Nebraskaland

40 Nebraskaland • June 2020 n this sunny day, Bryce Gerlach is visiting a timber- thinning project at Gilbert-Baker Wildlife Management Area in the northwest corner of the state. Gerlach, who is a forester funded by the National Wild Turkey Federation and the Nebraska Game and Parks Commission, likes what he sees. "This is the project that is going to save Gilbert-Baker someday," he says as he looks over this part of the Pine Ridge that, unlike other areas of the region, does not bear the scars of wildfi re. Gilbert-Baker, north of Harrison, is recognized as a jewel among the eight scenic wildlife management areas that comprise more than 19,600 acres in the Pine Ridge. Gerlach is surveying the northwest portion of the property, where sandstone ridges and buttes rise some 1,000 feet from the Hat Creek Basin and provide a sweeping view of the grasslands to the north. Mixed among the magnifi cent landforms and rugged terrain to the south is the towering forest of ponderosa pine – the iconic tree of the West for which the Pine Ridge region is named. Gilbert-Baker is reminiscent of what once existed throughout almost all of the Pine Ridge, a roughly 10- mile wide escarpment that spans about 100 miles across northwestern Nebraska between the Wyoming and South Dakota borders. Only 2 percent of the Cornhusker State is forested, so the pines and rugged topography here are especially valued and have long served as a destination for outdoor enthusiasts. The Challenge The management decisions of Euro- Americans and their descendants were not ultimately benefi cial to the landscape of the Pine Ridge. Prior to the settlers' arrival in the 1800s, lightning strikes caused periodic wildfi res that burned in the understory of forest and boosted plant diversity. In addition to natural causes, American Indians used fi re to burn the brown plant matter on the landscape to start afresh with green plants – an attractant that served well for hunting some of the 30 million bison that once roamed North America. With motivations that included preserving lives and property, the fi rst generations of Euro-Americans on the Plains extinguished wildfi res at every chance, and hunted bison to near extinction. Consequently, pine stands, especially where logging was not feasible, grew thick. The result is what land managers call "dangerous levels of fuel accumulation." As periods of drought gain intensity with global warming, land managers know the potential for disaster looms heavy. The danger was especially evident, and realized, in 2006 and 2012 when more than 100,000 acres burned in catastrophic wildfi res that raged across the landscape and charred trees from bottom to top. The wildfi res' toll was heavy as about 120,000 acres This before-and-after scene at Gilbert-Baker Wildlife Management Area shows the extent of an eff ort to clear pines from a service road to serve as a fi rebreak. O

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