Recap of Sacramento Task Force Meeting
SACRAMENTO TASK FORCE MEETING RECAP
March 30, 2023
The California Wildfire & Forest Resilience Task Force held its quarterly meeting at the California Natural Resources Agency in Sacramento and live on Zoom.
The agenda and video recordings are available below.
MEETING AGENDA HIGHLIGHTS
- Looking Back: Members on this panel highlighted major accomplishments from state and federal agencies in 2022, shared preliminary results from California’s Year in Fire analysis, discussed what field monitoring reveals about the effectiveness of fuels treatments, and what recent wildfires reveal about the effectiveness of defensive space and home hardening. Subjects covered include:
– What have we accomplished?
– How do we measure the impacts of fires? California’s Year in Fire
– Are treatments working?
- Moving Forward: Presentations covered the questions that components of the Regional Resource Kits are meant to address: What are our goals and how do we define them? What is the current condition of our landscapes? How do we most effectively plan and prioritize projects? Where are we currently investing? How do we measure the effectiveness of those investments? The Monitoring and Reporting Work Group unveiled the Interagency Treatment Tracker, and Google.org provided an update on the decision support tool, Planscape. Subjects covered include:
– Where is management most beneficial?
– How do we more effectively plan & prioritize projects? Planscape
– Where are we investing? Interagency Treatment Tracker
– How do we measure the effectiveness of our investments?
- Wood Utilization Work Group: The Work Group provided an overview of preliminary proposed actions in future joint strategy for wood utilization. Panelists discussed the importance of private sector investments in a vibrant wood products market that advances the state’s sustainable forest management strategy. Subjects covered include:
– Overview of Proposed Action
– Panel Discussion with Industry Representatives
Welcome & Opening Remarks
• Wade Crowfoot, CNRA
• Jennifer Eberlien, USFS
• Task Force Executive Committee
Director’s Report
Director’s Report
• Patrick Wright
Looking Back
Looking Back
Moderator: John Battles, UC Berkeley
• Patrick Wright, Task Force
• Leana Weissberg, UC Berkeley, Center for Law, Energy & the Environment
• Scott Stephens, UC Berkeley
• Yana Valachovic, UC Cooperative Extension
Moving Forward
Moving Forward
Moderator: John Battles, UC Berkeley
• Pat Manley, USFS Pacific SW Research Station
• David Saah, Spatial Informatics Group
• Mickey Kataria, Google.org
• Alan Talhelm, CARB
• Loretta Moreno, CNRA
• Stephanie Coppeto, USFS.
Wood Utilization Work Group Report
Wood Utilization Work Group Report
Moderator: Steve Frisch, Sierra Business Council
• Elizabeth Betancourt, Dept. of Conservation
• Helena Murray, USFS
• Matt Dias, California Forestry Association
• Julia Levin, Bioenergy Association of California
• Dan Porter, The Nature Conservancy
• Matt Sjoholm, Blue Forest Conservation.
Final Remarks
• Task Force Co-Chairs
Jackson Demonstration Forest: A Great Recreation Choice
Jackson Demonstration Forest: A Great Recreation Choice
California’s demonstration state forests serve as a living laboratory for how to care for and manage California’s forest lands for multiple benefits—wood products and timber production, recreation, watershed protection, and habitat restoration—given a changing climate and increasingly severe and intense wildfire seasons. The forests provide unique research and demonstration opportunities where environmental scientists, foresters, and other researchers can study the effects of various forest management and restoration techniques that help inform management practices for government, nonprofit and private forestland owners.
Common activities on state forests include experimental timber harvesting techniques that test the Forest Practice Rules, watershed restoration, mushroom collecting, hunting, firewood gathering, cone collecting for seed, a variety of university research projects, horseback riding, camping, mountain biking, and hiking.
Jackson is the largest of CAL FIRE’s ten demonstration state forests. The area has a long history of logging which began in under private ownership 1862 then evolved into sustainable harvesting after the State’s purchase of the property in 1947. Today, more forest growth occurs each year than is harvested. The most common tree on the forest is coast redwood, but visitors will also find Douglas-fir, grand fir, hemlock, bishop pine, tanoak, alder, madrone and bay myrtle.
RESOURCES
State Can Fight Fire With Prescribed Fire By Funding Jobs In The Field
State Can Fight Fire With Prescribed Fire By Funding Jobs In The Field
“It is now accepted that prescribed fire is needed to conserve and restore biodiversity, prevent catastrophic fires, stabilize carbon and promote public health and safety. To address the pace and scale of prescribed fire that is needed, we must invest in careers in prescribed fire.” Read this guest commentary in CalMatters.org from Tom Gardali, CEO, Audubon Canyon Ranch.
RESOURCES
Administration Announces Plans for Reforestation, Climate Adaptation
Biden-Harris Administration Announces Plans for Reforestation, Climate Adaptation, including New Resources from Bipartisan Infrastructure Law
On July 2022, the U.S. Department of Agriculture and U.S. Forest Service announced a nationwide strategy that will address a reforestation backlog of four million acres on national forests and plant more than one billion trees over the next decade. According to USFS Chief Randy Moore, the reforestation strategy will serve as a framework to understand reforestation needs, develop shared priorities with partners, expand reforestation and nursery capacity, and ensure the trees planted grow to support healthy, resilient forests. In addition to the reforestation strategy, Secretary Vilsack announced 13 new USDA agency climate adaptation plans, which outline how each USDA agency will incorporate climate change into their operations and decisions to support communities, agriculture and forests nationwide.
RESOURCES
CAL FIRE Invests in Workforce and Business Development
CAL FIRE Invests in Workforce and Business Development
May 27, 2022 – Sacramento – The California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection (CAL FIRE) has awarded $33 million to business development and workforce development projects that support healthy, resilient forests and the people and ecosystems that depend on them.
RESOURCES
How advanced wood products can lead to healthier forests
How advanced wood products can lead to healthier forests
Mar 5, 2020 – Healthier forests created by clearing of dead biomass and making use of the wood through innovative techniques is just one of the benefits to those practices, explains Glenda Humiston, vice president of the University of California Agriculture and Natural Resources division.
RESOURCES