2013 William Main Seminar on Forest Planning Tools

April 18, 2013 Workshop, 10am-4pm, Gaia Hotel, Anderson, CA

Quantitative forest planning has evolved from general guidelines to location specific treatment regimes that cover tree growth, other vegetation types, stream and watershed systems, and metrics that are supposed to accurately correspond to fish and wildlife populations. Laws and regulations often require detailed projections out 50 to 100 years at the same time that climate scientists can only agree that the future will be quite different – but not on how warm it will be, how much snow and rain will fall, or how many severe weather events we will experience.

The University of California has many interests on these topics. CACTOS and CRYPTOS (now contained in the improved FORSEE system) were originally developed and disseminated by UC research foresters and graduates. We use CACTOS at our research forests. In a review a number of forest owners in 2012, we noticed that many planners were beginning to use the Forest Projection and Planning System (FPS) developed by the Forest Biometrics Research Institute. It is clearly addressing client needs with capabilities and features that are also being developed for the FORSEE and FVS systems that have been in use in California for decades.

 As part of our outreach to the professional forestry community, we are bringing Dr. Jim Arney and Chuck Vopicka down for one day workshop that will involve an introduction to their system as well as panel discussion with developers of the FORSEE system, model users, and regulators. Please sign up on the survey below if you want to attend. We will send you the exact location when we have a preliminary idea of the number of potential attendees.

Schedule

10:00-1:00 Jim Arney and Chuck Vopicka and their FPS presentation and discussion 

1:00-2:00 lunch

2:00 – 2:40 Update on FORSEE (Cactos/Cryptos based) tools and key upgrades

2:40-3:00 Forest management tools for small holdings and NTMPs: benefits, costs, and regulatory approaches

3:00 – 3:20 break

3:20-4:00 Moving forward: panel discussion on improving the effectiveness of integrated forest planning tools given forest productivity, financial viability, fish and wildlife concerns, various climate mitigation and adaptation strategies, etc.