forest areas within Yosemite
and Sequoia-Kings Canyon National Parks in California. Fire
is a necessary process in these ecosystems, contributing to
plant reproduction, nutrient cycling, and habitat creation.
In these reserves, forests ranging from the ponderosa pineoak
at lower elevations to lodgepole pine and California red
fir at higher elevations are being maintained by a combination
of prescribed burning and natural wildfires. Structural
complexity and habitat conditions for many forest species are
closer to a natural state in these reserved forests than on adjacent
forest lands that have been subject to extensive timber
harvesting (Sierra Nevada Ecosystem Project 1996).