Sonoma Land Trust. Working Forest, Sustainable Forestry, Forest Certification What Do They Mean?

Transcription

1 Working Forest, Sustainable Forestry, Forest Certification What Do They Mean? Sonoma Land Trust North Coast Forest Conservation Conference Forestville 2012 Mark Andre, RPF #2391 City of Arcata

2

3 Major influences City of Arcata ballot measure To be managed under principles of ecological forestry Northwest Forest Plan USDA Protect the long-term health of forests, wildlife and waterways. Forest Stewardship Council (FSC)- promote environmentally appropriate, socially beneficial, and economically viable management of the world's forests. Forest Guild- practices and promotes ecologically, economically, and socially responsible forestry "excellent forestry" as a means of sustaining the integrity of forest ecosystems and the human communities dependent upon them

4 ACF-2007

5 Cut 2003 Next entry 40- yr-- Late successional habitat is ultimate goal

6 Demonstrated Benefits of Extended Rotation Age Larger, more stable & vigorous trees Deeper, fuller, wider, persistent crowns Reduced mortality Proportionally greater redwood composition Abundant understory vegetation Understory cohort recruitment..and more carbon sequestered

7

8 Arcata Community Forest-Methods to Increase Stand Complexity and Tree Size Structural Objective Multi-layered canopy Elevated large snag densities Silvicultural Technique Modified single-tree selection timber harvest Release advanced regeneration Establish new redwood tree cohort and planting shade tolerant species in areas where they were eliminated years ago (W. Hemlock, G. Fir etc) Retention of some trees with reiterated tops Girdling of selected intermediate to co-dominate trees usually Sitka spruce, Grand fir and Douglas-fir Elevated downed woody debris densities and volume Variable horizontal density Re-allocation of basal area to larger diameter classes Accelerated growth in largest trees Felling of trees and retention of large broken chunks to create large downed log material Debris augmentation by hauling in cull logs from nearby land clearing operations Thinning from below and harvest of stump sprout clusters with retention of dominant sprout tree Variable density marking and harvest, Reserve areas along watercourses Modified group selection to create gaps ¼ < 2.5 ac. High target basal area ( ft 2 /ac.) Full and partial crown release of largest conifers

9 2010 ACF Harvest

10

11

12 Arcata Forest 1880 s

13 N. Spotted Owl Activity Center: High amount of snags, down logs, stand complexity

14

15 Goal of creating late seral habitat drives silviculture

16

17 5 SC6 SC4 SC7 SC8 # # # Van Eck- Humboldt County # # # 2 SC11 SC9 SC10 # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # SC15 CAR-Forest Sector Protocol ver. 2.1 Sept 2007

18

19 Current Concepts Shaping Arcata s s Management Ecosystem Management and Restoration Historical Range of Variation - pre-settlement conditions (Redwood NP) provides reference target Ecological Restoration - structure, function, composition and connectivity Disturbance Management - fuel reduction, invasive control

20 Create Resilience to ongoing changes and climate-related disturbances Reduce and minimize stress within habitats Mgmt Examples -Thin Stands -Increase Buffers -Increase Rare Pop Sizes -Stock Seed Banks Resilient adjective 1. springing back; rebounding 2. returning to the original form or position after being bent, compressed, or stretched. 3. recovering readily from illness, depression, adversity, or the like; buoyant.

21 Arcata Management Defined Ecosystem approach: integration of restoration, conservation and resource management The benefit of ecosystem-based management is that it results in responsible forest uses which are ecologically and economically sustainable over the long-term. A combination of working forests, special management areas, and ecological reserves create a balanced approach

22 Working Forest Working forest - Land used primarily for forestry purposes, but also available for recreation State of Vermont

23 Sustainable forest Forest practices will protect, maintain and/or restore the aesthetics, vitality, structure, and functioning of the natural processes, including fire, of the forest ecosystem and its components at all landscape and time scales. --Institute for Sustainable Forestry ISF

24 Community Forest In British Columbia, a community forest can be described as any forestry operation managed by a local government, community group, or First Nation for the benefit of the entire community.

25 Conservation Forestry The main philosophical difference in the applied sciences of conservation and restoration can be framed simply as conserving what is left by establishing protected areas with minimal human interface versus restoring what once was...american Forest Foundation

26 Restoration Forestry-Fixing What s Broken The goal of restoration forestry is to restore and sustain, to the extent practical, a forest to a condition that resembles, but does not attempt to duplicate, the structure and function of a reference historic forest SER: Ecological restoration is the process of assisting the recovery of an ecosystem that has been degraded, damaged, or destroyed. It is an intentional activity that initiates or accelerates ecosystem recovery with respect to its health (functional processes), integrity (species composition and community structure), and sustainability (resistance to disturbance and resilience).

27 Natural Forestry Controlled and regulated harvesting of forest trees, combined with silvicultural and protective measures, to sustain and increase the commercial value of subsequent stands; relies on natural regeneration of native species. From-Clearing- House Mechanism of the Convention on Biological Diversity,Czech Republic

28

29 Websites with more information wwwforestguild.org rests/mark_andre.html