Fuel and restoration treatments seeking to mitigate the likelihood of uncharacteristic high‐severity wildfires in forests with historically frequent, low‐severity fire regimes are increasingly common, but long‐term treatment effects on fuels, aboveground carbon, plant community structure, ecosystem resilience, and other ecosystem attributes are understudied. We present 20‐year responses to thinning and prescribed burning treatments commonly used in dry, low‐elevation forests of the western United States from a long‐term study site in the Northern Rockies that is part of the National Fire and Fire Surrogate Study. We provide a comprehensive synthesis of short‐term (<4 years) and mid‐term (<14 years) results from previous findings. We then place these results in the context of a mountain pine beetle (MPB;Dendroctonus ponderosae) outbreak that impacted the site 5–10 years post‐treatment and describe 20‐year responses to assess the longevity of restoration and fuel reduction treatments in light of the MPB outbreak. Thinning treatments had persistently lower forest density and higher tree growth, but effects were more pronounced when thinning was combined with prescribed fire. The thinning+prescribed fire treatment had the additional benefit of maintaining the highest proportion of ponderosa pine (Pinus ponderosa) for overstory and regeneration. No differences in understory native plant cover and richness or exotic species cover remained after 20 years, but exotic species richness, while low relative to native species, was still higher in the thinning+prescribed fire treatment than the control. Aboveground live carbon stocks in thinning treatments recovered to near control and prescribed fire treatment levels by 20 years. The prescribed fire treatment and control had higher fuel loads than thinning treatments due to interactions with the MPB outbreak. The MPB‐induced changes to forest structure and fuels increased the fire hazard 20 years post‐treatment in the control and prescribed fire treatment. Should a wildfire occur now, the thinning+prescribed fire treatment would likely have the lowest intensity fire and highest tree survival and stable carbon stocks. Our findings show broad support that thinning and prescribed fire increase ponderosa pine forest resilience to both wildfire and bark beetles for up to 20 years, but efficacy is waning and additional fuel treatments are needed to maintain resilience.

Many western USA fire regimes are typified by mixed-severity fire, which compounds the variability inherent to natural regeneration densities in associated fore

Ongoing revitalization of the >5000-year-old tradition of using trees for vital culture and heritage activities including carving and weaving affirms Alaska Native resilience. However, support for these sustained cultural practices is complicated by environmental and political factors. Carving projects typically require western redcedar (Thuja plicata) or yellow cedar (Callitropsis nootkatensis) trees more than 450 years of age—a tree life stage and growth rate inconsistent with current even-aged forest management strategies. Herein, we qualitatively assess the significance of wood products to rural communities and Indigenous cultures with implications for natural heritage sustainability. In partnership with Alaska Native Tribes, we engaged local youth programs to lead community discussions throughout southeast Alaska to provide specificity to the suite of cultural activities linked to regional forest lands. Results from 58 discussions across 11 southeast Alaska communities (primarily Alaska Native participants) highlighted the cultural importance of forest products including totem poles, dugout canoes, longhouses, woven hats, and woven baskets. Findings indicated spiritual well-being, health, education, tourism, and livelihood significance attributed to these products. Participant-suggested management strategies for increasing supply and expanding access to trees on public lands included: engaging local artisans in forest planning, selecting and delivering specific trees to roads as part of ongoing timber sales, allowing bark removal prior to forest-timber sales, simplifying the tree-acquisition permit process, and setting aside cultural forest groves to sustain trees seven generations into the future. By facilitating discussions, this study fostered relevant place-based youth and community engagement, benefiting youth and enhancing community knowledge transfer while simultaneously summarizing the significance of forest products for resilient culture and heritage activities. Forest management plans aiming to support Alaska Native lifeways may benefit from improved understanding of Indigenous perspectives and worldviews; designation of “culture market values” and “culture targets” can help deliver a broad array of ecosystem services.

The national Fire and Fire Surrogate (FFS) study was initiated more than two decades ago with the goal of evaluating the ecological impacts of mechanical treatments and prescribed fire in different ecosystems across the United States. Since then, 4 of the original 12 sites remain active in managing and monitoring the original FFS study which provides a unique opportunity to look at the long‐term effects of these treatments in different regions. These sites include California (Blodgett Forest Research Station), Montana (Lubrecht Experimental Forest), North Carolina (Green River Game Land), and Ohio (Ohio Hills). Although regions differed in ecosystem type (e.g., conifer‐ vs. hardwood‐dominated), the overall goals of the FFS study were to promote desirable, fire‐adapted species, reduce fire hazard, and improve understory diversity. Our study uses multivariate techniques to compare how these desired outcomes were maintained over the last 20 years and discusses whether we would modify the original treatments given what we know now. Our findings indicate that mechanical treatments and prescribed fire can promote desired tree species, mitigate potential fire behavior by reducing fuels and retaining larger‐sized trees, decrease tree mortality, and stimulate regeneration—effects that are still apparent even after 20 years. However, we also found that maintaining desired outcomes was regionally specific with western sites (California and Montana) showing more desirable characteristics under mechanical treatments, while the eastern sites (North Carolina and Ohio) showed more desirable characteristics after prescribed burning. The beneficial effects of treatment were also more apparent in the long term when sites followed up with repeated treatments, which can be adapted to meet new objectives and conditions. These findings highlight the FFS study as an invaluable resource for research and provide evidence for meeting long‐term restoration goals if treatments can be adapted to ecosystem type, be maintained by repeated treatments, and accommodate new goals by adapting treatments to changing conditions.