Category: Fall 2015

The 2015 California Forestry Challenge (CFC) events are now complete. Several SAF members and many in the forestry community volunteered. A total of 390 students and 75 teachers from 45 schools participated, a 30% increase from 2014. The student participants were 58% female, an all-time high.

The California Forestry Challenge is a competitive event for high school students in technical forestry and forestry issues. At each event, students spent four days in the forest interacting with natural resource professionals.

Participants learn about the ecology and management of the forested landscapes that provide their communities with water, recreational opportunities, wood products and wildlife habitat. Youth benefit by better understanding the relationship of the forested environment to their communities, by exposure to natural resource management as a potential career option, and by conducting a rigorous analysis of a current forestry topic.

Focus topics were varied this year, ranging from fuelbreak effectiveness to fire behavior modeling to forest inventory. At the Santa Cruz event, students helped staff at Soquel Demonstration State Forest create content for a new app that will be available on smart phones to forest visitors.

Many top teams have made or will be making presentations to various groups, including the California Licensed Foresters Association, El Dorado County Board of Supervisors and the California Board of Forestry.

If you would like to invite a team from your area to an SAF chapter meeting, contact CFC Coordinator Diane Dealey Neill at dianedealeyneill@gmail.com.

Students summed up the experience: “CFC is an incredible experience that has opened so many doors. Coming here and discovering Forestry has lead me to set a goal of becoming a forester one day. It was an absolutely amazing experience!”

“The CFC was beyond my expectations and it was such a great time and experience. Without all the foresters and people who made this possible, we wouldn’t have been able to learn or experience the things we did.”

Read more about the California Forestry Challenge—and find out how to volunteer for the 2016 events—online at www.forestrychallenge.org.

For the past couple of years, the NorCal-SoCal joint society merger task force (composed of three
members from each NorCal and SoCal executive committee, the society chairs and the 3rd District board member) have been researching the pros and cons of a formal merger between NorCal SAF and SoCal SAF, thus possibly creating a “One California” state society.

The task force has presented a white paper and other pertinent information at recent joint NorCal and SoCal executive committee meetings. This information also has been printed in previous issues of the newsletter and posted on the state society web sites for all members to review.

The two executive committees decided that the membership should vote on the matter. According to National SAF procedures, for a vote to occur, both NorCal and SoCal must have at least 30 members from each state society sign a petition in support of holding a vote. This petition was sent out to all members of both NorCal and SoCal SAF this past July.

Past SoCal SAF chair Doug Nickles sent the petition request to the SoCal members. If members were in support of having the membership vote on the matter of “to merge or not to merge,” they were requested to sign and return the petition by August 21.

Well, suffice it to say, NorCal received more than the required 30 signed petitions for the matter to move forward; unfortunately SoCal did not.

This created a bit of a quandary during the August joint executive committee meeting in Auburn: What do we do now? One state society has the required signatures to move a motion forward to the membership for consideration and the other does not.

It was suggested that the timing of the petition was a hindrance to receiving the required 30 signatures, and that allowing more time for the members to review the petition request would bring in more signatures. After all it was summer. Many folks were on vacation, away from work and school, not able to access email.

Another option presented was that SoCal should request an exemption to the 30-signature rule from the SAF national office, suggesting rather a percentage of the membership would more fairly reflect the intent. SoCal SAF membership is small—currently 85 members compared to NorCal’s almost 700 members.

The SoCal executive committee decided to move forward on the latter option—to submit a letter to the national office, requesting consideration for a percentage of membership base for the petition signatures be acceptable.

And, well, at least as of this writing, the matter is still pending. The best I can say is that the matter is still moving, a bit slower than some would like, perhaps a bit too fast for others. Both NorCal and SoCal executive committees are taking the matter very seriously, being as judicious as possible about the issue to ensure whatever the outcome that it best serves the membership.

Tentative dates: early 2016

Every five years the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection (CAL FIRE) Forest Resource Assessment Program (FRAP) prepares a report detailing the conditions in California’s forest and range ecosystems and working landscapes. This webinar series is planned in part to present some of the information gathered during the process of preparing the report that will be published in early 2016. Additional information relevant to forests and the forest industry in California will also be covered. Topics will include:

• California’s forest inventory: description of the forest resources in the state with emphasis on commercial forest types
• Ownership patterns in California forests: public and private forest ownership including National Forests, other public forests, industrial forest land and non-industrial forest land
• Timber management and production: timber production trends over the past 15 years including levels of harvest, harvesting methods and numbers and sizes of Timber Harvest Plans
• Regulatory initiatives affecting forest management: Non-Industrial Timber Management Plans, Program Environmental Impact Reports, Sustained Yield regulations, Habitat Conservation Plans and Natural Community Conservation Plans
• Third party certification of forest management: forest lands certified by the Forest Stewardship Council, Sustainable Forestry Initiative and Tree Farm System including a discussion of forests certified by the Air Resources Board as compliance offset projects
• Status of the forest industry: trends in forest products, existing mills, employment in timber harvesting and wood products manufacturing
• Cost share and technical assistance programs available to forest landowners: historic levels of funding and projects implemented under cost share programs administered by CAL FIRE and Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS), new programs authorized pursuant to AB 32 and SB 1492, technical assistance available from CAL FIRE, NRCS and other public and private entities
• Threats affecting California forests: wildfire impacts and risks, mortality due to prolonged drought, insects and diseases, potential impacts of climate change
• Other topics as suggested by the public, agency personnel and forest managers

Presenters will include authors of the upcoming assessment, resource agency executives, forest managers and representatives of the forest industry.

The University of California Cooperative Extension will host the webinar series. All presentations will be recorded and posted at the University of California Forest Research and Outreach Website for viewing at later dates. Attendance at the webinar series is free and open to all.

The series is tentatively planned for early 2016. At the present time, ideas on topics and presenters are being solicited along with potential co-sponsors of the series. Co-sponsorship entails no financial commitment.

For more information or to offer suggestions Contact: Dr. Richard R. Harris, rrharrisconsulting@gmail.com, 707.685.5508.

Sponsored by: Northern California Society of American Foresters, University of California Cooperative Extension, California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection.

Partially funded by a grant to the Northern California Society of American Foresters from the USDA Forest Service, State & Private Forestry Forest Stewardship Program.