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Dr. Merrill Kaufmann Team Leader for ecosystem management research in the Colorado Front Range, Rocky Mountain Research Station |
Dr. Kaufmann is the Rocky Mountain Research Station's team leader for ecosystem management research in the Colorado Front Range. He is the senior author of "An Ecological Basis for Ecosystem Management," the most widely distributed Forest Service research publication. Since the mid-1990s, he has worked extensively with land managers to blend new basic science on historical ecosystem structure into management actions that restore sustainable ecological conditions.
Dr. Kaufmann's work on fire behavior and the historical ecology of unlogged and ungrazed ponderosa pine forests in the Colorado Front Range has shown that the widely accepted model of "open, park-like" stands of ponderosa pine in much of the Southwest and West Coast does not apply where a mixed severity fire regime occurs. He frequently provides lectures, training, field trips and other activities regarding Colorado Front Range forest ecology and fire history, historical ecology, and ecosystem management. He serves on the Advisory Team for The Nature Conservancy's Fire Learning Network and on several forest restoration project steering committees.
Dr. Kaufmann has authored over 110 scientific papers, edited three proceedings, and produced a video on ecosystem management. He has been interviewed about fire behavior, forest structure, and management practices on national television and radio and by national magazines and regional and local newspapers.
Selected
Publications
Kaufmann, M., A. Shlisky, and B. Kent. 2003. Integrating scientific knowledge
into social and economic decisions for ecologically sound fire and restoration
management. Proc. 3rd International Wildland Fire Conference, Sydney,
Australia, October 2003.
Kaufmann, M. R., L. S. Huckaby, P. J. Fornwalt, J. M. Stoker and W. H.
Romme. 2003. Using tree recruitment patterns and fire history to guide
restoration of an unlogged ponderosa pine/Douglas-fir landscape in the
southern Rocky Mountains after a century of fire suppression. Forestry
(UK) 76: 231-241.
Fornwalt, P. J., M. R. Kaufmann, L. S. Huckaby, J. M. Stoker and T. J.
Stohlgren. 2003. Non-native plant invasions in managed and protected ponderosa
pine/ Douglas-fir forests of the Colorado Front Range. Forest Ecology
and Management 177: 515-527.
Kaufmann, M. R., P. J. Fornwalt, L. S. Huckaby, and J. M. Stoker. 2001.
Cheesman Lake - a historical ponderosa pine landscape guiding restoration
in the South Platte Watershed of the Colorado Front Range. Fort Collins,
CO: U.S. Department of Agriculture, Forest Service, Rocky Mountain Research
Station. Proceedings RMRS-P-22 p. 9-18.
Huckaby, L. S., M. R. Kaufmann, J. M. Stoker, and P. J. Fornwalt. 2001.
Landscape patterns of montane forest age structure relative to fire history
at Cheesman Lake in the Colorado Front Range. Fort Collins, CO: U.S. Department
of Agriculture, Forest Service, Rocky Mountain Research Station. Proceedings
RMRS-P-22, p. 19-27.
Kaufmann, M. R., L. S. Huckaby, and P. Gleason. 2000. Ponderosa pine in
the Colorado Front Range: long historical fire and tree recruitment intervals
and a case for landscape heterogeneity. In Neuenschwander, L. F., et al.,
editors. Crossing the millennium: integrating spatial technologies and
ecological principles for a new age in fire management. University of
Idaho and International Association of Wildland Fire. Moscow, Idaho. Vol.
1, p. 153-160.
Kaufmann, M. R., C. M. Regan, and P. M. Brown. 2000. Heterogeneity in
ponderosa pine/Douglas-fir forests: age and size structure in unlogged
and logged landscapes of central Colorado. Canadian Journal of Forest
Research 30: 698-711.
Kaufmann, M. R. and D. Hessel. 2000. Cheesman Lake - a historical ponderosa
pine landscape guiding restoration in the South Platte Watershed of the
Colorado Front Range. Colorado Water 17: 15-18.
Brown, P. M., M. R. Kaufmann, and W. D. Shepperd. 1999. Long-term, landscape
patterns of past fire events in a ponderosa pine forest of central Colorado.
Landscape Ecology 14: 513-532.
Kaufmann, M. R., R. T. Graham, D. A. Boyce, Jr., W. H. Moir, L. Perry,
R. T. Reynolds, R. L. Bassett, P. Mehlhop, C. B. Edminster, W. M. Block,
and P. S. Corn. 1994. An ecological basis for ecosystem management. USDA
Forest Service, Rocky Mtn. For. and Range Exp. Sta. Gen. Tech. Rep. RM-246.
22 p.
