Fire performs many beneficial ecosystem functions in dry forests and rangelands across much of North America. In the last century, however, the role of fire has been dramatically altered by numerous anthropogenic factors acting as root causes of the current fire crisis, including widespread logging, road building, fire suppression, habitat fragmentation, urban development, livestock grazing, and, more recently, climate change. The intensity and extent of fires in the western United States, specifically, have dramatically increased over the past several decades. Such shifts in fire behavior have triggered sweeping policy changes that were intended to prevent or contain fires but that pose significant risks to the integrity of ecosystems and the role fire historically played in shaping them. Here, we provide a social and ecological context for summarizing this special issue on fires, including general guidelines and principles for managers concerned about balancing the risks of inaction against the risks of action over extensive areas. Fundamental to our understanding of fire is the notion that it is extremely variable, has multiple causes, and requires ecological solutions that are sensitive to spatial scale and context. Therefore, forest managers must recognize that different forest types have different fire regimes and require fundamentally different fire-management policies. Furthermore, to restore or maintain ecological integrity, including the role of fire, treatments need to be tailored to site-specific conditions with an adaptive approach. We provide a conceptual framework for prioritizing fuel treatments and restoration activities in the wildlands-urban intermix versus those in wildland areas farther from human settlement. In general, the science of conservation biology has much to offer in helping to shape wildfire policy direction; however, conservation biologists must become more engaged to better ensure that policy decisions are based on sound science and that ecological risks are incorporated. Más Allá de Humo y Espejos: una Síntesis de Políticas y Ciencia del FuegoResumen: El fuego desempeña muchas funciones de ecosistema benéficas en bosques secos y pastizales en buena parte de Norte América. Sin embargo, en el pasado siglo el papel del fuego ha sido alterado dramáticamente por numerosos factores antropogénicos, incluyendo tala extensiva, construcción de caminos, supresión de fuego, fragmentación de hábitat, desarrollo urbano, pastoreo y más recientemente, cambio climático, y que actúan como "causas raíz" de la actual crisis del fuego. La intensidad y extensión de incendios, específicamente en el oeste de Estados Unidos, han incrementado dramáticamente en lasúltimas décadas. Tales cambios en el comportamiento del fuego han provocado cambios en las políticas que intentan prevenir o contener incendios pero constituyen riesgos significativos para la integridad de los ecosistemas y para el papel que históricamente jugó el fuego al moldearlos. Aquí, proporcionamos un contexto ecológico y social para resu...

Climate change affects public land ecosystems and services throughout the American West and these effects are projected to intensify. Even if greenhouse gas emissions are reduced, adaptation strategies for public lands are needed to reduce anthropogenic stressors of terrestrial and aquatic ecosystems and to help native species and ecosystems survive in an altered environment. Historical and contemporary livestock production-the most widespread and long-running commercial use of public lands-can alter vegetation, soils, hydrology, and wildlife species composition and abundances in ways that exacerbate the effects of climate change on these resources. Excess abundance of native ungulates (e.g., deer or elk) and feral horses and burros add to these impacts. Although many of these consequences have been studied for decades, the ongoing and impending effects of ungulates in a changing climate require new management strategies for limiting their threats to the long-term supply of ecosystem services on public lands. Removing or reducing livestock across large areas of public land would alleviate a widely recognized and long-term stressor and make these lands less susceptible to the effects of climate change. Where livestock use continues, or where significant densities of wild or feral ungulates occur, management should carefully document the ecological, social, and economic consequences (both costs and benefits) to better ensure management that minimizes ungulate impacts to plant and animal communities, soils, and water resources. Reestablishing apex predators in large, contiguous areas of public land may help mitigate any adverse ecological effects of wild ungulates.

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Svejcar et al. (Environ Manage, 2014) offered several perspectives regarding Beschta et al. (Environ Manage 51:474-491, 2013)--a publication that addressed the interacting ecological effects of climate change and domestic, wild, and feral ungulates on public lands in the western United States (US)--by largely focusing on three livestock grazing issues: (1) legacy versus current day impacts; (2) grazing as a fire reduction tool; and (3) the complexity of grazing. Regarding these issues, we indicate that (1) legacy effects to western ecosystems were indeed significant and contemporary livestock use on public lands generally maintains or exacerbates many of those effects; (2) livestock grazing has been a major factor affecting fire frequency, fire severity, and ecosystem trajectories in the western US for over a century; and (3) the removal or reduction of grazing impacts in these altered ecosystems is the most effective means of initiating ecological recovery. Svejcar et al. (Environ Manage, 2014) offer no evidence that livestock use is consistent with the timely recovery of grazing-degraded uplands, riparian areas, or stream systems. We thus conclude that public-land ecosystems can best persist or cope with a changing climate by significantly reducing ungulate grazing and related impacts.

If the success of the Endangered Species Act (ESA) is measured by the number of endangered species that have been recovered and delisted, then the act is not very successful. Only 15 species have been delisted because of recovery in the history of the ESA. The Borax Lake chub (Gila boraxobius), an endangered species restricted to an Oregon spring system, is considered to be on the brink of recovery and may warrant future delisting. A panel of scientists was convened to determine consensus regarding the species' listing status by reviewing: (1) current habitat conditions, (2) implementation of the recovery plan, and (3) applicability of ESA listing factors. Despite substantial progress towards recovery, threats to the species remain, including habitat degradation and the potential introduction of nonnative species. These are problems common to many fishes of highly restricted distribution. Because the Borax Lake chub occurs in a single spring system, the species remains vulnerable to catastrophic loss and requires continuing protection afforded by the ESA. Like many spring‐dwelling fishes with a restricted range, recovery of the Borax Lake chub to the point where ESA protection is no longer required is an admirable but largely unobtainable goal. Prevention of extinction rather than delisting is a more appropriate measure of ESA success for such species.

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