Forest restoration, carcoal, and carbon storage in the Rocky Mountain West

Charcoal is a stable form of C generated during fire events and is one of the few legacies of fire recorded in the soil profile; however, the significance of this material as a form of C storage in forest ecosystems has received only limited scientific attention.  In this paper we report on C storage as charcoal in fire maintained forest ecosystems of the Rocky Mountain West and discuss the role of forest restoration in returning fire and charcoal to the landscape. Charcoal is a uniquely stable form of organic matter and has numerous attributes (high surface area, porosity, high sorption capacity) that make it a critical component of forest soils that otherwise have limited humus contents.  Charcoal is formed at a rate of about 1 – 10 % of total biomass consumed during wildfire events in temperate forests.  This provides the soil with the immediate storage of a passive, non-cycling form of C.  Charcoal accounts for about 15% of total soil C in seasonally dry ponderosa pine/Douglas-fir forests of western Montana.  Forest restoration efforts that include prescribed fire will store 0.2 – 1.1 Mg C ha^-1 as charcoal.  Subsequent surface fires will continue to store C with little loss of tree biomass C to fire.  Forest restoration in this region must include prescribed fire as a management tool to reduce surface fuel loading, stimulate nutrient turnover, and allow for charcoal deposition.