http://www.ucanr.org/sites/cff/index4.cfm?blogrss=51192&utm_source=RSS&utm_medium=RSS&utm_campaign=RSS%2BFeed Forest Research and Outreach en-us UC ANR http://cyber.law.harvard.edu/rss/ Sun, 19 May 2013 05:42:57 PST Sun, 19 May 2013 05:42:57 PST UC ANR The Northern California Prescribed Fire Council held its eighth biannual meeting on April 25-26, 2013 at UC’s Hopland Research and Extension Center (HREC). Over 110 people attended the meeting, which featured a wide range of research and management presentations on prescribed fire-related topics. Meeting attendees included federal, state, and local agency personnel; ecologists and researchers; fire safe council representatives; private landowners and ranchers; tribal representatives;......
]]> Wed, 15 May 2013 10:46:28 PST http://ucanr.edu/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=10392&utm_source=RSS&utm_medium=RSS&utm_campaign=RSS%2BFeed Jaime.Adler@berkeley.edu(Jaime Adler) http://ucanr.edu/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=10392 UC IPM released a new Pest Note in January 2013 on the goldspotted oak borer. This Pest Note has the first official UC guidelines for managing the pest. First identified in California in 2004, the goldspotted oak borer (GSOB), Agrilus auroguttatus, has killed more than 24,000 oak trees in San Diego County since its arrival, probably in the late 1990s. In 2012, it was detected in Riverside County and it is expected to spread northward in the state. The most seriously damaged oaks are those......
]]> Fri, 26 Apr 2013 09:57:51 PST http://ucanr.edu/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=10257&utm_source=RSS&utm_medium=RSS&utm_campaign=RSS%2BFeed sdkocher@ucanr.edu(Susie Kocher) http://ucanr.edu/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=10257 Mon, 22 Apr 2013 11:41:16 PST http://ucanr.edu/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=9809&utm_source=RSS&utm_medium=RSS&utm_campaign=RSS%2BFeed sdkocher@ucanr.edu(Susie Kocher) http://ucanr.edu/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=9809 In the mid-20th Century, the City of Arcata purchased 622 acres of redwood forest and created the first city-owned forest in California. The current 2,350-acre Arcata Community Forest has a multiple use management plan that focuses on recreation, timber management, and watershed values, among other things. The forest provides tremendous aesthetic value and numerous recreational opportunities to the City of Arcata. In the late 1990s, the Bureau of Land Management considered a land trade that......
]]> Mon, 01 Apr 2013 13:53:34 PST http://ucanr.edu/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=9658&utm_source=RSS&utm_medium=RSS&utm_campaign=RSS%2BFeed standifo@berkeley.edu(Richard Standiford) http://ucanr.edu/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=9658 Background By 2008, the Public Interest Energy Research Program (PIER) led by the California Energy Commission (CEC) had collected more than 150 peer reviewed reports on climate change, had funded dozens of researchers and organizations investigating climate change scenarios, and produced thousands of statewide GIS (geographic information system) data layers depicting downscaled climate projections across the state. The agency had a number of needs: they wanted relevant information presented......
]]> Thu, 21 Mar 2013 09:19:01 PST http://ucanr.edu/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=9573&utm_source=RSS&utm_medium=RSS&utm_campaign=RSS%2BFeed standifo@berkeley.edu(Richard Standiford) http://ucanr.edu/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=9573 The next meeting of the Northern California Prescribed Fire Council will take place on April 25-26 at the UC Hopland Research and Extension Center in their brand new conference center. The Northern California Prescribed Fire Council (NCPFC) is a collaborative group of scientists, land managers, tribes, NGOs, and other organizations and individuals interested in issues surrounding the use of prescribed fire. The goal of this diverse coalition of scientists and managers is to “increase......
]]> Tue, 12 Mar 2013 09:30:43 PST http://ucanr.edu/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=9489&utm_source=RSS&utm_medium=RSS&utm_campaign=RSS%2BFeed standifo@berkeley.edu(Richard Standiford) http://ucanr.edu/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=9489 Ryan DeSantis is the new University of California Cooperative Extension Forestry and Natural Resources Advisor for Shasta, Trinity, and Siskiyou Counties. Ryan will be responsible for conducting an extension, education and research program that resolves needs and problems in the fields of forest management and ecology. Ryan grew up in rural New Hampshire, where he fell in love with hiking, camping, hunting, fishing, skiing, mountain biking, and spending time in the woods of New Hampshire and......
]]> Fri, 08 Feb 2013 16:53:51 PST http://ucanr.edu/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=9259&utm_source=RSS&utm_medium=RSS&utm_campaign=RSS%2BFeed standifo@berkeley.edu(Richard Standiford) http://ucanr.edu/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=9259 Summary The vast majority of trees have roots that interact with below-ground fungi, together forming a 2-species complex known as mycorrhizae. In our study, which was recently published in the journal, Mycologia, we looked at the way roots of giant sequoia seedlings formed mychorrhizae relationships and how that influenced the growth of giant sequoia seedlings. Learning about how giant sequoia seedlings grow is particularly important since seedling establishment in giant sequoia has been......
]]> Wed, 19 Dec 2012 14:12:45 PST http://ucanr.edu/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=8943&utm_source=RSS&utm_medium=RSS&utm_campaign=RSS%2BFeed standifo@berkeley.edu(Richard Standiford) http://ucanr.edu/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=8943 Volume Harvest Trends California’s North Coast, covering the four counties of Sonoma, Mendocino, Humboldt and Del Norte, is an important forested region of the state, with redwood and Douglas-fir forests occupying a dominant place in these forests. Since 1948, harvest levels have ranged from a high of 2.8 billion board feet in 1955, to a low of 169 million board feet in 2009 (Figure 1). There have been significant fluctuations from year to year as a result of market variability, policy......
]]> Tue, 30 Oct 2012 14:27:32 PST http://ucanr.edu/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=8623&utm_source=RSS&utm_medium=RSS&utm_campaign=RSS%2BFeed standifo@berkeley.edu(Richard Standiford) http://ucanr.edu/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=8623 In the many forested areas where wildfires are currently burning, the question will soon arise: What should be done after the fire goes out? That depends on the severity of the burn and land owner goals. For high severity burns where very few or no live trees remain to provide seed for the next generation, forest recovery can take a very long time. Typically forest landowners want to restore their lands to a forested condition as quickly as possible. In that case, an active approach......
]]> Wed, 22 Aug 2012 11:42:20 PST http://ucanr.edu/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=8202&utm_source=RSS&utm_medium=RSS&utm_campaign=RSS%2BFeed sdkocher@ucanr.edu(Susie Kocher) http://ucanr.edu/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=8202 Will tanoak die out – is it worth saving? Tanoak (Lithocarpus densiflorus) is a California native hardwood tree common in the forest of Northern California and susceptible to Sudden Oak Death (SOD). Since tanoak is not a commercial tree should we just let it die? Tanoak has stumped manufacturers and researches alike trying to find a place for it in the market. It has many first-rate material properties but it has a reputation of being very difficult to dry without creating serious drying......
]]> Fri, 20 Jul 2012 11:18:13 PST http://ucanr.edu/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=7973&utm_source=RSS&utm_medium=RSS&utm_campaign=RSS%2BFeed standifo@berkeley.edu(Richard Standiford) http://ucanr.edu/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=7973 For almost 20 years now, UC Forest Advisors and Specialists, along with a dedicated group of volunteers, have been leading summer training opportunities to inspire K-12 teachers to teach about environmental issues. Living in an urbanized state, few Californians recognize how much they depend on the forest for water, wood products and wildlife habitat, as well as their responsibility for its proper management. Through environmental learning integrated into the educational system, students can......
]]> Tue, 03 Jul 2012 09:45:40 PST http://ucanr.edu/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=7847&utm_source=RSS&utm_medium=RSS&utm_campaign=RSS%2BFeed standifo@berkeley.edu(Richard Standiford) http://ucanr.edu/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=7847 Most people planning home improvement projects take into account how improvements will affect the home’s ability to withstand rain and weathering. In California we should also consider the threat of wildfire when planning home improvement projects this spring Most homes that burn during wildfires are ignited by flying embers landing on combustible material on or near homes. A wildfire passes by a home quickly, usually in a few minutes, while the exposure to flying embers can last for an......
]]> Mon, 21 May 2012 15:13:12 PST http://ucanr.edu/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=7532&utm_source=RSS&utm_medium=RSS&utm_campaign=RSS%2BFeed skolding@berkeley.edu(Sophie Kolding) http://ucanr.edu/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=7532 University of California Cooperative Extension employees, who coordinate most of the sudden oak death-related research and monitoring in Northern California, got a surprise in the spring of 2010, when samples from a monitoring station near the mouth of Redwood Creek near Orick in Humboldt County tested positive for the pathogen. This meant that trees were infected somewhere in the 200,000-acre watershed – more than 50 miles from the nearest known infestation, and farther north than the......
]]> Wed, 16 May 2012 12:06:46 PST http://ucanr.edu/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=7507&utm_source=RSS&utm_medium=RSS&utm_campaign=RSS%2BFeed skolding@berkeley.edu(Sophie Kolding) http://ucanr.edu/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=7507 Although wildland fires are a natural part of forest ecosystems, they can interefere with the planning of land-management activities and may have an array of anthropogenic factors. The article, Spatial variability in wildfire probability across the western United States from the International Journal of Wildland Fire, uses fire obsertvations to produce detailed estimates of wildfire probability, of both natural and anthropogenic factors. The International Journal of Wildland Fire publishes......
]]> Mon, 23 Apr 2012 15:42:17 PST http://ucanr.edu/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=7325&utm_source=RSS&utm_medium=RSS&utm_campaign=RSS%2BFeed skolding@berkeley.edu(Sophie Kolding) http://ucanr.edu/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=7325 IntroductionThe Coast Redwood Forests in a Changing California Science Symposium was held June 21-23, 2011 at UC Santa Cruz with just under 300 registrants in attendance. Participants ranged in background from graduate level students to university forestry faculty, land managers, and conservation groups, public agencies, and land trust members. The symposium was strategically held in Santa Cruz, near the Southern end of the redwood region. Designed to present the state of our knowledge about......
]]> Wed, 04 Apr 2012 16:35:46 PST http://ucanr.edu/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=5286&utm_source=RSS&utm_medium=RSS&utm_campaign=RSS%2BFeed Jaime.Adler@berkeley.edu(Jaime Adler) http://ucanr.edu/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=5286 The 2004 Sierra Nevada Forest Plan Amendment that guides the management of the national forests in the Sierra has been ripe with controversy since its inception. Disagreements over harvesting plan details, the effectiveness of SPLAT fuels treatments and their effects on wildlife and water issues led to the formation of the Sierra Nevada Adaptive Management Project (SNAMP) as a way to address these controversies and learn from the best available science. The US Forest Service, US Fish &......
]]> Mon, 27 Feb 2012 15:16:27 PST http://ucanr.edu/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=6903&utm_source=RSS&utm_medium=RSS&utm_campaign=RSS%2BFeed skolding@berkeley.edu(Sophie Kolding) http://ucanr.edu/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=6903 Thu, 10 Nov 2011 12:10:33 PST http://ucanr.edu/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=6163&utm_source=RSS&utm_medium=RSS&utm_campaign=RSS%2BFeed skolding@berkeley.edu(Sophie Kolding) http://ucanr.edu/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=6163 Thu, 06 Oct 2011 13:20:00 PST http://ucanr.edu/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=5928&utm_source=RSS&utm_medium=RSS&utm_campaign=RSS%2BFeed skolding@berkeley.edu(Sophie Kolding) http://ucanr.edu/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=5928 The Plumas County Fire Safe Council has coordinated multi-parcel fuel reduction in 13 communities since 2002.  The Council began with a county-wide demonstration project in 2002 that treated 62 acres and has since implemented projects on nearly 2,000 acres.  As a Natural Resource Advisor in Plumas and Sierra Counties, I have conducted comprehensive monitoring of 7 of the projects. Coordinated community fuel reduction includes multiple property owners who often have little experience with......
]]> Mon, 12 Sep 2011 10:43:21 PST http://ucanr.edu/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=5740&utm_source=RSS&utm_medium=RSS&utm_campaign=RSS%2BFeed skolding@berkeley.edu(Sophie Kolding) http://ucanr.edu/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=5740 Fri, 02 Sep 2011 12:35:29 PST http://ucanr.edu/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=5679&utm_source=RSS&utm_medium=RSS&utm_campaign=RSS%2BFeed standifo@berkeley.edu(Richard Standiford) http://ucanr.edu/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=5679 Re-posted from UC Berkeley Department of Environmental Science, Policy, and Management. This image from a Nelder Plot at Blodgett Forest Research Station in the Sierra Nevada mountains is part of a study designed to find out how trees respond to different levels of competition for resources (light, water, and nutrients).  The wagon-wheel pattern provides a space-efficient way to experimentally increase tree density as one gets closer to the center of the “spokes.” The trees in the image......
]]> Wed, 31 Aug 2011 15:26:04 PST http://ucanr.edu/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=5660&utm_source=RSS&utm_medium=RSS&utm_campaign=RSS%2BFeed Jaime.Adler@berkeley.edu(Jaime Adler) http://ucanr.edu/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=5660 Last week I visited Trinity River Lumber (TRL), a sawmill, in Weaverville, California.  The sawmill was almost totally destroyed by a fire in September 2009 and completed rebuilding in January this year.  The mill is the largest private employer in Trinity County with approximately 115 full time jobs.  The community was relieved that TRL’s owner chose to rebuild the mill after the fire.  The new mill is impressive in its versatility to saw a range of products and in its use of technology to......
]]> Tue, 23 Aug 2011 10:28:30 PST http://ucanr.edu/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=5583&utm_source=RSS&utm_medium=RSS&utm_campaign=RSS%2BFeed Jaime.Adler@berkeley.edu(Jaime Adler) http://ucanr.edu/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=5583 Wildfire Summit pulls together Tahoe basin residents and agencies on the fourth anniversary of the 2007 Angora fire to improve implementation of defensible space The Lake Tahoe Wildfire Summit was held in Tahoe City on June 24th, 2011, four years after the Angora fire which started on June 24th, 2007 in South Lake Tahoe. The summit drew together over 100 basin residents, agency staff and policy makers to focus on ways to reduce wildfire risks to Tahoe homes and communities. Presentations......
]]> Thu, 04 Aug 2011 16:21:36 PST http://ucanr.edu/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=5457&utm_source=RSS&utm_medium=RSS&utm_campaign=RSS%2BFeed Jaime.Adler@berkeley.edu(Jaime Adler) http://ucanr.edu/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=5457 The Northern California Prescribed Fire Council provides continuing education opportunities for those using fire in forest management and conservation activities. Although prescribed fire councils are common in the U.S., this is the first such council in California. Council participants include public and private resource managers, researchers, firefighters, fire safe councils, tribes and regulatory agencies. The council hopes that by working together, this diverse group can increase individual......
]]> Fri, 29 Jul 2011 15:27:03 PST http://ucanr.edu/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=5358&utm_source=RSS&utm_medium=RSS&utm_campaign=RSS%2BFeed Jaime.Adler@berkeley.edu(Jaime Adler) http://ucanr.edu/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=5358 Recently three leaders from the Taiwan Forestry Research Institute (TFRI), a division of Tawain’s Council of Agriculture (COA), traveled to Northern California to meet with UCCE foresters to gain information about our outreach program that they might be able to apply in Taiwan. Dr. Yue-Hsing “Star” Huang, Director of TFRI; Dr. Meng-Ling Wu, Department Chief of Forest Protection; Dr. Gene-Sheng Tung, Assistant Researcher in the Department of Forest Protection spent three days at UC Berkeley, UC......
]]> Mon, 20 Jun 2011 13:32:25 PST http://ucanr.edu/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=5153&utm_source=RSS&utm_medium=RSS&utm_campaign=RSS%2BFeed Jaime.Adler@berkeley.edu(Jaime Adler) http://ucanr.edu/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=5153 The ASTM E05.14 Subcommittee on Exterior Fire met today. Task groups that are developing standard test methods to evaluate vents and decking products updated the subcommittee on progress made since the last meeting (these committees meeting every six months, in early December and early June). All of these draft standards are in some stage of balloting at the subcommittee or main committee level. Professor Joe Urbas, University of North Carolina-Charlotte, gave a presentation to the......
]]> Wed, 15 Jun 2011 11:34:58 PST http://ucanr.edu/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=5118&utm_source=RSS&utm_medium=RSS&utm_campaign=RSS%2BFeed Jaime.Adler@berkeley.edu(Jaime Adler) http://ucanr.edu/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=5118 The American Society for Testing and Materials (ASTM) Committee E05 on Fire Standards is meeting this week in Anaheim, California. ASTM is a standards writing organization. Today many task groups met to review and consider changes to standard test methods. For example, the task group that oversees ASTM E-84, Standard Test Method for Surface Burning Characteristics of Building Materials met. This test is used to determine the flame spread rating (Class A, B, or C) for construction materials, and......
]]> Tue, 14 Jun 2011 11:50:01 PST http://ucanr.edu/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=5104&utm_source=RSS&utm_medium=RSS&utm_campaign=RSS%2BFeed Jaime.Adler@berkeley.edu(Jaime Adler) http://ucanr.edu/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=5104   Making estimates of the life cycle benefits of harvested sawlogs are now required as part of every timber harvest plan in California. While forest managers are intimately familiar with what happens in the forest and at the landing, we are dependent on others to synthesize current and historical data to come up with accurate estimates of the ‘carbon footprint’ of sawlogs after they have left our control. Unfortunately, a number of the common calculators used in California to estimate the......
]]> Thu, 02 Jun 2011 15:47:41 PST http://ucanr.edu/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=5018&utm_source=RSS&utm_medium=RSS&utm_campaign=RSS%2BFeed Jaime.Adler@berkeley.edu(Jaime Adler) http://ucanr.edu/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=5018 Although the weak housing markets have continued to suppress prices for logs and stumpage for California forest landowners, there has been tremendous growth in opportunities from the export market. This has largely been driven by surges in the demand for west coast logs in China. According to the International Wood Markets Group, Inc. (http://www.woodmarkets.com), the final statistics for 2010 showed that log imports by China increased 22% by in total volume and 49% by value from 2009. This......
]]> Mon, 23 May 2011 14:31:29 PST http://ucanr.edu/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=4930&utm_source=RSS&utm_medium=RSS&utm_campaign=RSS%2BFeed standifo@berkeley.edu(Richard Standiford) http://ucanr.edu/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=4930 Fri, 13 May 2011 12:42:43 PST http://ucanr.edu/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=4860&utm_source=RSS&utm_medium=RSS&utm_campaign=RSS%2BFeed Jaime.Adler@berkeley.edu(Jaime Adler) http://ucanr.edu/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=4860 Community-based forestry in California is and has been an effort to manage public, multiple use forests (national forests managed by the Forest Service and Bureau of Land Management) in an ecologically, economically, and social/politically sustainable manner. This has resulted in the establishment of collaborative groups of diverse stakeholders, local/regional/national communities of interest and communities of place, who stake out common ground for management decisions for public forests, in......
]]> Fri, 29 Apr 2011 09:52:54 PST http://ucanr.edu/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=4744&utm_source=RSS&utm_medium=RSS&utm_campaign=RSS%2BFeed standifo@berkeley.edu(Richard Standiford) http://ucanr.edu/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=4744 Thu, 14 Apr 2011 14:57:55 PST http://ucanr.edu/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=4620&utm_source=RSS&utm_medium=RSS&utm_campaign=RSS%2BFeed Jaime.Adler@berkeley.edu(Jaime Adler) http://ucanr.edu/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=4620 Thu, 07 Apr 2011 12:00:17 PST http://ucanr.edu/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=4555&utm_source=RSS&utm_medium=RSS&utm_campaign=RSS%2BFeed Jaime.Adler@berkeley.edu(Jaime Adler) http://ucanr.edu/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=4555 Thu, 31 Mar 2011 17:02:32 PST http://ucanr.edu/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=4515&utm_source=RSS&utm_medium=RSS&utm_campaign=RSS%2BFeed Jaime.Adler@berkeley.edu(Jaime Adler) http://ucanr.edu/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=4515