- Author: Michael Hsu
UCCE advisor outreaches to LGBTQ+ community, partners with Karuk Tribe in Northern California
Costumed as river creatures with papier mâché heads and dressed as the Army Corps of Engineers, Cleo Woelfle Hazard and a performance art group called The Water Underground dazzled the biennial Bay Delta Science Conference a few years ago.
Woelfle Hazard – then a Ph.D. student at the University of California, Berkeley – and his companions performed numbers from the film they were making, a “queer slapstick musical” about salmon migration. They soon got 150 scientists, engineers, resource managers and other conference attendees singing along to their songs.
“Meanwhile, some of my professors were in the audience, and they were saying, ‘Well, he's also a scientist, he doesn't just do this art stuff!'” recalled Woelfle Hazard, who started at the beginning of this year as the UC Cooperative Extension fire advisor for Humboldt and Del Norte counties.
Identifying as a “queer trans masculine person,” Woelfle Hazard has spent much of his career bringing together gender studies with his professional interests – a quest chronicled in his book “Underflows: Queer Trans Ecologies and River Justice.”
Prescribed burn training to help shape queer fire ecology
In his new role, Woelfle Hazard is organizing a prescribed burn training for people who are 2SLGBTQ+ (2S is a common abbreviation for Two-Spirit, which refers to people of Indigenous North American descent who identify as having both masculine and feminine qualities). The sessions, which began in the middle of Pride Month in June, will continue over three more weekends in the fall when participants conduct forest thinning and prescribed burns.
Inspired by the WTREX (Women-in-Fire TRaining EXchanges) burn trainings for women organized by UC ANR Fire Network Director Lenya Quinn-Davidson and her colleagues, Woelfle Hazard is excited to grow skills and foster connections within the LGBTQ+/Two-Spirit community.
“I try to be ‘out' in different contexts that are not particularly queer,” Woelfle Hazard said. “And the queer burn training is one way that I'm trying to increase the visibility of queer people in fire.”
He has been overwhelmed by interest in the training – with over 100 people already registered – and is looking forward to learning how subcultures within those diverse communities can contribute to a nascent “queer fire ecology.”
“I do social science and I do ecology, but my core field is feminist science and technology studies,” Woelfle Hazard explained, “which is a field where we're looking at the social context of science and who asks the questions and how the questions change if a Native person, or a Black person, or a queer person, or an immigrant is asking those questions.”
Working alongside Karuk Tribe on Klamath River floodplain restoration
The book “Underflows” also explores the intersectionality of queer theory with Indigenous conceptions of kinship and belonging – building on Woelfle Hazard's extensive experience working with tribal communities.
During his undergraduate years, Woelfle Hazard edited an anthology, “Dam Nation: Dispatches from the Water Underground” and contributed a chapter on tribal-led dam removal efforts, including those of the Karuk, Hoopa, Yurok, and Klamath Tribes in the Klamath Basin. In graduate school, he also participated in the UC Berkeley-Karuk Collaborative, started by UCCE specialist Jennifer Sowerwine and others.
Later in his career, as a faculty member at the University of Washington, Woelfle Hazard had an opportunity to work more directly with the Karuk Tribe. Seeking to bring students to the region for field sessions, he contacted Lisa Morehead-Hillman, who directed the Píkyav Field Institute, the educational wing of the Karuk Department of Natural Resources.
In return, she asked if there was a way her Karuk students could benefit from the experience as well – and Woelfle Hazard said he would be glad to host them in Seattle. “She had never had anyone from a university make that offer before, so that was really the foundation of building trust,” he said.
From there, Woelfle Hazard connected with Leaf Hillman, the founder of the Karuk Department of Natural Resources, and they co-developed a project to look at how reconnecting the Klamath River with its floodplain could restore ecological processes and eco-cultural practices such as basketry.
Working alongside Morehead-Hillman and University of Washington students Jocine Velasco and Ry Yahn, they produced a Storymap, patterned after the Karuk creation story of “Coyote's Journey,” recounting the historical impacts of mining, dams and fire suppression in the region. They are now working on a follow-up Storymap that will describe the tribe's plans to restore the floodplain and revitalize the Tishániik ceremonial site.
Navigating intersections of science, culture
Earlier this month, Woelfle Hazard brought climate scientists from the National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR) to Orleans in Humboldt County, where the Karuk Department of Natural Resources is located. NCAR scientists had developed a climate model that describes changes to the Klamath Basin under a variety of future fire regimes, and Woelfle Hazard presented on how well the model meets the needs of local communities.
“Our activity kind of broke their model, which they're pretty happy about, actually,” Woelfle Hazard said. “There's a lot of learning just about what is actually useful for the tribe and other organizations; we're working with the Western Klamath Restoration Partnership, which is a tribal-led partnership with the Forest Service and a number of NGOs in the Klamath Basin.”
As part of the NCAR Innovators project, which intentionally pairs social scientists with NCAR scientists, Woelfle Hazard also studied the researchers themselves, interviewing them about their experiences and looking at ways they can better partner with tribes and grassroots organizations.
“It's been a really complex project, putting together lots of different forms of knowledge – Karuk science, climate science, and I'm in the middle, trying to translate between them,” Woelfle Hazard said.
Native and Western ways of knowing. Social sciences and natural sciences. Fire and water. Artist and scientist. In work and in life, Woelfle Hazard has sought to deconstruct binaries that obscure more complicated realities – and blur those distinctions to illuminate greater truths.
During Pride Month and throughout the year, he said it's important to celebrate progress while also continuing to fight so all people can secure their basic rights and live their lives with dignity and purpose.
“Queer ecology is another frontline of the struggle; if you're a queer/trans/Two-Spirit person and you want to be a fish ecologist, you should be able to be a fish ecologist,” he said. “You shouldn't have to worry that people are going to be saying some stuff while you're out in the field getting into your wetsuit!
“This is work that we all have to do – dismantling these structures of racism, of sexism, of homophobia. And we have to do it all the time, every day.”
/h3>/h3>/h3>/h3>- Author: Pamela S Kan-Rice
First Forester TREX to be held June 3-6
California's first-ever Forester Prescribed Fire Training Exchange event focused on bringing together professional foresters, forest managers and fire practitioners will occur June 3-6 near Watsonville. The four-day event is being hosted by the Central Coast Prescribed Burn Association, which empowers the public to build a culture of good fire and supports private landowners in conducting prescribed burns in Monterey, San Benito and Santa Cruz counties.
There will be one burn conducted during the event, likely on June 4 or 5, which will be open for the public to observe.
Prescribed Fire Training Exchanges (TREXs) first came to Northern California in 2013, and have made a positive cultural shift concerning prescribed fire, within both regional fire services and the general public. These “good fire” TREX events have drawn significant attention, especially in the context of more severe wildfire seasons.
After months of cross-organizational planning, the four-day long training will be focused on exploring the connections between sustainable forest management, wildfire resilience, timber harvesting, prescribed fire, and will include a burn within a commercially harvested redwood forest. The TREX will provide experiential training opportunities to forest managers and planners to advance statewide knowledge of how to conduct prescribed fire in merchantable timber stands.
Along with the prescribed burn, the program will include lectures, local tours, and open discussions on how to incorporate fire into timber management, burn planning and timber harvest planning, pre- and post-fire considerations, and permitting mechanisms for fire and timber harvesting. Presentations will be given by local forestry consultants, University of California Agriculture and Natural Resources, CALFIRE and local fire practitioners.
The burn location will occur near Mount Madonna, on private land with access allowed for accompanied observation only. Be advised, while the ForesterTREX planning team works closely with theMonterey Bay Air Resources District to assure good smoke dispersal, smoke may be seen and be present in these areas during and after a burn. Please see the Central Coast Prescribed Burn Association webpage at calpba.org/centralcoastpba for updates close to the burn date.
Participants and partners include the Mount Madonna Center, members of the Amah Mutsun Tribal Band and the Esselen Tribe of Monterey County, University of California Agriculture and Natural Resources, Resource Conservation District of Monterey County, CALFIRE, local land trusts, scientists, ranchers, students, researchers, land managers and others. The Central Coast Prescribed Burn Association is currently funded via California Coastal Conservancy grants.
For more information or to join a group of observers, contact Barb Satink Wolfson, UC Cooperative Extension area fire advisor at bsatink@ucanr.edu.
- Author: Pamela S Kan-Rice
Wildfire, cultural and prescribed burns, plant flammability among topics covered
Interested in learning about some of the latest research in fire science and stewardship? Join the UC ANR Fire Network for a series of free lunchtime webinars to explore fire science topics with colleagues from across the globe.
This four-part webinar series will address fire in land management, plant flammability, fire history and management and forestry and fuel profiles.
Everyone is welcome to watch the Hot Topics in Fire Science and Stewardship Webinar Series.
Restoring Fire to Meadows and Other Cultural Landscapes
Presenters: Alice Lincoln-Cook, California Indian Basketweavers Association; Brian Peterson, Fire Forward
- May 29, noon–12:45 p.m. Pacific Time
- Register by May 29: https://bit.ly/3Qksc0J
How Can We Assess Plant Flammability?
Presenters: Jane Cawson, University of Melbourne; Max Moritz, UC Santa Barbara and UC ANR
- June 5, 3–3:45 p.m. Pacific Time
- Register by June 4: https://bit.ly/3WetrlA
Nuances in Fire History and Management: Lessons from Oregon Presenters: Andrew Merschel, U.S. Forest Service Pacific Northwest; Chris Dunn, Oregon State University
- June 12, noon–12:45 p.m. Pacific Time
- Register by June 11: https://bit.ly/44fMU7u
Forestry and Fuel Profiles
Presenters: Don Radcliffe, University of Washington; Eric Knapp, U.S. Forest Service Pacific Southwest
- July 17, noon–12:45 p.m. Pacific Time
- Register by July 16: https://bit.ly/4aTqI5Q
For more information, visit https://ucanr.edu/sites/fire/Home_430/Events.
/h3>
- Author: Grace Fruto, UC Davis
- Author: Trina Kleist, UC Davis
Wildflower displays threatened
Northwest of Los Angeles, springtime brings native wildflowers to bloom in the Santa Monica Mountains. These beauties provide food for insects, maintain healthy soil and filter water seeping into the ground – in addition to offering breathtaking displays of color.
They're also good at surviving after wildfire, having adapted to it through millennia. But new research shows wildflowers that usually would burst back after a blaze and a good rain are losing out to the long-standing, double threat of city smog and nonnative weeds.
A recent study led by Justin Valliere, assistant professor in the UC Davis Department of Plant Sciences, found that native wildflowers and other plants that typically flourish following a fire were, instead, replaced by invasive plants on land that received the kind of nitrogen contained in vehicle emissions.
“Many native plants in fire-prone areas rely on fire, and some are entirely dependent on it. Some are even most abundant after a fire,” said Valliere, a UC Cooperative Extension specialist in invasive weed and restoration ecology. “But we found that these fire-following species may be especially vulnerable to the combination of nitrogen pollution and invasive plants.”
That's part of the reason why native plants in these mountains have been declining.
Seeds – banked in the soil and waiting to sprout
The problem faced by native plants can be compared to a drawn-down bank account: Funds withdrawn are not being replaced.
It starts with fire, an important ecological process, Valliere said. Flames burn through plants on the surface and return their nutrients to the soil. Seeds sleeping in the ground wait for the next rain to sprout, then use those nutrients to grow.
“Plant diversity is often highest in growing seasons immediately after a site burns,” he said.
But invading plants have many advantages over native ones. They often sprout earlier, grow faster and create more seeds, all while tolerating drought.
“They're like cheaters,” Valliere said. “They don't follow the same rules.”
Nitrogen, too, is an important piece of every plant's nutrition. They all get a fertilizing boost from nitrogen that floats up in vehicle emissions and falls to the ground. But the invaders use nitrogen and other nutrients to grow faster, winning the race for water and sunlight. As a result, fewer native plants reach maturity, producing fewer seeds that keep their populations thriving.
When the bank balance reaches zero
The 2013 Springs Fire gave Valliere a unique opportunity to study the combined impacts of wildfire and extra nitrogen. He and colleagues from UC Riverside and the National Park Service created test plots in the Santa Monica Mountains where the fire had burned. Then, they added nitrogen to the soil to mimic the amount and type that LA's smog would deposit. Over the study's three years, native plants that typically would have flourished after wildfire instead declined even faster in the plots with added nitrogen.
Native seeds sprouted, but didn't flower. Over time, the soil's bank of seeds drew down.
“Each seed has one chance to flower and reproduce,” Valliere said. “If a seed grows and gets outcompeted, that seed has lost its chance to replenish the seed bank.”
Without the chance to replenish their bank account, native plants will die out, and the whole ecosystem will be thrown out of balance.
“There is inherent value in biodiversity,” Valliere said. “These invasive weeds could prevent the re-establishment of native shrubs after fire, sometimes forever altering the plant community.”
The loss of native plants can have cascading effects on the larger environment, he added. Problems can include the loss of native bees that feed on the flowers, and mudslides when rain makes hillsides unstable.
This problem is likely to repeat in similar areas where biodiversity is highest after wildfires – including parts of the Mediterranean basin, southern Africa and Australia. The addition of city smog “could have serious consequences for the biodiversity of fire-prone ecosystems worldwide,” Valliere warned.
Read the paper, “Nitrogen deposition suppresses ephemeral post-fire plant diversity,” by Justin Valliere, Irina Irvine and Edith Allen.
This article was first published on the UC Davis Department of Plant Sciences website.
/h3>/h3>/h3>- Author: Molly Stephens
- Author: Roger Bales
The new film "California's Watershed Healing" documents the huge benefits that result from restoring forests to healthier densities. UC Merced's Sierra Nevada Research Institute partnered with the nonprofit Chronicles Group to tell the story of these efforts, the science behind them, and pathways that dedicated individuals and groups are pioneering to scale up these urgent climate solutions.
"California's forests are at a tipping point, owing to both climate stress and past unsustainable management practices that suppressed wildfires and prioritized timber harvesting," explained UC Merced Professor Roger Bales, who was involved in developing the film.
Covering over 30 million acres - nearly a third of the state - these iconic ecosystems provide water, recreation, habitat, carbon storage and serve other needs. But they now contain too many trees, packed too closely together.
"California's diverse ecosystems are facing unprecedented challenges as rising temperatures intensify the threat of wildfires and disrupt the delicate balance of our natural resources," said California Natural Resources Secretary Wade Crowfoot.
The overaccumulation of dead wood, leaves and other organic materials on the forest floor and buildup of small trees - which serve as "ladder fuels" moving fire from the forest floor up into the canopy - has been compounded in recent years by climate warming. Returning more low-severity fire to the landscape is one effective tool for combating heavy fuel loads.
"Restoring fire to these forests, which evolved to experience frequent fire, is critical, despite the risks associated with prescribed, intentional burning," said UC Merced Professor Crystal Kolden. "Partnerships help to give a voice to everyone involved, including historically excluded groups such as the tribes that have burned in these forests for millennia."
"The new production vividly documents the reality of the watersheds' demise and the hard work of new partnerships involving land managers, water agencies, the private sector, counties, universities, community groups and other public agencies to advance the pace and scale of forest restoration," said Jim Thebaut of the Chronicles Group, director and executive producer of the documentary.
"Restoration efforts focus on removing fuels, which lowers the projected severity when a fire does occur," Bales said. "Yet these thinning projects are very expensive. That is where partnerships that can develop creative financing and monetize the benefits of restoration come in."
"We need to use all of the collaborative forest-management, scientific and financial tools at our disposal if we are to address the wildfire challenge at a meaningful scale," said Phil Saksa, chief scientist at Blue Forest, a nonprofit organization focused on creating sustainable investment solutions to environmental challenges. "Leveraging the value provided by all the beneficial outcomes from this work is essential for motivating long-term investments in the natural infrastructure that is our forests and watersheds."
The film explores how scaling up promising investments can ensure a more sustainable future.
"This documentary serves as a poignant reminder that the health of our forests is intrinsically linked to the well-being of our communities," said Crowfoot. "As we confront the impacts of climate change, it is imperative that we scale up our efforts to restore resilient forests, safeguard our water sources and foster thriving communities. By prioritizing sustainable practices, we can forge a path toward a more resilient and sustainable future for all Californians."
"The watershed is a vital component of California's economy, which is interlinked and linked to the United States and the rest of the world," said Thebaut. "It is the foundation for the state's water supply, which is critical to its far-reaching businesses and food security. The current state of the watershed is evidently grave, and unless fast measures are taken, the United States' national security would be jeopardized."
The current film is a sequel to the Chronicles Group's 2019 30-minute "California's Watershed" documentary, which was distributed on PBS and focused on the critical importance of forested headwaters to California's water security. That water supports the state's economy, equivalent to the fifth largest national economy in the world. It also supports the agriculture that is critically important to food security for the United States.
"California's Watershed: Healing" will be shown Sunday, Feb. 18 at the 22nd annual Wild & Scenic Film Festival in Nevada City and Grass Valley, followed by a panel discussion with scientists, decision makers and filmmakers. Event information, including the film trailer, is available online .
This story was originally published on the UC Merced Newsroom website. Read the original posting here: https://news.ucmerced.edu/news/2024/new-film-profiles-immediate-actions-restore-californias-wildfire-vulnerable-forests