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YSS in the Press and Stories of Interest

OPINION] WILDFIRE: THINNING FORESTS FOR BIOMASS ENERGY CAN REDUCE FIRE SEVERITY

YSS in the Press and Stories of Interest, YSS News

Posted on July 8, 2016 by TheBiomassMonitor

– by John Buckley, Executive Director, Central Sierra Environmental Resource Center

Over 13 years as a firefighter with the U.S. Forest Service, I worked primarily on hotshot fire crews. During those years I fought a number of the largest wildfires ever documented in California as well as many other wildfires elsewhere across the West.

For years I taught wildland fire behavior classes, helped ignite and manage prescribed burn projects, and spent entire summer/fall seasons (between wildfires) doing post-fire restoration work in recently burned areas.

From that experience, I can emphasize that fuel loading, fuel arrangement, continuity of fuel, and fuel moisture combine with fire weather, topography, time of day, and other factors to determine fire intensity. Put simply, the more dry fuel that is packed on moderate to steep hillsides on a hot summer afternoon when there are up-slope or up-canyon winds, the higher the likelihood that a wildfire will make major runs that kill a large percentage of trees that might survive a lower intensity fire.

Strategically planned biomass removal projects can reduce that build-up of excessive fuel.

Various groups over recent years have passionately attacked the removal of forest biomass and the burning of biomass chips at power plants with strident claims that carbon emissions are significant and that even low amounts of air pollution should not allow biomass plants to qualify as green energy. Such claims completely miss some important facts.

First, in national forests across the Sierra Nevada and elsewhere, tree density and the basal area of conifers far exceed the documented plot data that was taken a century or more ago in the Stanislaus Forest and other sample sites. Due to the accumulation of surface fuels, decades of fire suppression, and the selective removal of the biggest conifers, national forests have unnaturally high tree stocking and completely unnatural fuel loads. Small shade tolerant trees such as incense cedars and white firs now choke stands that were historically open with sun-loving pines and oaks. Fuel levels are extreme, which often leads to extreme wildfire impacts on the forest environment.

Unless science-based selective thinning treatments open up some portions of dense forest thickets, little sunlight can penetrate to the forest floor to benefit groundcovers, wildflowers, grasses, and other plants so vital for healthy wildlife habitat. Without selective removal of dense thickets of small, understory trees, fuel ladders will continue to dominate underneath the over-story trees that are vital for wildlife as well as valuable as scenic forests for recreation. The need to treat surface fuels and ladder fuels is tremendous.

In many areas prescribed fires can effectively consume portions of the dense brush and small tree understory. But in countless other areas, biomass removal is either the only solution or the only economic solution to deal with ladder fuels.

One critically important point often ignored by biomass critics is that in Sierra Nevada national forests, large quantities of branches and tops of logged trees are either spread out or piled up after thinning or salvage logging treatments on public forest lands. Almost always, if biomass removal of that fuel is not done, those piles or jackpot slash areas are burned openly in the forest. The fuel either burns with emission reductions in a biomass power plant or it burns with no pollutant controls in open forest burning. Carbon is released either way.

For 25 years our environmental center has been a leading voice for protecting at risk wildlife species on public forest land. Completely consistent with that strong defense of vulnerable wildlife, our Center endorses increased levels of biomass removal to reduce fuel loading and give over-story trees a better chance to survive the next wildfire. In our local region, due to the Forest Service implementing only a low level of thinning logging, prescribed burning, and biomass removal projects over decades, the truly gigantic Rim Fire burned more than 97,000 acres at high severity. Just recently I drove and walked through areas where three years after that fire, literally no conifers survived over many square miles. A far greater program of prescribed burning and biomass removal could have significantly reduced the ladder fuels that literally cooked not only the over-story trees, but also the cones needed to re-start a recovering forest.

As climatic trends result in longer fire seasons, hotter temperatures, and accumulating fuels, forest managers can control only one factor – fuel. By expanding biomass removal of a portion of the small trees and brush that create ladder fuels, forest managers can shift the forest back towards more natural mosaic conditions, while simultaneously benefitting local economies.

John Buckley is executive director of Central Sierra Environmental Resource Center (cserc.org), a non-profit organization working to defend water, wildlife, and wild places across the Northern Yosemite Region of California.

 

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PUC is too slow dealing with dead trees

YSS in the Press and Stories of Interest, YSS News

When Gov. Jerry Brown appointed Michael Picker as president of the California Public Utilities Commission, Picker announced that his top priority would be protection of public safety. Last October, Brown declared an emergency for California’s forests, where tens of millions of dead trees pose enormous risks for wildfires, the water supply, local communities and more.

The emergency order calls on the PUC to accelerate the development of small bioenergy facilities to convert the dead trees to renewable energy. Despite the obvious threat to public safety and the huge costs of wildfire, the commission is dragging its feet. Read more:  PUC is too slow dealing with dead trees 16-7-28

 

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Dead Sierra Nevada trees pose serious fire risk

YSS in the Press and Stories of Interest, YSS News

BY NATHAN GRAVELINE, CHRIS TROTT AND JOHN BUCKLEY

Special to The Bee

Recently, The Modesto Bee ran an editorial acknowledging the enormity of the wildfire threat currently facing public and private lands across the West. (“Preventing forest fires is up to Congress,” July 7) In particular, The Bee accurately emphasized the urgent need for Congress to stop forcing the U.S. Forest Service to divert enormous amounts of the agency’s normal, budgeted funds to be spent fighting wildfires.

Those budgeted funds could actually reduce the potential damage and expense of future wildfires if they were spent on forest fuel reduction treatments such as thinning logging projects and prescribed burns.

In contrast to that positive and factual Bee editorial, a guest opinion piece by Chad Hanson in The Bee on July 6 ran under a headline claiming that the onslaught of bark-beetle-killed trees in the Sierra Nevada poses “no threat.”

Hanson misled readers by falsely claiming that millions of dead and dying trees in already fire-prone forests do not increase the wildfire threat. In reality, fire agencies and fire scientists are consistently describing the dead tree situation as an unnatural, extreme fire threat.

One key factor in the behavior of any wildfire is fuel moisture. Live, green trees – even in the hottest, driest time of summer – still contain moisture in their needles and branches that reduces fire intensity if the green trees are burned by a fire. In contrast, the tens of millions of trees that have already died from bark beetles add up to an unprecedented amount of bone-dry fuel. The highly flammable branches and tops of the dead pines, firs and cedars produce a perfect wick for flames to flare up into the crowns of adjacent dead and live trees. In addition, many of the dead trees that died during the last two years of the drought have dropped broken tops and branches that further add to the depth and the jumbled layers of flammable fuels on the forest floor.

In direct opposition to what Hanson’s editorial claimed, there is a significant threat to public and private forests of the Sierra Nevada due to the tens of millions of trees that have already died. There is no question that hot weather and windy conditions can create ideal conditions for high severity wildfires even when fuels are mostly green vegetation. But add in dead fuels to those same extreme conditions, and the basics of fire behavior will always result in an even higher degree of incineration and severity of a fire’s effects.

Hanson’s opinion piece reflected his long-standing opposition to any commercial logging on national forest lands. In contrast to that rigid view, the environmental organizations that serve as members of the Yosemite Stanislaus Solutions collaborative group strongly support more science-based thinning logging and salvage removal of a portion of trees killed by fire and insects.

With limited staff and resources, the U.S. Forest Service will only be capable of planning and implementing the removal of a small fraction of dead trees compared to the enormity of the conifer die-off. To suggest that leaving every dead tree makes sense defies any logic when even prior to the bark beetles, the drought and wildfires already created unnaturally high levels of dead trees and wildfire risk. Balanced collaborative groups such as YSS – made up of environmental organizations, industry and business interests, rural politicians and water agencies – strongly support the strategic removal of large numbers of the dead trees now posing so much risk across our iconic Sierra Nevada ecosystem.

Nathan Graveline is a wildlife biologist; Chris Trott is a bioenergy consultant; and John Buckley is executive director of the Central Sierra Environmental Resource Center.

 

 

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Dead tree crisis: How mortality impacts environment

YSS in the Press and Stories of Interest, YSS News

Escalating fire threats are a primary concern. Changes in Sierra Nevada ecosystems are among long-term effects.

By Guy McCarthy / The Union Democrat

“Looking at the big picture, this truly spectacular four-year drought and all the associated bark beetle mortality have combined to squeeze dramatic habitat change into a few years.”

— John Buckley, director of the Central Sierra Environmental Resource Center in Twain Harte

More than 60 million dead trees in the Sierra Nevada mean mountain forests are changing. Air and water quality, forest composition and wildlife habitat are all susceptible, but there is no consensus on how bad it might get.

Federal forest custodians, researchers, advocates, environmentalists and people who work in the timber industry are all watching closely for not only what the dead trees mean today but also what it could mean over generations.

Megafires burning dead fuel could release pollutants into the atmosphere. Erosion could impact mountain watersheds.

Pine-dominant forests could transition to hardwoods and healthy populations of animals could suddenly find themselves competing for limited food supplies or moving to higher elevations to find a more hospitable home.

“Looking at the big picture, this truly spectacular four-year drought and all the associated bark beetle mortality have combined to squeeze dramatic habitat change into a few years,” said John Buckley, of the Central Sierra Environmental Resource Center in Twain Harte.

Add the magnitude of the 2013 Rim Fire, the 2015 Butte Fire, and other local fires in the last few years, and consider what will happen to wildlife species if there is another devastating fire this year or next, drought and bark beetle impacts have already devastated wildlife and watersheds in Tuolumne and Calaveras counties, Buckley said.

Forest Service

Kerry Greene, with Forest Service Region 5 in Vallejo, said trees die and the bark beetles are part of the ecosystem.

“But it is out of whack because so many trees are dying at once due to drought. It’s an unprecedented number of dead trees and it’s a bark beetle population explosion,” Greene said.

The Forest Service announced last week that there are now a record 66 million dead trees in the Sierra Nevada based on aerial surveys conducted by the Forest Service in May.

Scientists identified 26 million more dead trees across more than 1,100 square miles in Tuolumne, Mariposa, Madera, Fresno, Tulare and Kern counties since October 2015.

“This is going to last three to five to seven years,” Greene said. “When it’s all said and done the forest will look different. They might not go back to same makeup in terms of species. It’s likely they’ll never be the same again.”

Less water may be permanent, Greene said.

“There might not be the same amount of water as there was when these forests became established,” Greene said.

On a small scale, losing 75 pines out of 100 pines across five acres doesn’t make a big difference for the overwhelming majority of wildlife species, Buckley said.

But if there are 500,000 acres of pine forest across the lower and lower-middle elevations of the Sierra Nevada that become mostly oak with a few scattered pines due to bark beetles, then all the nuthatches in those 500,000 acres must crowd into already-occupied forest habitat where other nuthatches are living and feeding, Buckley said.

“If red-breasted nuthatches reside primarily in cavities and find highly suitable habitat in conifer forests with tasty seeds in conifer cones, they may lose some patches or blocks of pine forest as the majority of pines die from bark beetles,” Buckley said.

Stanislaus National Forest

Buckley and his staff at the nonprofit CSERC have spent the past 25 years observing changes in the Stanislaus and other parts of Tuolumne and Calaveras counties. The organization bills itself as a principal defender of 2 million acres of forests, rivers, lakes, wetlands, roadless areas, old growth groves and oak woodlands in the North Yosemite region, including the Stanislaus National Forest.

He talked Tuesday about what will happen as pine trees die and other species grow in their place.

“Over on Mount Provo and Mount Lewis, south of Twain Harte, and other places, most of the mature pines are dying on those low elevation mountains, on south-facing and west-facing slopes, the slopes that are hottest and driest,” Buckley said. “During drought years they have the least amount of water and they are easiest for the bark beetles to get high in numbers.”

What will happen is that unless there are enough small young trees to come up and take their place, they will shift to become oak forest, dominated by oaks, Buckley said.

“Right now they might be 60 percent pine, 40 percent oak,” Buckley said. “But if the pines die, part of the forest can be 10 percent pine or less and 90 percent oaks or more.”

Tree mortality is devastating in the Stanislaus National Forest but it’s worse to the south, in the Sierra National Forest.

“Instead of pines dying in lower elevations, they have pervasive mortality at lower and middle elevations, and at some higher elevations,” Buckley said. “They truly are losing 80 percent of their ponderosa pine and sugar pine. It’s the same for the Sequoia National Forest. They have just been hammered.”

Previous tree mortality

Trees have died off before in the Sierra Nevada, Buckley said. There was a significant bark beetle event in the 1930s.

Forty years ago there were two winters in a row with severe drought conditions, 1976-77 and 1977-78. In the late 1980s, with three years of drought out of four, there was a massive die-off from bark beetles that killed ponderosa, sugar pine and a limited number of firs, Buckley said.

Trees died in the Stanislaus National Forest and at Calaveras Big Trees State Park, Buckley said. But these previous die-offs took place in a cycle that allowed more natural recovery.

“Five years after an event enough trees survive that it doesn’t show up as a big impact,” Buckley said. “This time it is an ecosystem-shifting event. The ecosystem is changing, from conifers to hardwoods. On top of that there’s been an exceptional die-off of larger ponderosa and sugar pines in the lower and middle elevations.”

Sierra Club

Bruce Hamilton is a deputy executive director for the Sierra Club, founded by conservationist John Muir in 1892. It’s billed as the nation’s largest grassroots environmental organization with more than 2 million members and supporters.

Hamilton believes the Sierra Nevada will continue to produce conifers in areas now impacted by tree mortality.

“Hardwoods are basically confined to creek bottoms,” Hamilton said. “Alders, willows and cottonwoods, the hardwoods are in riparian waterway types of habitat. So when trees do come back they are likely to be conifers. In some places you might initially have small shrubs, like ceanothus — buck brush — but eventually conifers will come back in.”

Hamilton says the current die-off is unnatural because there is a climate change component, which is human caused.

“There are natural cycles of drought and insect infestation and major fires and those are historic and they will continue,” Hamilton said. “But this is compounded by climate change. If you look at the average annual temperatures that have been occurring over the past decade, they’re hotter than they have been historically. If you look at the snowpack it is also at record lows for recent history. The combination of the two lead to a different kind of situation than we regard as normal in the Sierra Nevada.”

The Sierra Club opposes cutting down all dead trees, Hamilton said. He says there is an over-reaction by the Forest Service that seeks to get lots of money and cut down all the dead trees, supposedly to try to protect private property and people’s lives.

“Since we have limited dollars to respond, with such a wide area of dead trees the most important thing to do is to really clean up the fire hazard right next to urban areas and residences,” Hamilton said. “If you look at what they’re trying to do with emergency legislation they want to go into the backcountry and do broad scale logging over wide areas of the national forests. We don’t have enough money to take out all those trees.”

Air quality

Andrzej Bytnerowicz, a senior scientist and research ecologist with the Forest Service Pacific Southwest Research Station in Riverside, has been focusing recently on how pervasive tree mortality could impact air quality.

“I think in the future it can affect air quality significantly,” Bytnerowicz said Tuesday. “If the trees are dead they are not taking up CO2 from the atmosphere. All healthy trees photosynthesize. Evergreens do photosynthesis just like deciduous, big-leaf trees.”

Healthy trees take up carbon dioxide and ozone but dead trees do not. Bytnerowicz said that in the more densely populated western Sierra Nevada, there’s potential that tree mortality will result in less uptake of toxic pollutants by healthy trees.

Air quality is always a concern when large fires occur, including the 2013 Rim Fire and the 2015 Butte Fire. Tree mortality will be a root cause of air quality concerns if more megafires break out, Bytnerowicz said.

“If fire happens, the dead trees will burn and we will have release of various gases during the fire,” Bytnerowicz said. “Toxic gases like nitrogen oxides and sulphur oxides and various organic compounds including benzene.”

Fine particulate matter is another problem during large forest fires.

“These are really tiny particles which get into our lungs and blood stream and they affect our respiratory system, breathing, asthma things like that, and they have various negative cardiovascular effects,” Bytnerowicz said.

That’s what firefighters deal with when they fight fires, and that’s what residents can face when they are downwind from fire smoke, Bytnerowicz said.

Sierra Resource Management

Mike Albrecht runs Sierra Resource Management in Jamestown, one of the surviving timber businesses in the Mother Lode.

“There’s definitely two effects, short-term and long-term,” he said.

Short-term is the impact on lives and property, Albrecht said.

“We need to get our subdivisions cleared of all these dead trees,” Albrecht said. “We need to keep our roads open and provide access for both emergency response to fire and other needs and for recreation.

“Long-term there are impacts on watersheds, wildlife habitat, forest products we’re not going to be able to get out, from Mariposa south,” Albrecht said. “It’s in the process of doing that from Tuolumne County north up to Calaveras, El Dorado and Placer County, moving north in the Sierra Nevada. These effects will be felt beyond our lifetimes and change the forests for generations.”

The positive thing is Sierra Nevada forests are made up of a multitude of tree species, Albrecht said.

“Pine species will be reduced but other species such as fir and cedar and other evergreen species, and hardwoods like oaks will increase,” Albrecht said. “The forest isn’t going to be reduced or quit producing oxygen and stop being healthy watersheds. Those functions will continue. Our forests are resilient.”

Sierra Pacific Industries

Mark Pawlicki is the Redding-based director of corporate affairs and sustainability for Sierra Pacific Industries, which owns 1.6 million acres of timberlands in California, most of it in the Sierra Nevada from Yosemite to the Oregon border.

“We don’t dispute the numbers. We think it will probably get worse with the drought and insect activity,” he said.

SPI timber managers are trying to harvest as many dead trees as possible, Pawlicki said. The logging giant also buys timber from other sources, including the Forest Service and other private landowners.

“But it’s hard to keep ahead of the dying trees particularly on the national forest lands,” Pawlicki said. “There clearly will be long-term effects, especially in areas where dead timber is not harvested. It’ll deteriorate. It’s hard for a new forest to get re-established on its own. If the timber is not harvested, replanting and reforestation takes longer to occur. That affects wildlife habitat and water quality and other natural resources.”

There are no easy or simple solutions, Pawlicki said. If dead trees are on federal land, agencies have to follow the National Environmental Policy Act and other laws that can delay harvest and recovery of the land, similar to timber harvest delays in the aftermath of the 2013 Rim Fire.

“We’d like to see Congress take action to expedite the salvage of dead timber, more than what is allowed under current law, and to provide funding for the Forest Service to undertake projects dealing with the dead trees,” Pawlicki said. “Once you solve the short-term problem, you are taking a good step toward the long term solution, harvesting timber and stabilizing soil and replanting.”

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Wildlife Conservation Board Funds Environmental Improvement and Acquisition Projects

YSS in the Press and Stories of Interest, YSS News

YSS, through its fiscal agent the Tuolumne River Trust, was just awarded a $3,500,000 grant for a cooperative project with the U.S. Forest Service to restore or enhance habitat and to install infrastructure to benefit wildlife on areas decimated by the Rim Fire, within the Stanislaus National Forest, approximately 20 miles east of Sonora in Tuolumne County.

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Grant will restore tiny part of Rim burn

YSS in the Press and Stories of Interest, YSS News

State agency provides $842,000 for meadows, deer habitat, springs, culverts – Recipient is coalition called Yosemite Stanislaus Solutions

BY JOHN HOLLAND  jholland@modbee.com  May 6, 2016

An $842,000 grant will pay for meadow restoration and other work on a tiny part of the area scorched by the Rim Fire.

The Sierra Nevada Conservancy, a state agency, awarded the money to Yosemite Stanislaus Solutions, a coalition of the timber industry, environmental groups and other partners.

The work will occur through next summer in a part of the Stanislaus National Forest south of Cherry Lake. It will include 204 acres of deer habitat enhancement, restoration of four meadows totaling 21 acres, replacement of two culverts to keep roads from washing out, and fixes to seven natural springs where wildlife and cattle drink.

The project is separate from the reforestation planned on 21,300 acres in the national forest, as well as the more intensive planting on private timberland and the natural recovery of burned areas in Yosemite National Park.

“It’s the kind of stuff people don’t think about when they think about a forest fire,” said coalition member Patrick Koepele, executive director of the Tuolumne River Trust. The 2013 fire burned across 257,314 acres over several weeks, mostly in the watershed this group works to protect.

THE AREA BURNED BY THE FIRE IS SO VAST IT WILL TAKE MANY YEARS TO RECOVER, BUT THESE PROJECTS HELP JUMP-START THAT PROCESS.

Chris Trott, chairman, Yosemite Stanislaus Solutions

Yosemite Stanislaus Solutions is named because of its interest in issues affecting both the national forest and park. Members earlier agreed on a plan for logging some of the dead trees and on the reforestation.

The fire burned at varying severity, consuming just low-to-the-ground fuel in some places while turning many mature timber stands into infernos. Some of the worst damage was in the watershed of Cherry Creek, which flows into the Tuolumne just west of Yosemite. The creek also feeds Cherry Lake, owned by San Francisco.

The grant will include thinning of dense vegetation that restricts deer migration. It will help meadows recover their function in holding water for much of the year, as well as diversifying habitat. The springs will be protected from soil erosion.

“The area burned by the fire is so vast it will take many years to recover, but these projects help jump-start that process,” said industry forester Chris Trott, chairman of the coalition, in a news release.

 

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Rim Fire Recovery Efforts Garner $842,000 Grant

YSS in the Press and Stories of Interest, YSS News

mymotherlode.com  05/04/2016 6:25 pm PST

Tori James, MML News Reporter

Sonora, CA – Rim Fire restoration efforts are $842,000 richer today, courtesy of a grant from the Sierra Nevada Conservancy to support targeted activities underway.

The monies, earmarked for restoration efforts in the Cherry Creek Watershed, will help the Yosemite Stanislaus Solutions (YSS) collective bring back meadows, springs and deer habitat as well as replace undersized culverts on Stanislaus National Forest lands. The latest infusion from the Conservancy brings its contribution to $1 million, as it funded earlier YSS work to complete the restoration plans.

Clearly enthused by the news, YSS Chair Chris Trott states, “It is YSS’s number one goal — to help with the restoration of the Rim Fire footprint — and we have been actually working with this grant [application] for over a year. So, we are anxious to get started.” He adds, “This is just the beginning, actually. It is going to require much more work than this, but we are happy to use this money to go a long way toward restoring the Cherry Creek Watershed.” According to YSS, the Cherry Creek Watershed was one of the most damaged areas during the 2013 Rim Fire.

When asked to guesstimate a total needed for Rim Fire Restoration, Trott takes a long deep breath. Mulling the gravity of the damage and efforts already underway, he shares, “You know, it wouldn’t surprise me…not including reforestation, because the Forest Service has estimated that reforestation and biomass removal out there is going to cost upwards of $70 million…it is difficult…as it is a long-term project. I would say, [it is] easily another $30 million to $50 million above and beyond the reforestation costs and this grant.”

As its mission states YSS is a collaborative group of diverse interests working together to assist the United States Forest Service, Bureau of Land Management, Yosemite National Park and private land managers in achieving healthy forests and watersheds and in developing recovery and restoration plans for the Rim Fire and other areas in need of rehabilitation. It currently lists 22 member organizations and includes the Sierra Nevada Conservancy among its six liaison members. For more about YSS, click here.

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Rim Fire Recovery Plan Released

YSS in the Press and Stories of Interest, YSS News

The Union Democrat by Guy McCarthy 4/29/16

Federal custodians of the Stanislaus National Forest are publishing a plan today detailing how they intend to stimulate recovery from the gigantic 2013 Rim Fire that destroyed 400 square miles of mountain watersheds more than two years ago.

“Recovery from an event like the Rim Fire takes years,” Jeanne Higgins, supervisor for the Stanislaus National Forest, said Thursday in Sonora.  “Recovery from the 1987 Stanislaus Complex Fire took about 10 years.  This is a long-term investment in recovering this landscape.

The plan documents specific actions Higgins has decided on with input, analysis and collaboration with multiple individuals and stakeholders.  Release of the plan today opens a 45-day objection period.  The Forest Service is seeking critical feedback from more than 90 people and groups who have participated in reforestation planning over the past two and a half years.

“It’s a big deal, because there’s a large landscape that needs to recover, “Higgins said.  “it’s huge in the fact that this is our opportunity to help this landscape become the forest we want in the future.

Higgins said she expects a final decision on the reforestation plan will be issued by late this summer.  “After that, work can begin on the ground,” Higgins said.

Historic Fire…

Trees per acre – The proposed Rim Reforestation project covers about 42,000 acres of reforestation, plantation thinning, wildlife habitat restoration and noxious weed treatment on Forest Service lands in the 2013 Rim Fire area. Target areas are specifically located in the Groveland Ranger District and the Mi-Wuk Ranger District.

Individual elements of the plan include planting anywhere from 152 trees per acre to 514 trees per acre, Benech said.  More than 5,700 acres are targeted for weed eradication, which is important for wildlife habitat and native plant species recovery.

Mary Moore, a veteran Forest Service hydrologist and a Rim Fire recovery coordinator, emphasized the proposed plan’s focus on overall watershed health.

“A healthy forest equals healthy watersheds,” Moore said Thursday.  “You need a healthy forest to have good, clean water.  Anyone who uses the Tuolumne River watershed should be concerned.”

More than a third of the Tuolumne River watershed lies within Yosemite National Park, and it helps irrigate more than 300,000 acres in the San Joaquin Valley.  Entities that draw water from the Tuolumne River include the City and County of San Francisco, Modesto Irrigation District and Groveland Community Services District.

“The objection process is an opportunity for those who have been involved in the analysis process to state any concerns they might have with the draft decision,” Higgins said.  “Collaborative engagement has included groups like YSS (Yosemite Stanislaus Solutions) and others.  Property owners, tribes, industry and the environmental community.”

 

 

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Reforesting plan for area hit by Rim Fire advances

YSS in the Press and Stories of Interest, YSS News

A plan for reforesting part of the Rim Fire area took a major step forward Friday.
Jeanne Higgins, supervisor of the Stanislaus National Forest, approved a proposal to plant conifer seedlings on 21,300 acres. The decision was endorsed by a Tuolumne County coalition that includes the timber industry, environmental groups and other forest users. It could take effect in August if it is not blocked by Higgins’ regional boss.
The plan covers only 8 percent of the 257,314 acres affected by the 2013 blaze, the largest ever recorded in the Sierra Nevada. Read more: Reforesting plan for area hit by Rim Fire advances 16-4

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Randy Hanvelt: Action can’t come soon enough for California forests

YSS in the Press and Stories of Interest, YSS News

OPINION
MARCH 9, 2016 2:25 PM
State burned 893,000 acres in 2015 because of wildfires.  Forest Service estimates state has 9 million acres at risk.

A pond in Stanislaus National Forest reflects trees damaged but not killed by the Rim Fire that began in August 2013. The historic blaze in Stanislaus National Forest alone emitted over 11 million metric tons of greenhouse gas, writes Tuolumne County Supervisor Randy Hanvelt.

Last year, a staggering 893,000 acres burned across California – including over 537,000 acres of national forest land. Heavy fuel loads in our national forests, combined with the effects of drought, insect, disease and climate change, mean this wildfire season could bring more destruction to the Golden State.

While there is broad agreement on the need to treat fighting wildfires like other natural disasters, this crisis demands a more comprehensive solution.

Randy Hanvelt represents District 2 on the Tuolumne County Board of Supervisors.
Just as there is bipartisan support for ending the harmful practice of “borrowing” from management accounts to fight wildfires, there is also bipartisan support for ensuring public forests are healthier and more resilient to catastrophic fires. In fact, last December the Obama administration, along with key Republicans and Democrats in the House and Senate, reached a deal to fix how the federal government funds wildfire suppression and to increase the pace and scale of forest-restoration projects.

In addition to allowing the Forest Service to access emergency funding to fight the largest fires, the bipartisan deal would have provided expanded authorities under existing federal environmental law to reduce fuel loads through forest thinning. This would have allowed the Forest Service to move more quickly on small projects to address wildfire risks and improve wildlife habitat, especially those that had been collaboratively developed by diverse local stakeholders.

The solution maintained protections for old-growth forests while mandating the use of the best available science to maintain forest ecology. Forestry organizations, environmental groups, tribes and wildlife groups, as well as dozens of California county supervisors most affected by wildfire, supported the package.

Despite the best efforts of President Barack Obama and members of Congress on both sides of the aisle to include this package in omnibus budget legislation, it was ultimately blocked by the U.S. Senate Committee on Energy and Natural Resources. Though this package did not clear the final hurdle, there is a clear desire in Congress to continue efforts to reach a solution.

Congressional action can’t come soon enough for California forests that haven’t already been ravaged by catastrophic wildfire. The state’s unreserved national forest lands, such as those not set aside as wilderness, grow the equivalent of 4 billion board feet per year. Data from 2006 to 2010, which doesn’t fully reflect the current drought, indicates that annual tree mortality is 2.6 bbf. After big declines in timber harvest and other activities that reduce fire-fuel loads, just 5 percent of annual growth has been harvested since 1994.

The situation in our national forests also exasperates the effects of climate change and drought. Reducing fuel loads and tree densities should play an important role in California’s efforts to confront both of these challenges. The historic Rim Fire in Stanislaus National Forest alone emitted over 11 million metric tons of greenhouse gas; this is equivalent to the emissions of 2.3 million cars or the annual emissions of 3.2 coal-fired electricity plants.

REDUCING FUEL LOADS AND TREE DENSITIES SHOULD PLAY AN IMPORTANT ROLE IN CALIFORNIA’S EFFORTS TO CONFRONT THE CHALLENGES OF CLIMATE CHANGE AND DROUGHT.

There are also the risks to public health. In many California communities during the summertime, toxins from wildfire smoke put children and other vulnerable citizens at risk.

Improving management of our national forests can also help alleviate California’s drought. A study on the Sierra Nevada Watershed Ecosystem Enhancement Project detailed the influence of forest vegetation and the need for management activities to increase water supplies. Researchers from the Environmental Defense Fund and Wesleyan University found the Sierra Nevada’s unnaturally dense conifer forest is responsible for the loss of more than 15 billion gallons of water per day.

Without an adequate supply of timber to stay in business, the state forests’ infrastructure could slip away. The state has already lost 82 percent of its sawmills since 1981 and 44 of 66 biomass power plants, which turn forest waste into renewable energy. As we’ve seen in other states, once mills and biomass plants close, there’s insufficient infrastructure to economically restore forest health.

When that happens, the environment suffers.

We should encourage our federally elected officials to support comprehensive solutions that not only treat the symptoms of catastrophic wildfires but also the causes. Merely fixing the Forest Service’s budget problems will not reduce the unnatural catastrophic wildfires we are experiencing today. In California, the Forest Service estimates there is up to 9 million acres of forestland at risk of catastrophic wildfire and insects and disease; we can longer wait to protect all of the things we value in our national forests.

Randy Hanvelt represents District 2 on the Tuolumne County Board of Supervisors.

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9,000 Dying Trees To Be Removed In Tuolumne County Rich Ibarra Monday, March 7, 2016 | Sacramento, CA |

YSS in the Press and Stories of Interest, YSS News

Hear the CPR radio broadcast at:  http://www.capradio.org/68507

Tuolumne County will start on the job of removing  9,000 dead and dying trees that threaten roads, water supplies, and infrastructure this month. The state will pick up most of the cost but there’s no help for private homeowners.

Tree removal contractors in Tuolumne County are getting ready to cut and haul away timber that didn’t survive the drought.

Under an executive order from Governor Jerry Brown, the state will pay 75 percent of the $9 million cost of removal from public land.

Forty-four percent of the county’s roads qualify for federal funds which will reduce the county’s  share from the remaining 25 percent to just over 6 percent.

Tuolumne County Deputy Administrator Tracie Riggs says private property owners won’t get help unless their trees threaten public roadways or infrastructure.

“We even heard a homeowner call in that just the cost to remove the trees that PG&E had already fell was $9,600 and our homeowners simply don’t have the means to take care of that,” says Riggs.

Riggs says the removal project will take several years and trees are still dying.

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Tuolumne County/California Receives $70M HUD Award – Fire Resiliency

YSS in the Press and Stories of Interest, YSS News
HUD AWARDS $1 BILLION THROUGH
NATIONAL DISASTER RESILIENCE COMPETITION
13 states/communities to receive funding for resilient infrastructure and housing projects
 
WASHINGTON – Today, U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) Secretary Julián Castro and the Rockefeller Foundation announced the winners of the $1 billion National Disaster Resilience Competition (NDRC).  Secretary Castro traveled to Norfolk, Virginia where he joined Governor Terry McAuliffe in announcing the winners of the competition. Through NDRC, HUD will provide funding for resilient housing and infrastructure projects to states and communities that were impacted by major disasters between 2011 and 2013.
State of California:
The State of California will receive $70,359,459 in NDRC funding to pilot its Community and Watershed Resilience Program in Tuolumne County, which was severely affected by the 2013 wildfires. The Watershed Resilience Program will focus on supporting forest and watershed health, developing a bioenergy and wood products facility, and a community resilience center, which will create a long-term economically and environmentally sustainable program that can be replicated throughout the state.
The National Disaster Resilience Competition winners are:
 
States
 
 
Cities/Counties
California
$70,359,459
New York City
$176,000,000
Connecticut
$54,277,359
New Orleans
$141,260,569
Iowa
$96,887,177
Minot, ND
$74,340,770
Louisiana
$92,629,249
Shelby County, TN
$60,445,163
New Jersey
$15,000,000
Springfield, MA
$17,056,880
New York
$35,800,000
Tennessee
$44,502,374
Virginia
$120,549,000
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Rim Fire Tree Replanting-Volunteer!

YSS in the Press and Stories of Interest, YSS News

Stanislaus National Forest/Tree Planting Information and Guidelines  January 2016

Hello Fellow Volunteers

Thank you for your interest in helping the Stanislaus National Forest reforest after the catastrophic Rim Fire of 2013. In collaboration with the Tuolumne River Trust and Yosemite Stanislaus Solutions, we are looking to replant over 7 million trees in the Rim Fire footprint over the next five to seven years and your help is needed! The Rim Fire burned over 257,000 acres, of private and Federal lands, with nearly 158,000 acres on the Stanislaus National Forest alone. We have over 25,000 acres in need of your help.

Learn how you can help with reforestation by reading this packet of information and sign up for a Community Tree Planting Day. In order to better coordinate these efforts you MUST sign up for a Community Tree Planting event before the day(s) you plan to volunteer.  To help go to https://goo.gl/YyTiyU to sign up. Contact Seth Connelly at Tuolumne River Trust, seth@tuolumne.org, 949-533-2346 to confirm your spot. You also need to fill out a Volunteer Agreement Form and bring it with you on the day you are volunteering. The form can be found on the Stanislaus National Forest website at:  Tree Planting

For further information contact Seth Connelly at Tuolumne River Trust,

 seth@tuolumne.org, 949-533-2346 or Clare Long, clong@fs.fed.us, 209-532-3671, ext 438.   Thank you again for being willing to help us build a better future for your public lands.

 The future of the forest is in YOUR hands!

*You MUST sign up before the day(s) you plan to volunteer. Please go to:  https://goo.gl/YyTiyU .

*We also need you to fill out a Volunteer Agreement Form and bring it with you on the day you volunteer. You must have confirmation of your registration or we may not have the number of tools and equipment for everyone to use. Go to the Stanislaus National Forest website and download the Agreement Form, fill it out and bring it with you when you come to plant trees. We have attached a copy of the agreement to the back of this packet for your convenience.

*Please check out the Community Tree Planting General Information Sheet in this packet. Contact Seth Connelly at volunteer@tuolumne.org or Clare Long at

cclong@fs.fed.us, 209-532-3671 ext 438 with any questions or concerns.

Community Tree Planting General Information  1/2016

Background Info

The Rim Fire of 2013 burned over 158,000 acres on the Stanislaus Nation Forest. We are in the process of re- planting 25,000 of those acres with volunteers and contractors. We have to wait until the Reforestation Environmental Impact Statement is signed in order to start engaging contractors. Volunteers will be part of the planting effort until we get all the trees in the ground. We plan on planting for the next  5 to 7 years.

Why are we replanting ?  We are looking to return trees to the landscape and some areas of the forest needs a little help. The Forest Ser- vice manages public lands for current and future generations and we plan and take action in ways that consider the forest, water quality, air quality, wildlife, economy and jobs outlook 60 to 100 years out.

Why are we only replanting conifers?  Hardwoods (for example Oaks) naturally regenerate from stump sprouts or roots. Conifers have a harder time regenerating so we give them a little help by planting using Best Management Practices and keeping in mind the current conditions and possible Climate Change effects.

What tree species are we planting? Ponderosa Pine —Pinus ponderosa Sugar Pine— Pinus lambertiana White Fir— Abies concolor – Douglas Fir— Pseudotsuga menziesii Incense Cedar— Calocedrus decurrens

Where are we planting?  We are planting conifers in the areas of the Rim Fire on the Groveland Ranger District that burned so severely the seed bank has been removed. There are six different administrative sites that have been chosen for this year’s planting. Some tree species are better adapted to certain areas, like north facing slopes, so we are look- ing at what will best suit the environment. We are reducing plantings near ridge tops and roadsides in order to address fire management issues.

When are you planting?  Planting starts mid-February and goes through the end of March. We plant regardless of the weather unless it is snowing. We plant only when the soil temperature is above 45 degree Fahrenheit and the average daily temperature stays above 40 degrees Fahrenheit. Soil moisture levels also have an impact on when we plant trees.

Is there a group size or age limit?  There is no group size limit, though there needs to be supervision for every nine adults and every five children. Families and school groups are encouraged to participate. Our Volunteer Agreement Form has a section for Parental Consent which has to be completed in order for youth to participate. We encourage folks of all ages to participate though children under the age of seven should be accompanied by an adult.

How do we sign up to help plant?  You need to sign up, fill out a Volunteer Agreement, and bring it with you on the day you are volunteering. Please go to: https://goo.gl/YyTiyU to sign up for tree planting. You must have confirmation of your registration or we may not have the number of tools and equipment for everyone to use. Go to the Stani- slaus National Forest website and download the Agreement Form, fill it out and bring it with you when you come to plant trees. Contact Seth Connelly at Tuolumne River Trust, seth@tuolumne.org, 949-533- 2346 to confirm your spot. You can contact Seth or Clare Long at cclong@fs.fed.us, 209-532-3671 ext. 438 with questions or concerns.

Where do we meet?  We meet at the Groveland Ranger District Office, 24545 Highway 120, Groveland, CA, at 8am every day of the week from Mid-February through March. Check in at the front desk and they will direct you to the meeting room. The District Office number is 209-962-7825, in case you need to contact them direct- ly. Cell phones do not work well up on the Groveland District so keep that in mind when making your plans.

Are there bathrooms available?  We will have Port-a-Potties and handwashing stations available at all sites.

Will there be water available?  We will have large jugs of water available for you to fill your water bottle or cup. We suggest you bring your own water if available.

Who is Tuolumne River Trust and what is their role?  Founded in 1981, the mission of Tuolumne River Trust (TRT) is to serve as the voice for the Tuolumne Wild and Scenic River, promoting stewardship of the Tuolumne through:

  • Education, community outreach and adventures;
  • Collaboration with a diverse array of stakeholders;
  • On-the-ground restoration projects: and
  • Advocacy and grassroots organizing to demonstrate public support for our

TRT is a major partner in this reforestation effort. They are helping recruit and coordinate volunteers, assist in field management, and educate about the importance of the watershed.

Who is YSS and what is their role?  The Yosemite-Stanislaus Solutions (YSS) collaborative group is a highly diverse coalition of interests who share the common goal of restoring and maintaining healthy forests and watersheds, fire-safe communities, and sustainable local economies using a science-based approach. The Stanislaus National Forest works very closely with this group in many aspects.

FAQS

  • Seedlings are taken from cones from trees in the same area, elevation and climate that they will be planted.
  • Seedlings are started in a Forest Service nursery where they are grown to be especially
  • It takes over a year from when seeds are sown to when they are ready to
  • Seedlings come as either Container Stock (with soil) or Bare Root (no soil).
  • The tree species we are planting include: Ponderosa Pine, Sugar Pine, Douglas Fire, White Fir and Incense
  • Hardwood trees grow back naturally from stumps and
  • Seedling are planted following Best Management Practices and keeping in mind possible future fire regimes.
  • Seedlings are planted in sites that best suit the species growing needs and future climate
  • Trees are planted when the soil moisture and temperature is ideal for seedling growth. In the Sierra Foothills it is around 40 Degrees
  • Seedlings are usually planted in February and March on the Stanislaus National Forest, depending on the soil moisture content and soil
  • Seedlings are planted to meet their habitat needs— food nutrients from soils, water, shelter from exposure to sunlight, wind and abrasion; and space to grow without
  • Not all seedlings survive, so the number of seedlings planted is adjusted to take that into
  • Not every area on the Forest is suitable for
  • Forestry is not like gardening—we don’t’ pull weeds, we don’t water, we don’t We let that happen naturally.
  • Planning and management needs to consider and plan for the impacts of Climate Change, fuel loading (dead wood and woody material), and fire return
  • When seedlings survive that are too close together, we have to manage for growth by thinning the crowded
  • Seedling growth is monitored early in their growth cycle by returning to the site at 6 months, 1 year, 3 year, and 5 year intervals and evaluating the growth and health of the
  • Adopt-A-Forest programs provide an opportunity for individuals and groups to perform Citizen Sci- ence projects that help the Forest monitor and manage the growing forest. Contact Clare Long at the Stanislaus National Forest, cclong@fs.fed.us, if you are interested in becoming involved in this Citizen Science
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CPR Report on Biomass Helping with CA Tree Mortality

YSS in the Press and Stories of Interest, YSS News

Follow the link to the CPR story.  “Fuel normally comes from forest thinning projects, orchard prunings, or urban yard and construction debris. But now California has millions of trees that have died from drought, disease and wildfire. Romena says he constantly hears from landowners hoping to sell their trees.”

CPR Radio Report on Biomass Helps CA’s Dying Tree Problem

 

 

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