- Author: Grace Nguyen-Sovan Dean
Before he became the director of forest policy for a timber company, John Andersen was working next door to one. During his time as a consulting forester, several family forests Andersen visited were adjacent to parcels of industrial forestland that had undergone upsetting changes. “I saw what used to be conifer forests essentially transformed into tan oak forests,” Andersen noted. When the Mendocino Redwood Company (MRC) was created in 1998 through the purchase of another industry's forestland, they set out to operate differently.
MRC would be a timber company that prioritized operating sustainably, which interested Andersen. “It was refreshing to see a company that would treat the land right,” he shared. Now, Andersen is the Director of Forest Policy for MRC and the later-established Humboldt Redwood Company (HRC) and an employee for 25 years.
MRC and HRC Business Principles
Within California, over 5.7 million acres of forestland are owned at the family or individual level. It seems fitting that as a family business at heart, MRC/HRC, is guided by similar stewardship principles. “Our family-owned businesses,” Andersen noted, “want to hand the forest down to future generations in a better condition than when the forestlands were purchased.”
“The intention was there from the start,” Andersen explains, with the company working towards goals that would foster forest health and positive community relations.
Policies that have resonated well with community members include commitments to retain old growth trees, restore wildlife habitat, and carefully monitor streams. Forest landowners can also sell their timber to MRC and HRC, as both companies house log buyers which connect with local landowners looking to offset the cost of management projects.
Adapting to Wildfire Risk
The future of timber companies in California is indelibly shaped by the threat of wildfire. For Andersen, the risk became clear in 2020, when the CZU Lightning Complex fires burned nearly 90,000 acres of Santa Cruz forestland. “It's getting to the point where catastrophic wildfires are happening in the redwood region,” Andersen stated. As a result, both MRC and HRC prepared fire risk analyses for their lands.
Andersen shared that while the risk level for company forestland may not be high compared to other portions of the state, the analyses help guide company decision making when locating fuel reduction projects. Both MRC and HRC became more proactive with fuel reduction efforts, including getting involved in prescribed fire projects.
Andersen's position is at the intersection of forestry and policy, a space where he has seen shifts in how legislators respond to wildfire risk. “I don't want to ride the coattails of disaster,” Andersen said, “but it seems like that's what changes minds.” He explains that there is now more support for funding fuels reduction efforts. When legislators visit MRC and HRC forestland, Andersen sees firsthand how quick they understand the urgency to develop fire resilient forests.
Public Information
Information sharing is integral to MRC and HRC, and not just for policymakers. Community members have an open invitation to tour company forestland and make inquiries about forest management practices. “Transparency is important, because the public sees our forestland all the time,” Andersen explained. This encompasses a wealth of information available on the company's website, including forest management plans, watershed analysis reports, and habitat conservation reports.
From Andersen's perspective, both MRC and HRC receiving their Forest Stewardship Council® (FSC® C031337) certification was a big step forward. Independent assessments like this provide MRC and HRC the opportunity to demonstrate their commitment to forest stewardship and sustainability each time a customer buys their lumber. “It's well and fine for us to say we are doing a good job,” Andersen explained, “but it's also important to have third party input to verify we are managing our forests to high standards.”
Looking to the Future
Proactivity on the part of industry is essential to the future health of California's forests. “I want to see the day where we can say our forests are in a fire and drought resilient condition,” Andersen shared. “Then, if there is a fire, we aren't as concerned with the effects.”
From the Help Desk of the Master Gardeners of Contra Costa County
Client's Questions and Requests: (Originally from a phone call to the MGCC Help Desk...) I'm a new resident of central Contra Costa County having bought a house in Walnut Creek. The house and garden are probably 30-40 plus years old and mostly mature. There is a grove of 30-40 foot Redwood trees that look like they are doing o.k. and many other mature garden plants. We intend to do some remodeling on the house and garden which will include some new planting, but the redwood trees will remain in place for privacy and shade. In our replanting of parts of the garden we would like to utilize drought tolerant plants. We also have a creek adjacent to our property that we wish to protect with minimal disturbance. Do you have some guidance for us to consider as we rethink our garden.
As we discussed previously, We'd be reluctant to recommend planting redwood trees in central or east CCC (and with some reservations in west CCC). However, with your existing mature trees, the goal is to maintain their health and promote longevity. The links provided below provide information for redwood tree care and irrigation. You mentioned that the trees are very large and that they appear to be in good condition, so it is likely that after four years of drought they have been getting water from somewhere - maybe the nearby creek provides a high water table. However, even if we get rain this winter, drought conditions are likely to continue, and you may want to plan for future irrigation.
Although some mature trees can often survive one season with only one or two deep waterings during the spring and summer, several years without enough water can result in severe drought stress and even death. Drought-stressed trees can also be more prone to damage from diseases and insects as well as the effects of increased salts in the soil from lack of ample irrigation. Salts in the soil may also increase depending on the salinity of the irrigation water provided (such as may be the case with recycled water).
Here are some great articles about redwood cultivation in California that you may find helpful in deciding how to best approach improving and/or maintaining tree health:
- http://ccmg.ucdavis.edu/files/103008.pdf
- http://www.ipm.ucdavis.edu/PMG/GARDEN/PLANTS/redwood.html
- http://ucanr.org/sites/mgslo/newsletters/Trees42617.pdf
- http://www.ufei.org/files/pubs/Redwoods.pdf
The article in the link below addresses a new technique (TRIC) by UC horticulturists designed to water landscape trees by the home owner maximizing the use of water and insuring that water is reaching the drip line of the tree: http://ccuh.ucdavis.edu/public/drought/tree-ring-irrigation-contraption-tric-1/tree-ring-irrigation-contraption-tric. While TRIC system provides an effective optimal and automated solution, if the cost appears prohibitive, UC has now designed a simpler solution for less cost, but it requires more home owner attention and management (see RSIC).
You also asked about finding an arborist to inspect the health of your trees - the International Society of Arboriculture has a web tool to assist you in finding qualified members (i.e.,Certified Arborists) in your area: http://www.treesaregood.org/findanarborist/arboristsearch.aspx. You may want to consider a consulting arborist first as well as friends or neighbors for recommendations.
Finally, here is the link to the UC Davis Arboretum's list of good drought resistant plants for our area: http://arboretum.ucdavis.edu/arboretum_all_stars.aspx. We also have a lot more information on this subject should you need it.
Thank you for contacting Master Gardeners. I hope you will enjoy your new home, and if you have further questions please feel free to contact us again.
Help Desk of the Master Gardeners of Contra Costa County
Note: The UC Master Gardeners of Contra Costa's Help Desk is available year-round to answer your gardening questions. Except for a few holidays, we're open every week, Monday through Thursday for walk-ins from 9:00 am to Noon at 75 Santa Barbara Road, 2d Floor, Pleasant Hill, CA 94523. We can also be reached via telephone: (925) 646-6586, email: ccmg@ucanr.edu, or on the web at http://ccmg.ucanr.edu/Ask_Us/ MGCC Blogs can be found at http://ccmg.ucanr.edu/HortCoCo/ You can also subscribe to the Blog.
/span>- Author: Kathy Thomas-Rico
The winds of late spring are an uncomfortable reality in Solano County. They blew through on June 8 and 9, blustery, drying north winds that disrupted graduation ceremonies, outdoor weddings and picnics at the park. Broken tree branches and piles of leaves and twigs, pushed up against north-facing fences and gutters, were evidence of the onslaught.
A realist would shrug off the loss of large branches as Mother Nature’s rather brutal pruning plan. Sometimes that’s a hard pill to swallow. A friend of ours lost the top third of a redwood tree planted in his front-yard lawn. When I heard this, I immediately thought of another friend who had recently told me about losing the top portion of a redwood tree on her property. Turns out, that loss was due to lack of water, but both of my friends now face a tricky situation: What do you do with a fast-growing evergreen that loses its terminal bud leader?
Redwoods that have been topped — whether by nature or humans — tend to freak out, sprouting from masses of dormant buds just below the topping cut and under the bark. This results in an extremely fast-growing tangled mess of unstable branches where once there was one tidy and elegant trunk. These masses are weak and tend to peel away in strong winds (which we know will return in late spring).
What my friends now face is quite possibly annual pruning of those redwoods. They must be prepared to maintain the sprouts and trim any large branches regularly. And they should consult with a certified arborist to do this work.
Redwood trees are considered to be wind-resistant trees. It appears my friend’s front-yard tree, though robust and healthy in appearance, faced prior stress and had become weakened somewhere along the way. Leave it to the winds of late spring to test that stress. Maybe it’s Mother Nature’s pruning plan after all.
- Author: Jeannette E. Warnert
CalTrans' controversial plan to widen a stretch of Highway 101 in Northern California would impact more than the 54 trees the agency will remove, according to an Associated Press story that cited UC Berkeley forestry professor Joe McBride.
CalTrans wants to realign the section of the highway so it can be added to a national system of roads that cater to large trucks. The one-mile section is the only part of Highway 101 from San Francisco to the Oregon border where the large semi-trucks aren't permitted, except by a special exemption, the story said.
A vocal group of North Coast residents have asked a federal judge in San Francisco to stop the project.
McBride studied the site and Caltrans' plans. In a court document filed in support of the project's opponents, McBride said that Caltrans' arborists had not accurately stated the project's potential effects on the old-growth redwoods. McBride's analysis concluded that dozens more trees would die as a result of the work, and that the root systems of seven ancient redwoods would be negatively impacted.
"Substantial irreparable damage would occur to the trees in the project area as a result of the proposed project ... (which) would, in turn, cause negative impacts to the overall health of the forest in the vicinity of the project area," McBride wrote.
The judge's ruling is expected this week.