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This report is a synthesis of current harvested wood product (HWP) carbon models available for use in the United States and Canada. As local, state, and national entities develop forest management objectives that address climate change mitigation, there is a need to consider the short- and long-term fate of carbon in HWPs. The goals of this synthesis were to (1) review and synthesize the functionality of current HWP carbon models; (2) describe the role of life-cycle assessment (LCA) to estimate overall greenhouse gas (GHG) implications of using HWPs instead of alternative nonwood materials or fossil-fuel-based energy (i.e., substitution); and (3) discuss economic feedbacks of timber supply, demand, and price between HWPs and forest management. We summarized information based on discussions with experts, extensive literature reviews, and examples of ongoing research and methods for estimating HWP carbon. We also reviewed the potential for integrating forest sector economic models that consider carbon implications and the value of life-cycle assessments when considering cross-sectoral tradeoffs. The HWP carbon models most extensively described are the U.S. Department of Agriculture Forest Service's USFS HWP-C v1 and its variants as well as model variants built from the Government of Canada Natural Resources Canada Forest Service's abstract Network Simulation Engine (ANSE) software, such as the National Forest Carbon Monitoring, Accounting, and Reporting System for Harvested Wood Products. These models are similar in functionality and have been used at national and subnational scales; however, they also have key differences. Despite the data intensity and level of detail built into HWP carbon model frameworks, there are limitations to each one; some updates and improvements are being addressed but are not yet in the literature. Future model improvements could include improved integration of HWP models with forest ecosystem carbon models, forest sector economic models, and substitution analyses to analyze tradeoffs and quantify management implications across space and time. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This introductory paper highlights some of the changes in redwood region land ownership, markets and infrastructure to help contextualize the dynamic nature of the forest industry in California and to help set the stage for a management and policy dialog among symposia participants. Twenty years have passed from the first redwood symposium in 1996 and with this so too have the conservation and management issues changed among regional stakeholders. Through 70 talks delivered in plenary and concurrent sessions, a poster session, and four field trip choices, session participants had the opportunity to learn more about how forests are managed today, gain an enhanced understanding of scientific advancements, and see first-hand some of the changes in both private and public forest land management. This paper reflects the conference organizer's personal observations and available regional data. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

There is a tremendous amount of variation in the second growth redwood (Sequoia sempervirens (D. Don) Endl.) forests found along the North Coast of California. In order to make prudent management decisions about these forests, foresters and other resource professionals often conduct timber cruises to collect information on tree species, diameters, tree heights, crown ratios, bole taper, and other variables of interest. When designing point sample timber cruises to collect these data, it is important not only to consider sample size (the number of point samples), but to also consider how frequently to subsample trees for volume measurements. The purpose of this paper is to report on a study where Green Diamond simultaneously assessed the effects of both of these key timber cruise design elements on confidence intervals for board foot volume estimates. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

During a period of unusually hot, dry weather in 1972, the Creighton Ridge fire burned 4,452 ha (11,000 ac) of forest and intermixed grasslands, as well as many residences on the recently-subdivided 16 ha (40 ac) ranch holdings in the Cazadero - Fort Ross area, north of San Francisco. In response to the fire, local work crews planted and thinned trees from 1981 to 2000 with State of California economic and technical assistance. Plantations of ponderosa pine (Pinus ponderosa Douglas ex C. Lawson) and Coulter pine (Pinus coulteri D. Don) were to serve as 'nurse trees' allowing ingrowth of shade tolerant Douglas-fir (Pseudotsuga menziesii (Mirb.) Franco) and redwood (Sequioa sempervirens (D. Don) Endl.). About a million pines, Doulgas-fir and redwood were planted on about 1,214 ha (3,000 ac). Where nurse trees were thinned, the desired forests were achieved. Thinning of these new forests, however, has never been a funded state or landowner priority. Now the forests are up to 45 years old and growing vigorously as dense stands. This paper evaluates several hypotheses testable in this new forest. It also reviews the potential benefits of a forest plan to mitigate plantations' impacts while creating measurable benefits to the people and ecosystems of the affected watersheds. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In 2014, the U.S. Department of Agriculture Forest Service Forest Inventory and Analysis program collected forest and tree measurements from 56 forest plots among three forest communities (lowland forest, mangrove, and strand forest) in the Republic of Palau, across Babeldaob, Koror, Peleliu, Angaur, and the Rock Islands. A total of 125 tree species and 196 dominant vascular plants were recorded, most in lowland tropical rainforest. Strand forest had the lowest stem density and highest basal area and volume per acre among forest communities. The Rock Islands had the highest basal area, volume per acre, and percentage of trees >10 inches diameter at breast height, but also the highest stem density among island groups (Babeldaob, Peleliu/Angaur, or the Rock Islands). Palau had a high percentage of forest canopy cover in 2014, with some missing canopy cover associated with wind or fire disturbance. Little evidence of damages from feral pigs or tree cutting were recorded, and no specific human disturbance was observed except for fire. About 40 percent of observed Cocos nucifera L. (lius) trees had Oryctes rhinoceros beetle damage. Less than 1 percent of total forest area was covered with nonnative invasive plants, and the mean percentage of cover of the native/invasive vine Merremia peltata (L.) Merr. (kebeas) decreased by 17 percent compared to 2003. Between 2003 and 2014, the average height of all trees in Palau increased by 2 feet, and the forest grew about 100,000 tons of tree biomass per year (50,000 tons of carbon). The estimates for mean diameter and stem density per acre did not change significantly, but mean basal area per acre significantly increased between inventories. Disturbed forest area increased from 1 to 25 percent, and tree damage increased by 10 percent. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Economic decision-making in wildfire defense and fire management programs is not easy when performed under efficiency criteria. The determination of variables to be considered and the lack of data analyzed in relation to the results achieved by the action plans adopted to reduce the impact of fires condition the adoption of strategic solutions, both in the management of the landscape against fires and in suppression operations. If, by itself, the decision on how much, where and how to invest protection budgets is complex, the choice in environments of risk and uncertainty undoubtedly increases the difficulty in finding the right solutions. Determining the expected utility function and measuring risk aversion provide interesting and advanced diagnostic tools that allow comparing the responses that can be provided by the application of different action plans in the forest landscape. Based on the results obtained, the best solution under uncertainty scenarios can be selected. The integration of variables that identify the initial extinction difficulty of the landscape under study, as well as the potential danger of wildfires and their effects on the net change in the value of resources due to the fire's impact and the extinction costs, help characterize the behavior of the expected utility functions. This paper analyzes the results of different utility functions and compares them with the purpose of identifying the expected utility function with the best explanatory capacity when choosing among different fire protection options under situations of uncertainty generated by climate change, the probability of occurrence, and the influence of social behaviors, as well as the different extinction capacities, among other factors. The management of forest fuels and the different opportunities for extinction depending on the combinations of means of suppression can be treated from the approach of choosing strategic solutions in scenarios of uncertainty. The SINAMI (Rodríguez y Silva, González-Cabán, 2010) and Visual-SEVEIF (Rodríguez y Silva, et al. 2013, 2014) models provide the baseline data for decision-making and choice of solutions under conditions of uncertainty in the forest landscape. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Anecdotal evidence and some previous studies suggest that as development approaches private forest land, there's a decline in commercial timber management of those forests. At the request of Gary Lettman, then a principal forest economist with the Oregon Department of Forestry, Jeff Kline and Andrew Gray, researchers with the USDA Forest Service Pacific Northwest Research Station, studied whether this held true in Oregon and Washington. They used data from the USDA Forest Service Forest Inventory Analysis program and state data from 2001-2016 to determine if there was a connection. Kline also reviewed previous studies conducted across the country on the effects of housing development on commercial timber management. Both research efforts yielded similar results--site-specific productivity and socioeconomic factors influenced whether development reduced commercial timber management. Throughout the entire study area, stand and site characteristics were significantly correlated with the intensity of active management and harvest levels. Active forest management decreased in western Washington as housing density increased. In other regions of Oregon and Washington, increases in housing density didn't result in significant decreases in active management. This information may inform future policy decisions about land use. Another consideration is that as these areas urbanize, public values around forests may shift from commercial timber management to managing for a variety of ecosystem services. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article offers information about the management of the National Forest System (NFS), including its mission, multiple uses, and concerns about ecological conditions. It discusses the various uses of NFS lands, such as fish and wildlife purposes, outdoor recreation, and timber production. The article also addresses issues related to hazardous fuels and the need for forest restoration projects.

The guidelines proposed in Urban Tree Monitoring: A Resource Guide (hereafter referred to as the Resource Guide) were developed and refined over many years to address the need for standardized urban tree monitoring protocols. The Resource Guide provides in-depth guidance for urban forest managers and researchers who want to design and implement a tree monitoring project. This Resource Guide is a companion to Urban Tree Monitoring: A Field Guide; however, the Resource Guide can also be used on its own. The Resource Guide is divided into three parts. In Part I, we discuss (1) the varied goals of monitoring projects and how to match data collection to those goals, (2) the development of these urban tree monitoring standards, (3) types of monitoring projects, and (4) connections to other protocols for urban tree data collection. We offer guidance on methods for recording tree location, developing tree record identifiers, organizing spreadsheets and databases, choosing data collection systems, fostering research-practice partnerships, training crews, and managing fieldwork. In Part II, we present five monitoring data sets: Minimum Data Set, Tree Data Set, Site Data Set, Young Tree Management Data Set, and Community Data Set. We list study goals that could be addressed with each data set and descriptions of relevant variables. We also provide guidance regarding which variables are best suited for beginner and advanced crews. Lastly, in Part III we include appendices with additional resources for designing and implementing tree monitoring projects. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Demonstration of Ecosystem Management Options (DEMO) Study is an operational-scale experiment in variable-retention harvests with six installations in western Washington and Oregon. Initiated in 1994, the experiment was designed to test key assumptions underlying standards and guidelines in the Northwest Forest Plan for regeneration harvests on matrix lands. The orthogonal portion of the six-treatment design (15 and 40 percent retention in both aggregated and dispersed patterns) is unique among large-scale variable-retention experiments, allowing for independent tests of responses to retention level and pattern and to their interaction. The DEMO Study is a multidisciplinary experiment designed to evaluate the dynamics of a diverse array of forest organisms (understory and overstory vegetation, wildlife, arthropods, and fungi), including their short-term responses to disturbance and longer term responses to changes in forest structure. However, maintaining financial support for the study over several decades has been challenging. Consequently, most studies were limited to the short term, although assessments of overstory structure and conifer regeneration extend to 18 to 19 years after treatment. This comprehensive reference document is designed to facilitate future research on the DEMO sites by providing information needed to relocate or reestablish the sampling grids, and to access existing data for comparative analyses or syntheses. It contains details on the study design, treatment histories, experimental sites, sampling infrastructure, response variables, methods and histories of sampling, and data and metadata archives. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A report is presented analyzing forest management provisions enacted during the 115th U.S. Congress through the Stephen Sepp Wildfire Suppression Funding and Forest Management Activities Act and the Agricultural Improvement Act of 2018. Topics discussed include forest management in accordance with the Multiple-Use Sustained-Yield Act and the National Forest Management Act, the public lands managed by the U.S. Bureau of Land Management, and the environmental responsibilities of federal agencies.

This study was undertaken to determine the factors causing forest fires in Serik and Taşağıl forest provinces of Antalya Forest Regional Directory in Turkey. These neighboring forest provinces including 78 forest villages was the site of one of the biggest forest fires in the Turkish Recorded History affecting about 15000 hectares. The area is also known to have a high frequency of forest fires. To accomplish this goal, we gathered information on 21 forest related characteristics, 22 socioeconomic factors for the years from 1998-2010, fire number, and two different index derived by climatic factors. Socioeconomic factors were obtained by scanning the local, regional and national registrations in different databases. All these 43 factors belonging to 78 forest villages were used for the analysis. Different multi numerical analysis techniques such as factor analyzes, cluster analysis and multi regression analysis were applied to reveal the most important factor groups explaining fires in the region. The analyses were done separately for Taşağıl and Serik forest provinces. Four factor groups including eleven variables were selected for the Taşağıl forest province. These factors groups explained 85 % of the total variance. Similarly, for Serik forest province, four factor groups containing fourteen variables were determined. These groups explained 87% of the total variance. The villages of Taşağıl and Serik provinces were classified according to these factor groups, which could be a useful tool for the fire management in the region. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This report is based on the final version of the Humboldt marten (Martes caurina humboldtensis) conservation assessment and strategy submitted on September 30, 2017 by the Humboldt Marten Conservation Group. This assessment and strategy was developed in response to the decline of the Humboldt marten throughout most of its historical range in California and Oregon. The first four chapters synthesize the state of the knowledge on the Humboldt marten and relevant ecological and management aspects of the forest habitats it occupies. The final chapter identifies overall conservation goals, evaluates current threats or impediments to achieving those goals, and identifies a series of conservation actions and information needs that could help to achieve the overall conservation goals. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Twenty years ago the Redwood region was dominated by the so called "timber wars". On public lands the Northwest Forest Plan forced a new ecosystem management approach. On private lands, the Headwaters Forest initiative and Redwood Summer events were forcing state and federal regulators and landowners to rethink forest management strategies on private lands. The foundation for these debates focused on traditional views of public versus private ownership and to what degree environmental protection and intensive forestry could be applied. Twenty years later, the Redwood region has become a leader in developing progressive forestry practices and, importantly, new governance structures that provide the financial flexibility to integrate environmental, social and economic attributes. This presentation will summarize a number of historic events that helped build a new forestry foundation along with new conservation strategies that are bringing people together as opposed to tearing them apart. Opportunities and challenges will also be discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The 1994 Northwest Forest Plan (NWFP) was developed to resolve debates over oldgrowth forests, endangered species, and timber production on federal forests in the range of the northern spotted owl. This three-volume science synthesis, which consists of 12 chapters that address various ecological and social concerns, is intended to inform forest plan revision and forest management within the NWFP area. Land managers with the U.S. Forest Service provided questions that helped guide preparation of the synthesis, which builds on the 10-, 15-, and 20-year NWFP monitoring reports and synthesizes the vast body of relevant scientific literature that has accumulated in the 24 years since the NWFP was initiated. It identifies scientific findings, lessons learned, and uncertainties and also evaluates competing science and provides considerations for management. This synthesis finds that the NWFP has protected dense old-growth forests and maintained habitat for northern spotted owls, marbled murrelets, aquatic organisms, and other species despite losses from wildfire and low levels of timber harvest on federal lands. Even with reductions in the loss of older forests, northern spotted owl populations continue to decline. Moreover, a number of other goals have not been met, including producing a sustainable supply of timber, decommissioning roads, biodiversity monitoring, significant levels of restoration of riparian and dry forests, and adaptation and learning through adaptive management. New conservation concerns have arisen, including a major threat to spotted owl populations from expanding populations of the nonnative barred owl, effects of fire suppression on forest succession, fire behavior in dry forests, and lack of development of diverse early-seral vegetation as a result of fire suppression in drier parts of moist forests. Climate change and invasive species have emerged as threats to native biodiversity, and expansion of the wildland-urban interface has limited the ability of managers to restore fire to fire-dependent ecosystems. The policy, social, and ecological contexts for the NWFP have changed since it was implemented. The contribution of federal lands continues to be essential to the conservation and recovery of fish listed under the Endangered Species Act and northern spotted owl and marbled murrelet populations. Conservation on federal lands alone, however, is likely insufficient to reach the goals of the NWFP or the newer goals of the 2012 planning rule, which emphasizes managing for ecosystem goals (e.g. ecological resilience) and a few species of concern, rather than the population viability of hundreds of individual species. The social and economic basis of many traditionally forest-dependent communities have changed in 24 years, and many are now focused on amenity values. The capacities of human communities and federal agencies, collaboration among stakeholders, the interdependence of restoration and the timber economy, and the role of amenity- or recreation- based communities and ecosystem services are important considerations in managing for ecological resilience, biodiversity conservation, and social and economic sustainability. A growing body of scientific evidence supports the importance of active management or restoration inside and outside reserves to promote biodiversity and ecological resilience. Active management to promote heterogeneity of vegetation conditions is important to sustaining tribal ecocultural resources. Declines in agency capacity, lack of markets for small-diameter wood, lack of wood processing infrastructure in some areas, and lack of social agreement have limited the amount of active management for restoration on federal lands. All management choices involve social and ecological tradeoffs related to the goals of the NWFP. Collaboration, risk management, adaptive management, and monitoring are considered the best ways to deal with complex social and ecological systems with futures that are difficult to predict and affect through policy and land management actions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We describe the foundation, objectives, and initial results from a stand-level experiment focused on restoration of redwood (Sequoia sempervirens (D. Don) Endl.) forests impacted by sudden oak death (SOD), caused by Phytophthora ramorum. Our study stands were primed for heavy impacts by SOD. Extensive harvesting which ended circa 1910 on Mt Tamalpais (Marin County, California) resulted in high densities of tanoak trees with interspersed residual redwood. The arrival of P. ramorum and subsequent emergence of SOD transformed these stands into tanoak shrublands with interspersed redwood trees. Pretreatment understory tanoak densities were extremely high relative to redwood forests of the north coast which have not been invaded by P. ramorum but both redwood advanced regeneration and overstory tree densities were low in the same respects. Mastication and hand-crew piling treatments were applied in 2015 on a randomly selected group of plots and each treatment type substantially reduced tanoak densities suggesting redwood establishment may now be possible. Our study is designed to assess tradeoffs of treatment costs with benefits resulting from fuels reduction, redwood regeneration, carbon sequestration, and water provisioning. We cannot yet make strong conclusions about these tradeoffs given the preliminary nature of our datasets. Instead, we describe areas of uncertainty and identify critical questions that must be evaluated to understand the utility and appropriateness of applying these treatments across a broader portion of the redwood forest landscape. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

California's cap-and-trade carbon market has included forest offset projects, available to all private landowners across the United States. The redwood region has been at the forefront of the market, creating the earliest forest carbon projects. From carbon registries, we compiled a database of all forest carbon projects in the market, in order to determine where projects were located, what types of landowners (e.g. industrial, non-industrial, tribal, timber investment management organizations [TIMO]) were participating, and how projects were being developed. Notably, non-industrial private forest landowners or "family" forest landowners were underrepresented within the market relative to their landholdings. We conducted a survey of family forest landowners in several forested regions across California, in order to determine landowner management objectives and willingness to participate in the carbon market, including obstacles and incentives for participation, and how carbon markets coexist with management objectives. We found that, though many of the carbon market objectives align well with family forest landowner objectives, the burdens of entering the market discourage participation. Further, using cluster analysis, we grouped family forest owners in California according to three management objective types, which we labeled Amenity, Legacy, and Income groups. These three groups had different views of the carbon market and climate change. If family forest owners are to be included in this or other carbonsequestration incentive programs, the management motivations and constraints of distinct landowner types need to be considered. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Imported forest pests have changed North American forests and caused staggering monetary losses in the centuries since the country was founded. Since most problem-causing non-native pests are innocuous in their home ranges, where they have coevolved with their host trees, experts cannot predict which pathogens or insects will have lethal effect on other continents. Many non-native pests are unknown to science until they cause problems in their new homes. One common response to the threat of non-native insects and diseases in our forests is to appeal to science to develop technical means for management or eradication, yet common sense tells us that it would be more cost-effective and ecologically efficient to prevent pest introductions in the first place. The discipline of political ecology explores the ways in which many environmental issues that are usually presented as scientific or technical problems are actually policy issues that have been redirected into scientific discussion in order to avoid acknowledging the need for hard political choices. The political ecology of forest pest management is very relevant to 21st-century forestry in the redwood (Sequoia sempervirens (D. Don) Endl.) region, where we have no way of knowing whether the next pest will be the one to target redwood or another native California tree species. These questions are especially important to consider and to educate policymakers about in California, where the iconic coast and Sierra (Sequoiadendron giganteum (Lindl.) Buchholz) redwoods have limited distributions that may make them vulnerable to future pest invasions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The effects of selective-harvest on forest composition and structure in the southern range of the coast redwood (Sequoia sempervirens (D. Don) Endl.) forest have not been well documented. This case study focused on the Byrne-Milliron Forest in Santa Cruz County, California where selective-harvest is currently the primary method of timber extraction. The purpose of this research was to determine how forest structure and composition varied in regard to harvest intensity and management goals. We sampled 100 plots in the Byrne-Milliron Forest across five harvest sites. All sites had been essentially clear-cut in the late 19th or early 20th century, and subsequently selectively harvested in the late 20th and early 21st century. Four of the five sites have been managed primarily for timber production, while the fifth site, the Late Successional Unit (LSU), has been managed for old-forest conditions as well as timber production. We predicted the LSU would contain more late seral features, and that the presence of these features would be positively correlated to years since harvest, and negatively correlated to percentage cut and number of harvest re-entries. Data analysis procedures included one-way analysis of variance (ANOVA) for comparison between sites, and Pearson product-moment coefficient for correlations between variables. As expected, the LSU exhibited the most developed old-forest features, including the lowest stand density and exotic species richness among all sites evaluated. In addition, it contained the highest percentage of coast redwood associated herbaceous species and large woody debris (LWD). Results also indicated that percentage cut was the strongest predictor for canopy cover, stand density, LWD, and the cover of coast redwood associated herbaceous species. Our findings suggest that a lower percentage cut is more effective in maintaining conditions commonly associated with late seral forests such as snags, fire hollows, complex canopy structures and LWD, and these features can be present in selectively harvested stands if carefully managed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The objective of this study is to test the effectiveness of California Forest Practice Rules and additional best management practices implemented as part of Humboldt Redwood Company's Habitat Conservation Plan and Watershed Analysis prescriptions, in limiting the delivery of management-derived sediment. A paired watershed study format is being utilized to evaluate sediment sources: road surfaces, watercourse crossings, landslides, channel incision and bank erosion, and tributary channel head-cutting. The study compares the West Branch (1.48 km2, 365 ac) and the East Branch (1.28 km2, 314 ac) of Railroad Gulch, a tributary to the Elk River (152 km2) which flows into Humboldt Bay just south of Eureka, California. The watershed has been intensely logged in the past and is underlain by two erodible geologic terranes, the Pleistocene age Hookton Formation and the late Miocene to middle Quaternary age undifferentiated Wildcat Group. Forty seven percent of the East Branch was logged in the summer of 2016 under Timber Harvest Plan 1-12-110 HUM, with 32 ha (80 ac) of single tree selection, 18 ha (45 ac) of group selection, and 10 ha (24 ac) of no-cut zone left as buffer strips along Class I and II watercourses. A new native surfaced seasonal road was constructed in the summer of 2015. Several existing roadways were reopened during the same time period. All of these roads are appurtenant to the plan and were utilized for hauling throughout the summer of 2016. Cable yarding systems were used. No timber operations will occur within the West Branch, which will serve as the study control. Methods used to evaluate prescription performance include: pre- and post-construction road inventory and characterization, turbidity synoptic sampling during storm events, landslide inventories, channel cross-section surveys, pebble counts, continuous turbidity, stage, and rainfall monitoring, peak flow analysis, and an analysis of Beryllium-10 (Be-10) isotopes to estimate for long-term (e.g., 1000 to 10,000 year) erosion rates. Data collection for the study began in earnest in 2014, with limited streamside landslide data collected in 2013. Sediment loads were well correlated between the two branches during an extremely dry water year (WY) and a below average water year. In WY 2014 the total annual suspended sediment load equaled 49 Mg (metric tons) km-2 (0.22 t ac-1) in the East Branch and 38 Mg km-2 (.017 t ac-1) in the West Branch. Loads were tenfold higher in WY 2015 in conjunction with a single large storm event which triggered several debris torrents in addition to several streamside failures. The WY 2015 total annual sediment load equaled 861 Mg km-2 (3.8 t ac-1) in the East Branch and 716 Mg km-2 (3.2 t ac-1) in the West Branch. Historically active debris slides and earthflows cover approximately 6 percent of the study basin. Five active upland failures have been detected during the project period; two in WY 2014 and three in WY 2015. Several of these active landslides are hydrologically connected and at selected sites were observed to strongly influence downstream turbidity. Cross-sectional surveys indicated that channel banks remained stable with limited thalweg scour between 2014 and 2015. Postharvest monitoring will continue through 2019. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The 1,295 ha (3,200 ac) Swanton Pacific Ranch (Swanton) and the associated Valencia Tract in Santa Cruz County have been managed by California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo (Cal Poly) since 1987. Swanton's Valencia Tract is a 239 ha (591 ac) property located north of Watsonville, California. Cal Poly forest managers have conducted two harvest entries since acquiring ownership of the Valencia tract utilizing a modified BDq individual tree selection approach. A 10-year continuous forest re-inventory (CFI) was completed for the Valencia coast redwood tract to update and enhance the growth and yield analysis needed for the Non-Industrial Timber Management Plan (NTMP) sustainability analysis. The California Growth and Yield Modeling Cooperative - Forest and Stand Evaluation Environment (FORSEE) program and 10-year CFI data were utilized to perform a sustainability analysis comparing trees per acre, basal area per acre, quadratic mean diameter, and gross volume per acre. Several tree volume estimation methods were evaluated for differences in yield reporting. It was determined that: 1) by 2012 actual stand volume growth had completely recovered from harvest and exceeded the pre-harvest 2001 gross volume by 9.7 percent (i.e., average stand growth of 1,266 board feet per acre per year, or 3.0 percent growth rate per year); 2) the Spaulding equation appears to be a solid medial choice for Valencia Tract sustainable yield analysis; 3) sustainable uneven-age stand management resulted from setting residual stand basal area (b), maximum diameter (d) and trees per acre by diameter prescription targets (q) while leaving a few trees greater than the established maximum diameter (i.e., a modified BDq approach); 4) the project model underestimated basal area per acre growth, overestimated change in quadratic mean diameter (QMD), overestimated diameter growth of smaller trees (< 30.5 cm (12 inches) diameter at breast height (DBH; 1.37 m)); underestimated diameter growth of larger trees (> 33 cm (13 inches) DBH), underestimated height growth of larger trees (> 53.3 cm (21 inches (DBH), underestimated volume (16.3 percent lower than actual CFI volume figures). It is postulated that this difference in FORSEE model projection is either a result of the way the CFI data was processed in FORSEE, regional differences, or inherent projection inaccuracies not fully understood by FORSEE users. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Mature second-growth redwood (Sequoia sempervirens (D. Don) Endl.) forests are an important and uncommon resource in the redwood region. Development of second-growth redwood forests beyond rotation age is not well understood. Continuous long-term data are especially lacking, considering that the maximum possible age of second-growth stands is now over 150 years. Two observation plots established in 1923 in the Arcata Community Forest provide a unique opportunity to examine the long-term development of second-growth redwood forest. Dr. Woodbridge Metcalf of UC Berkeley established two 0.4 ha (1 ac) plots on land that was logged in approximately the 1880s. Metcalf and associates tagged and measured all trees every 10 years from 1923 to 1963. Dr. Rudolf Becking of Humboldt State University spearheaded another remeasurement in 1990, but no publication ever resulted from Metcalf or Becking's work. The Metcalf and Becking surveys collected diameter at breast height (DBH; 1.37 m, 4.5 ft) and species for all trees, and height for only some trees. We surveyed the plots using modern methods (precise stem mapping confirmed with LiDAR data, height measurements with laser rangefinders and LiDAR data, crown volume measurements, multiple diameter measurements of buttressed tree bases, and others) and assembled a complete dataset from 1923 to 2015. We utilized new allometric models for Sitka spruce (Picea sitchensis (Bong.) Carrière), Douglas-fir (Pseudotsuga menziesii (Mirb.) Franco), and second-growth coast redwood to predict tree-level quantities such as total biomass and leaf area from functional DBH, diameter at top of buttress, height, and crown volume (Sillett and Iberle, unpublished). The hierarchical sampling methods used to obtain the datasets for these models and the model construction are similar to methods described in Sillett et al. (2015) and Van Pelt et al. (2016). Both plots approximately doubled in total basal area over the study period, ending at 124 m2 ha-1 (538 ft2 ac-1) in Plot 1 and 142 m2 ha-1 (624 ft2 ac-1) in Plot 2. Redwood is becoming more dominant in the plots, especially beginning around 80 years in stand age. This trend is apparent for proportion of basal area (fig. 1, bottom) and is also reflected in estimated variables (total mass, wood volume, and others). Stem density decreased over the study period, from 435 to 282 trees per hectare (TPH) (176 to 114 trees per acre, TPA) in Plot 1 and 596 to 356 TPH (240 to 144 TPA) in Plot 2. The nonredwood species are slowly dropping out of the plots, while redwood numbers stabilized in the last 50 years due to ingrowth (fig. 1, top). Causes of mortality were not recorded during surveys, other than notable windthrow events between 1943 and 1963 (stand age of 63 and 83 years). These disturbances dominate the net growth trajectory in the twenty-year period, as seen in the plateau in total basal area (fig. 1). The only similar long-term dataset for second-growth redwood forest is Dr. Emanuel Fritz's "Wonder Plot" in Mendocino County, famous for a high rate of tree growth (Allen et al. 1996, Fritz 1945, Gerhart 2006). Established by a collaborator of Metcalf, also in 1923, this pure redwood forest on an alluvial plain provides an interesting comparison with this study's mixed-species forests located further north in Humboldt County. Stem density in the Wonder Plot is higher than the Metcalf plots around 60 years in stand age, but steeply drops to similar levels by 130 years (fig. 1, top). Tree growth in the Wonder Plot outpaced the Metcalf plots by a large margin, with approximately one-and-a-half times the basal area at equivalent stand ages. However, a windthrow event in 1998 all but erased that margin. The most recent Wonder Plot survey found a total basal area that will be nearly equivalent to Metcalf plot totals if their growth trend continues (fig. 1, bottom). Nevertheless, the higher growth rate of the Wonder Plot is unsurprising considering the highly productive alluvial site chosen by Fritz. Our application of allometric models predicting total mass and leaf area also allow for comparison to old-growth coast redwood plots described in detail by Van Pelt et al. (2016). We selected four plots from Van Pelt et al. (2016) for comparison, two in Redwood National Park and two in Prairie Creek Redwoods State Park, which are the closest geographically and ecologically to the Metcalf plots. At approximately 135 years of stand age, both Metcalf plots are remarkably close to their old-growth counterparts in leaf area index of trees alone. Unsurprisingly, the Metcalf plots are far behind the oldgrowth plots in total aboveground tree mass, with the old-growth plots being between three and four times heavier (fig. 2). While the second-growth forests have similar photosynthetic capacity after 135 years of growth, the trees in old-growth forests have been applying that capacity for many centuries and storing the energy in decay-resistant heartwood. The Metcalf plots have shown strong growth over the study period, although not approaching the rates achieved by Fritz's Wonder Plot. This is despite heavy human use within and around the plots, even predating the establishment of the city park in 1955, according to survey notes. The undergrowth is clearly reduced by formal and social trails in the plots, particularly in the upper plot, and soil compaction is likely. Nevertheless, the Metcalf plots are a rare long-term example of northern second-growth coast redwood forest dynamics and can serve as a benchmark for comparison. Restoration of old-growth forest attributes in second-growth forests through silvicultural manipulation is of increasing interest, as seen in the Silviculture section of these proceedings. Our results from relatively unmanaged conditions can be compared to such studies, especially as treated stands move beyond rotation age. The large non-redwood component occupying growing space in the Metcalf plots, as well as the exceptional example of growth in the Wonder Plot, indicate opportunities for acceleration of second-growth redwood forests toward old-growth characteristics. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Coast redwood (Sequoia sempervirens (D. Don) Endl.) height growth and basal area growth are sensitive to variations in site quality. Site factors known to be correlated with redwood stand growth and yield include topographic variables such as position on slope, exposure, and the composite variable: topographic relative moisture index. Species composition is also a key driver of redwood stand growth and yield. We studied spatial patterns in species composition in terms of percent hardwood, and spatial patterns in topographic relative moisture index values across 109 ha (270 ac) of coast redwood forest on Jackson Demonstration State Forest in Mendocino County, California. We also examined how redwood height growth (in terms of site index) and basal area productivity varied across the study area. We performed Ordinary Kriging in ArcGIS to interpolate between plots. These continuous raster data sets were used to create contour maps to assess redwood productivity in the study area. These example applications demonstrate a potential framework and method to estimate forest growth, yield, and carbon stocks in natural forests along gradients of productivity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article offers information on the existing markets for forest carbon sequestration, the potential to use forest to offset other greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions' sources, and the drawbacks on forest carbon sequestration efforts. Among the markets discussed are compliance offset markets, Kyoto Protocol, and European Union's (EU) Emission Trading Scheme (ETS). Several types of forestry projects for offsets including afforestation, reforestation, and forest management are mentioned.

The article discusses the book "Aiming for Healthy Forest: Active, Intentional Management for Multiple Values," by Andrew B. Carey. It says that the book has focused on the ecological forestry including silviculture, direct wildlife habitat improvements, and restoration of biological diversity, and on intentionality as well. Moreover, the book has provided a cognitive psychology that will understand the sources of differences in perception which will likely help in collaborative management.

The East Bay Regional Park District, the largest urban park network in the United States, includes extensive coast live oak (Quercus agrifolia)-dominated forests at the urban-wildland interface. Parks that encompass chaparral, grasslands, riparian habitats, and hardwood and conifer forests are adjacent to one of the most heavily-populated urban regions in the country. From 2008 to 2011, we placed 535 randomly assigned, 10 m radius fixed plots in coast live oakbay laurel (Umbellularia californica) stands in each of five parks to establish baseline disease conditions. The random design permits extrapolation to landscape scales. Baseline data included diameter at breast height (DBH) for all woody stems >2.5-cm, disease status of coast live oaks, and woody plant regeneration. Plots were re-assessed between 2015 and 2018 to quantify change and to develop projections for future change. All parks exhibited increases in infection and mortality levels, with annual infection rates as high as 7.7%. Infections increased markedly following the cessation of the 2011-2015 drought. Despite general similarities in species composition, 2011 infection levels varied from 6.3% (Anthony Chabot) to 14.4% (Wildcat Canyon) and mortality varied from 4.1% (Wildcat Canyon) to 8.7% (Redwood Park). The 2015-2018 evaluations found infection levels between 8.7% (Anthony Chabot) and 27.7% (Wildcat Canyon) and mortality levels from 8.7% (Anthony Chabot) to 29.9% (Wildcat Canyon). Within-park variation in disease and mortality may reflect stand level differences in mean coast live oak DBH, but land-use history also probably affects disease levels. Larger coast live oaks show much higher levels of infection and mortality than the more abundant smaller size classes. The disproportionate loss of the largest mast-bearing trees in these forests will affect wildlife in ways we yet do not understand. In addition, the increase in fuels in these evergreen forests increases the risks of catastrophic wildfire in stands that lie to the east of large population centers. We also conducted surveys of three more inland parks; Diablo Foothills and Pleasanton Ridge Regional Parks and Las Trampas Regional Wilderness. Diablo Foothills was assessed using randomly placed plots. Despite having much less coast live oak than blue oak (Q. douglasii, not a known host), 34% of the coast live oaks (N = 259) in Diablo Foothills were symptomatic in 2016. The other two parks were surveyed, but not randomly, for presence of symptomatic coast live oaks in 2018. In Las Trampas, 30.6% of coast live oaks (N = 98) were symptomatic, with 10% dead. Pleasanton Ridge showed 10% symptomatic (N = 211), with less than 1% dead. The continuing epidemic is leading to permanent changes in landscape composition and environmental services, which will require attention to management of these forests adjacent to large populations centers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article focuses on the existing provisions of the 2014 U.S. Agricultural Act's forestry title. It describes the role of the Forest Service, managing 19% of all forestlands in the nation and conducting research to advance the science of forestry, and engaging in international forestry assistance and research efforts.

In 1996 the Forest Act (Decree 101-96) was approved, giving life to the National Forest Institute (INAB) as the autonomous and decentralized public entity responsible for forest administration outside protected areas. Together with the Forest Act, the State of Guatemala, through INAB, created the Forest Incentives Program (PNFOR) to promote the establishment of plantations and sustainable forest management. Given the experiences with PINFOR, and the demands of small holders and community groups, in 2007 the Forest Incentives Program for Smallholders (PINPEP) was created through the cooperation of the Kingdom of the Netherlands to promote reforestation, agroforestry systems and natural forest management. This program was institutionalized in 2010 through Law 51-2010. These programs, with the implementation of more than 29,000 thousand projects, have contributed to the management and conservation of more than 430,000 ha of forest and plantations, representing a public investment of more than $290 million. Economically, these projects have created community employment and improved the economy for more than 900,000 people. They have also contributed to the provision of timber products and ecosystem services such as water regulation, biological connectivity, and reduced greenhouse gas emissions, among others. These incentive programs are a clear example of a payment for results, where the evaluation instrument is compliance with the forest management plan which includes forest protection activities. Approximately 25% of the incentive payment budget is allocated to wildfire protection activities to comply with forest protection activities. These investments in forest protection have made a direct contribution to the reduction in fires within the areas under management. INAB statistics indicate that less than 1% of projects have been affected by fires thanks to the establishment and maintenance of more than 50,000 km of firebreaks and the commitment of program users to wildfire control activities, thus creating a culture of responsibility in the use and management of fire. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The increasing use of prescribed fires, as a fire management technique for preventing wildfires and reducing their impact, demands the development of tools that enable performing the necessary studies for determining application opportunities in the territory. The generation of interesting uses of this technique not only directed to the control of forest fuel loads, but also to the creation and maintenance of operational scenarios related to the extinction and suppression of forest fires, requires analysis of the landscape on the basis of the multiple variables that influence decision-making. In this sense and in relation to the planning of budgetary investments in space and time, the incorporation of prescribed fires in the framework of wildfire defense programs requires the corresponding cost analysis, in order to integrate this information into the total budget for the wildfire defense and fire management program. At present, there are no models available to forecast and estimate the economic cost levels involved in the use of prescribed fire in different forest scenarios. The selection of the appropriate variables directly related to the planning, execution and evaluation phases that involve the use of prescribed fires in the forest landscape, enable, together with the costs incurred and the factors related to fire propagation, as well as the different ignition techniques, determining the set of factors that make it possible to undertake the econometric analysis directed to the predictive modeling of the costs per hectare, derived from the execution of the prescribed fire in the forest environments, in which it has been decided to apply prescribed fires as a forest management tool. Determination of the econometric model facilitates opportunities for planning the costs of applying this technique; moreover, the results obtained can even be extended towards geo-referencing in the landscape and be integrated with the effect of reducing extinction costs and increasing extinction safety by decreasing propagation intensities. Application of the proposed econometric model aids in budgetary decision-making in wildfire prevention management for the forest landscape. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The forest of the Distrito Central (Central District) and surrounding areas is affected in the dry season by wildfires, adding to the damage caused by the bark beetle, which makes it necessary to coordinate inter-agency efforts to address this problem. The U.S. government through USAID via International Programs was able to bring specialists from the U.S. Forest Service to support the establishment and start-up of the Inter- Agency Wildfire Operations Center (known by its Spanish acronym COIIF). COIIF is an inter-agency center that coordinates efforts for monitoring, detection, surveillance and deployment of resources for fighting and controlling wildfires in the Distrito Central municipality and adjacent areas. COIIF has a physical location maned by technical staff and equipped with radio communication equipment, telephone lines and Internet. It has its own operational protocols and manages in a general way the response to fires occurring in the municipality and adjoining areas. Its main objective is to provide coordinated management at the inter-agency level for controlling wildfire situations in the Distrito Central municipality. The Center is made up of institutional links, institutional shift links and crew leaders, trained in COIIF's operational protocols and protocols for dealing with wildfires. The institutions participating in the fire control actions are: Forest Conservation Institute (known by its Spanish acronym ICF), the director of forest resource management in the country, nongovernmental organizations, the armed forces, the municipality and various state entities. It also has a surveillance system comprised of observation posts and remote cameras. The Center manages logs, blackboards, and maps to handle wildfire situations. It controls dispatch, mobilization, control and extinguishing of wildfires. In addition, it provides aerial coordination to control fires in priority areas. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As California continues into a fifth year of drought, tree mortality enhanced by the unprecedented bark beetle epidemic contributes to wildfires that continue to increase in frequency and severity. Recent fires have posed increasing fire suppression challenges, life safety concerns, post fire watershed impacts and lasting damage to forested landscapes. The ability of California forestlands to sequester and store carbon has become a matter of national and international significance. Greenhouse gas emissions to the atmosphere are altering the climate, and public and private land managers play a major role in climate adaptation and mitigation responses. Nearly a century of fire exclusion in California, coupled with other management decisions on both private and public land, has resulted in forests that are at an increasing risk of loss due to large-scale disturbances. These high risk conditions cause our forests to be susceptible to catastrophic wildfire and epidemic levels of tree mortality due to drought and insect attacks, both of which are forecasted to get worse with a warmer and drier climate. Rather than being the reliable carbon sink they should be, our forests are now in some years emitting carbon. Ultimately, to counter these trends, forest managers need to significantly increase the pace and scale of the region's forest restoration work, such as prescribed fire. In response to the myriad of state forest health issues, California is activity engaged with efforts such as the Tree Mortality Task Force, the Forest Climate Action Team, Assembly Bill 1492 Multi-Agency Forest Practice coordination, cooperative research and ongoing collaborative efforts to address land use changes such as timberland conversion and urbanization. No single activity is going to solve the wide range of threats to California's forests. It is going to take a balanced approach of all the management options available. Without a balanced and cooperative effort on behalf of all landowners, land managers, stakeholders and special interests, we run the risk of future generations not being able to experience or enjoy the benefits of the forests we enjoy today. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

What responsibilities do humans have to ensure that redwoods survive? And what values and strategies are required to accomplish such a purpose? A basic assumption is that the saving of a species, or more broadly of an ecosystem, is ultimately about human survival and that there is a responsibility to use all tools available to this end. To date, our actions to sustain redwoods include setting aside acreage in parks and reserves, sustainably harvesting redwoods for commercial use, and educating ourselves and the public on the benefits and services of the redwood forest. These are current approaches for managing the remaining narrow strip of coastal redwoods running from Monterey to Del Norte Counties in Northern California. Fossil evidence indicates that redwoods have been around for at least 130 million years and once had a distribution across much of the Northern Hemisphere. The historic redwood range was reduced through natural causes such as climate changes, glaciation, and volcanic eruptions. More contemporary disruptions have come from extensive market-driven logging in the early to mid-20th century, the recent conversion of private forestland from primarily a timber to primarily a financial asset, and temperature and precipitation variability due to climate change. Are current strategies adequate to enable the long-term viability of the species? And what if they aren't? As natural and human influences become increasingly intermingled, the redwood community is challenged to think creatively about solutions. The growing consensus on best practices for managing redwood properties--for commercial uses and protection--and for more science to improve these practices is encouraging. Next steps include more effective anticipation of outside threats to redwood viability and a pilot to set reestablishment of redwoods across their prior range in California and beyond. A final hurdle is to fully embrace the long time horizon and flexible outlook required to meet our responsibilities for sustaining coastal redwoods. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]