Forestry Best Management Practices. Yuko Ashida Mark Carlson Alesha Myers Corbin Schrader

Transcription

1 Forestry Best Management Practices Yuko Ashida Mark Carlson Alesha Myers Corbin Schrader

2 New York State Forested Land 500,000 private owners on 14.5 M acres Benefits of properly harvested timber Wildlife Water resources Recreational opportunities Timber harvesting can be disruptive Four elements of logging Negative impacts

3 Issues The number of land owners 2/3 of the land in the US is owned by NIPF owners The importance of NIPF As tract size decreases owner s management decreases

4 The Pressure Is On Increase in pressure on NIPF landowners Pressures include: Development Land cost increases Tax increases Market demand

5 Best Management Practices (BMP) BMP definition Water quality Silviculture Wildlife and biodiversity Aesthetics/recreation

6 Application of BMPs Harvesting Silviculture Road design BMPs are appropriate for several aspects of forest management

7 NYS DEC Timber Harvesting Guidelines Deal with soil erosion, siltation, and inattention to aesthetics BMPs for NYS timber management: Broken down into 3 categories Streams and water bodies Roads, skid trails and landings Roadsides along major travel corridors

8 BMPs of NYS According to Peter Smallidge Forest management and ordinances NYS DEC = Regulatory authority Other organizations Only published BMPs relate to water quality Developing sustainable BMPs is challenging

9 Streams and Water Bodies What practices will maintain water quality of streams, lakes, ponds, and marshes? Goals and objectives Sustainable timber practices that reduce soil erosion

10 Roads, Skid Trails, and Landings How can soil erosion be prevented on landings, logging roads, skid trails, and steep slopes? Good design and proper management

11 Roadsides Along Major Travel Corridors What will make logging jobs look better along major travel corridors? Aesthetics, land design approach

12 BMP Criteria Water Quality Clarity, quality and quantity Silviculture Desired stand characteristic Wildlife/Biodiversity Habitat, food, and cover Soil Quality Soil characteristic Constraints

13 BMPs and Water Quality 3-9% of non-point source pollution comes from silviculture nationally Deforestation: 26% increase in runoff Proper logging reduces erosion Buffer Avoid wetlands Streamside Management Zone

14 Streamside Management Zones are Effective (Vowell 2001): Study in Florida Tested the effectiveness of BMPs that focus on maintaining stream water quality Stream Condition Index Results

15 Stream Condition Index values by location (Northern Florida) SCI Values: <11 = severely degraded <27 = poor = good >27 = excellent (Vowell 2001)

16 Landscape Site-specificity Every site has a unique ecosystem Maintenance of structural complexity is necessary Prevent fragmentation of forests

17 BMPs: An Economic Breakdown

18 2 Choices: A) We, as a public that values forests, can ask the owners of NIPF to implement expensive BMPs on their own -OR- B) offset their expense by sharing some of their cost burden. POP QUIZ HOTSHOT: As a forest owner, which would you go for?

19 Don t take my word for it: Statement of Need Financial risk and insufficient education are the two main reasons why BMP s are not more readily adopted. Landowner participation in BMP s can be increased by creating new and enhancing existing incentives to reduce financial risk, and by better education on the environmental values and availability of BMP programs. Incentive programs should be available to all landowners and rewards commensurate with the environmental value they create. -Illinois Dept. of Natural Resources Land an Water Management Committee s Priority #1

20 Cost-Sharing: The concept that some of the cost incurred by the landowner in implementing the best management plan will be shared (reimbursed) by another party (usually the state, sometimes a non-government organization).

21 AN EXAMPLE: the Forest Stewardship Program The Forest Stewardship Program (FSP) is founded upon the principle that natural resource management can best serve landowners and the public by taking a multiple resource approach to managing nonindustrial private forest (NIPF) lands.

22 How does it work? The Forest Stewardship Program brings professional natural resource management expertise to NIPF landowners to help them in developing Forest Stewardship Plans; ie BEST MANAGEMENT PRACTICES. Forest Management Plans encourage NIPF landowners to become active in planning and managing their forests. This greatly increases the likelihood that their forests will remain productive and healthy, and that the social, economic and environmental benefits of these lands will be realized.

23 Lets compare $ to $:

24 Things to note from the previous slide Cost-effectiveness of cost-sharing: The Forest Service found that respondents who reported such assistance averaged $1, 741 MORE in unreimbursed expenditures on plan implementation than those owners who had not participated in cost-sharing.

25 HOW IMPORTANT? Of the 47 to 64% of respondents with active cost sharing plans, 52% to 70% reported that they would not have done as much plan implementation without the cost-sharing they received.

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27 That amounts to, of the people who have implemented a plan and are receiving cost-sharing, 24% to 41% saying they would not have done as much without cost-sharing.

28 Uh - oh The federal budgets for both Fiscal Year 1999 and FY 2000 contained no appropriation for the Stewardship Incentives Program, the principal source of cost-sharing money for the FSP. Funding for technical assistance, however, was to continue. What might be the impact of reduced cost-sharing assistance?

29 Important, but the most important? Follow-up technical assistance is another type of aide that is complementary to the help embodied in the Forest Stewardship Plan. Basically, you draw up a plan containing BMPs and spend $ implementing it. However, in the course of your doing so, a resource expert comes back to assess and offer up technical advice on the progress.

30 Technical Follow-up: Across the four regions, 32% to 46% said that they would not have done as much without the follow up technical assistance, compared to 24% to 41% for cost-sharing.

31 Policy inferences: Both cost-sharing AND technical follow-up assistance are VITAL to the successful implementation of this particular incentives program. Through looking critically at this program, one can see the bigger picture of the problems facing the voluntary implementation of BMPs.

32 Education/Knowledge/Policy of Best Management Practices Review of why Best Management Practices are attractive as an environmental and economic strategy Conflict of interests Variety of economic and environmental motives Professional Policy makers to private stakeholders Results

33 Education/Knowledge/Policy of Best Management Practices The interrelations of Policy and BMPs Public participation / Knowledge Role of education in Best Management Practices

34 Education/Knowledge/Policy of Best Management Practices How Best management practices deal with education Logger training Working with NIPFs Role of foresters

35 Conclusion Why are BMPs significant? Success Story

36 A final success-story: GE O R G I A : Increasing timber values and songbird populations Landowner Charles E. Garrett, Sr., was recognized with the1999 Certified Forest Steward Award for his outstanding management of Garrett Timbers, a 1,000-acre property in Berrien County, Georgia. The property has been in the Garrett family since 1857; Charles has managed it for 14 years. He has used a Forest Stewardship Plan for the last 5 or 6 years. Charles has increased the value of the timber on his land through much-needed thinning and burning and has provided habitat for declining species such as quail and fox squirrels. Songbird populations have increased by as much as 33 percent since his plan was prepared. In addition, Charles has taken measures to protect the wetlands that comprise 25 percent of his land. Charles says he likes having a Forest Stewardship Plan because "it is always better to see your land through someone else's eyes." Charles maintains an excellent working relationship with his State forester and is continuing to follow his plan.