Category: Chapter Updates

Meetings

November 2015:  The Chapter had its meeting in a restaurant in Sacramento.  JoAnn Fites-Kaufman was our presenter.  She discussed the recent research on wildfires.  Her presentation shared experience in monitoring and research on the effectiveness of fuels treatments in changing fire behavior and effects.  Dr. Fites-Kaufman shared her experience on the King Fire as a member of the Fire Behavior Assessment Team.  20 people attended this meeting from the Chapter membership and an interested private landowner.

December 2015 and January 2016:  The Chapter did not hold meetings in December and January. Several Chapter members attended the joint Northern California and Southern California Societies Winter meeting in Santa Rosa.  I represented the Chapter during the Executive Committee meeting. The 2016 Golden Members included Chapter members: Ronald Cunnington, William Knispek, Donald Perkins and Dale Wierman.  Mr. Wierman was able to attend the winter meeting and was presented with recognition from SAF President Clark Seely.

February 18, 2016:  This month’s meeting had Rich Wade as the guest speaker in a restaurant in Sacramento.  Mr. Wade is a member of the Board of Forestry and he presented a summary of the history of the Board of Forestry, highlighted the duties of the Board and discussed current issues that the Board is dealing with. The meeting was attended by 21 people.  Thanks to Joanne Drummond for bringing an Americorps Crew of 9 people to meeting.  The Americorps crew members shared the projects they are working on and explained the goals of Americorps.

March 17, 2016:  The March meeting featured Wildlife Biologist, Monica Bond.  She has done research on high severity fires and the effects on wildlife.  Ms. Bond’s presentation centered on the recent research that studied the effects of wildfire and post-fire logging on the spotted owl species and on black-backed woodpeckers.  Her research indicates that there are benefits to the wildlife habitat from the high severity wildfires and asked for a paradigm shift for how foresters, the media and the public view large wildfires like the Rim Fire. 13 people attended this meeting.

April 21, 2016: Ken Pimlott, Chief of Cal Fire was the presenter.  Ken had an informal conversation with the 10 members in attendance.  Chief Pimlott gave an overview of the issues facing Cal Fire ranging from rebuilding Best Management Practices program, budget to financial resources from the Cap and Trade program.  He described ways to leverage funding through partnerships with other agencies, local government and non-profit organizations.  The ongoing drought and build-up of insect populations have created high hazard zones that require coordination with utilities, Cal Trans and local governments.  Emergency coordination is an ongoing activity.  Cal Fire is outreaching to Colorado and work done in southern California to learn the lessons from past actions to deal effectively with California’s current and developing situation with large areas of forest dying.  Cal Fire has acquired 40 pieces of equipment to help start managing the dead trees.

Future Meetings

May 19, 2016:  Sandy Derby will be our guest speaker to provide information about the status of Project Learning Tree.  The meeting location will be at the Loomis Chinese Restaurant in Loomis.  Keep an eye out for the upcoming email for the meeting announcement in the next few days.

We would like to see if there is interest in having a Chapter field trip in June.  Please send suggestions to Jon Jue at jonora@sbcglobal.net.  Some possible suggestions are a field trip at Sagehen Research Station near Truckee.

Other Activities

The Sacramento-Tahoe Chapter will continue efforts to advertise a scholarship for forestry or natural resource students attending Universities in California.  Brian Barrette will be leading our Chapter’s scholarship program in 2016.

On July 21, 2016, the Chapter will be staffing the Forestry Center at the State Fair.  Please reserve that date to help educate the public about forestry in California.  A sign up notice will be coming out soon.

In August 14, 2016, the Chapter will be assisting in a forestry and logging exhibit at the Nevada County Fair.  A sign up notice will be coming out soon.

March 10 Chapter Meeting – This meeting was held at UC Berkeley in conjunction with the Student Chapter and the Forestry Club. The Forestry Club provided a great chili feed to get us all ready to hear about the East Bay Hills wildfire reduction project. We had two guest speakers, Brad Gallup of the East Bay Regional Parks District and Carol Rice of Wildland Resource Management, Inc. They described the work that is being planned or implemented in the Parks and on UC Berkeley properties in the East Bay Hills to remove non-native eucalyptus and other trees as well as fire-promoting invasive plants (such as brooms).

Russell Reservation – This property, part of the University of California, is located north of Highway 24 and just north of the city of Lafayette. About 300 acres in size, it has been used for forestry research in the past, although these studies have languished. There is also an astronomy facility there with a couple of telescopes.  Currently it is used by UC Berkeley’s Logging Sports Team as a practice site and recently used for the April 2nd ‘Bearclave’ competition involving teams from Berkeley, CalPoly, Shasta College, and Humboldt. The site seems to have quite some potential for public forestry education, maybe a mini Forest Conservation Days, or public forestry education events on weekends? The Chapter is beginning to look into the possibility, which would be in partnership with UC, the Berkeley Student Chapter, and the Logging Sports Team.

Upcoming Chapter Meetings:

Thursday June 16^th 6pm, will be held in Napa Area, location TBD, tentative topic – vineyard establishment and management in forested lands – state of the art.

Saturday, August 20^th, Chapter summer field meeting; topic and location to be determined

Thursday, November 17^th 6 pm, will be held in San Francisco, exact location TBD, tentative topic – Urban Forestry in San Francisco’s Presidio

The Southern San Joaquin Chapter officers for 2016 are Brian Rueger, Chair; Larry Duysen, Vice-Chair; and Jonathon Wagy, once again serving as Secretary-Treasurer.

The Chapter has had a busy winter-spring. Meetings are held on the third Thursday of each month, generally in the Porterville area. Recent programs have included a presentation by Major Craig Jones (retired) on “Perspectives of our Modern Military”. Major Jones currently serves as the Fleet Manager for the Sequoia National Forest. In March, the Reedley College Student Chapter hosted a joint meeting with both the High Sierra and So. San Joaquin chapters. Joshua Soderlund, representing the Reedley College Forestry & Natural Resources Department, conducted the meeting and showed the film titled “America’s First Forest”, about Carl Schenck and the Biltmore Forest School.

The Bakersfield College Student Chapter hosted the April meeting. This popular meeting, held outdoors on campus at Renegade Park, included another fine dinner prepared by the Bakersfield College Culinary Arts Department. The evening program was provided by Rodney Blankenship, (“Buffalo Man”), on the Plight of the Buffalo.

The highlight of the Bakersfield College (BC) evening was the annual presentation of scholarships by the chapter to students transferring to four year forestry schools. This year five scholarships were awarded to deserving junior college students from Bakersfield College and Porterville College who have been accepted to Humboldt State University for the 2016 fall semester. These students are Joselin Dorado, Karine Hunt, Vanessa Mendoza, Kyle Mann, and Victoria Roel. Jeff Gletne, the Chapter’s Scholarship Chair, commented that it had been a number of years since so many qualified students had applied for scholarships at the same time. Bill Kelly, Faculty Advisor to the BC Student Chapter, continues to spark the interest of his students in the field of Forestry.

The Chapter staffed a forest management booth at the 56th Annual SCICON Barbecue & Wildflower Festival, sponsored by the Tulare County Office of Education. The So. San Joaquin Chapter has supported forestry educational activities and the campus tree nursery at SCICON for many years. SCICON officials commented that the SAF booth is one of the most popular attractions at the event. To help assure the booth would remain popular this year, the Chapter once again recruited Hailey Henschel, Ashtyn Perry and Kynlee Perry for their assistance. These three young ladies eagerly greeted the public, handed out tree cookies, and maintained a well-organized booth.

* Photo caption (submitted separately): Recipients of the 2016 So. San Joaquin Chapter scholarships
are recognized at Bakersfield College in April 2016.