- Author: Pamela Kan-Rice
The 8th California Oak Symposium will be held Oct. 31–Nov. 3 in San Luis Obispo, and anyone involved in research, education, management or conservation of California's oak woodlands is invited to participate.
The theme of the symposium is “Sustaining California Oak Woodlands Under Current and Future Conditions.” The four-day event's 62 concurrent session talks and 30 posters will cover climate change, wildlife ecology, oak restoration, oak pests and diseases, fire ecology, and ranch management and generational transfer.
Oak scientists, foresters, tribal members, land managers, policymakers and other interested individuals will gather to discuss...
- Author: Mike Hsu
UC ANR hires more fire advisors to address growing threat to California communities
Bringing more expertise to more places across the state, University of California Agriculture and Natural Resources continues to hire fire advisors to help communities prepare for one of the most devastating climate-fueled threats.
With wildfires a constant danger as drought grips California, three highly skilled UC Cooperative Extension advisors have joined the organization since early May: Luca Carmignani, serving Los Angeles and Orange counties; Barb Satink Wolfson, serving...
- Author: Lorena Anderson, UC Merced
Mechanical thinning of overstocked forests, prescribed burning and managed wildfire now being carried out to enhance fire protection of California's forests provide many benefits, or ecosystem services, that people depend on.
In a paper published in Restoration Ecology, researchers at UC Merced, UC ANR and UC Irvine reported that stakeholders perceived fire protection as central to forest restoration, with multiple other ecosystem services also depending on wildfire severity. Researcher Max Eriksson, lead author on the paper, noted that "forest restoration involves multiple...
- Author: Susie Kocher
The new El Dorado/Amador Prescribed Burn association, formed in August 2021, has conducted several burns with private landowners and received funding for a part-time coordinator.
A new group of local residents dedicated to helping private landowners conduct prescribed burns on their own properties has formed in El Dorado and Amador Counties. The group was convened by Susie Kocher, forestry advisor for the University of California Cooperative Extension in the Central Sierra.
“Prescribed Burn Associations, or PBAs, are groups of landowners helping each other to both learn how to use prescribed fire to manage their properties and to...
- Author: Mike Hsu
UCCE forest advisor helps landowners, community groups determine best project options
As Californians prepare for another year of drought and an anticipated intense fire season, landowners and organizations across California have been working to reduce forest fuels – flammable woody material – that can endanger their properties and communities.
For many of them, however, their urgent efforts hit a sizable speed bump: a massive rulebook that describes, amid a thicket of other information, the permits required before people can treat or remove fuels – as well as a litany of attached requirements, restrictions and...
