- Author: Carlin Starrs
King fire threatens decades of campus research - The Daily Californian
“As it was approaching, I saw a large column of smoke,” said Robert York, research stations manager of the campus Center for Forestry. “It was clear it was coming close. But then, it raged by. It was like a freight train had gone by.”
- Author: Carlin Starrs
via UC Berkeley College of Natural Resources:
"A key University of California, Berkeley, research station is threatened by the King Fire in El Dorado County. Blodgett Research Forest, 4,270 acres located 10 miles east of Georgetown, is home to scores of UC Berkeley investigations on trees and other plants, fish and wildlife populations, insects, diseases, soils, atmospheric chemistry and wildfire management techniques."
- Author: Carlin Starrs
Center for Forestry staff recently attended a tour of the Rim Fire hosted by the NorCal/Socal Society of American Foresters State Society. The Rim Fire was (and still is) the largest fire Sierra Nevada history (over 250,000 acres). The tour featured discussions about salvage operations, reforestation, and forest policy.
On August 17, 2013, an illegal campfire at the bottom of a valley in the dry Sierra Nevada summer sparked the largest wildfire in Sierra Nevada recorded history, the Rim Fire. In just days, the fire grew to over 100,000 acres. By the time it was contained two months later, the fire had burned an area twice the size of Lake Tahoe (257,314 acres, approximately 402 sq mi).
The Rim Fire was unique in many ways in addition to its size. Over 35% of the burned area was categorized as high severity, and 60% of the high severity burned in just two days. Though fire weather conditions the day of Rim Fire were not particularly unusual for the area, atmospheric instability was very high. The collapse of the fire's massive smoke plume, which was visible from space, contributed to the fire's extreme severity, pushing 100+ mph winds (high enough to break mature trees in half) out in all directions.
The fire affected a broad range of stakeholders, who are now uniting in efforts to rehabilitate and recover the area. The fire burned across boundaries into private land (both industrial and family forests), National Forests, and National Parks, including Yosemite National Park and the nearby Hetch Hetchy valley, home to San Francisco's water supply (though impacts to water quality were minimal).
The Northern California & Southern California Society of American Foresters (NorCal/SoCal SAF) joint summer meeting, held August 22-23rd 2014, brought over 120 people from diverse professions and interests to visit the Rim Fire. Experts from industry, academia, federal and state government, and non-profits spoke to the effects this fire has had on the landscape and community, and next steps.
The effect of fuel treatments and previous fires on fire behavior and severity was a major topic of discussion on the tour. Though the extreme nature of the fire meant that many areas burned at high severity regardless of past fuels reduction, areas that had been fuel reduced gave firefighters an advantage when fighting the fire (especially fuel-reduced areas along roads). On days with less extreme fire weather, many areas with reduced fuel loads burned at lower severity. Overall, it is estimated that treated areas experienced 20% high severity fire, while non-treated areas had 38% high severity. Treatment type, age, land location all had an impact on effectiveness, with a greater reduction in treatment viability after about 10 years.
Restoration and rehabilitation is now the greatest concern for the area. Salvage logging on private lands is winding down, and replanting is likely to take place next spring (drought depending). The US Forest Service (USFS) is finalizing their Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) for salvage operations, which will make it one of the fastest EISs ever accomplished. Replanting is not a given on public land, and there is much debate as to the best way to plant a resilient forest under USFS's political and budgetary constraints. Sections of the Rim Fire that overlapped with areas replanted from fires in the last two decades burned severely. Planting was done under the assumption that a pre-commercial thin would take place, but when budgetary limitations prevented thinning, high fuel loads quickly returned.
Currently, federal wildfire budgeting does not effectively allocate funds. USFS and Department of Interior (DOI) budgets for non-suppression programs are raided year after year to pay for rising wildfire costs. As a result, planning and implementation of critical landscape management programs are delayed and canceled—leading to a backlog of projects that may help to reduce wildfire impacts. While wildfires are an inevitable and essential part of the California ecosystem, changes to policy may help prevent and mitigate catastrophic mega-fires like the Rim Fire.
The final stop on the tour included a policy update from The Society of American Foresters (parent organization of NorCal and SoCal SAF). SAF is one of over 230 diverse organizations supporting the Wildfire Disaster Funding Act (S. 1875 & HR 3992), which would end the cycle of fire borrowing. The bill would treat the largest fires as disasters and allow USFS and DOI to reinvest in programs that increase forest health and resilience.
The road to recovery will be long, but there is much to be learned from the Rim Fire. Our knowledge of these ecosystems is finite, and climate change will continue to bring unpredictable and unique challenges to an already difficult and uncertain process. We are left with the understanding that all we can do is bring together a broad range of stakeholders and interest groups to use our collective knowledge to bring this area back to life. One speaker said it best: “if we unite, we can do better.”
- Author: Carlin Starrs
The California State Board of Forestry and Fire Protection will present the University of California (UC), Berkeley Forestry Program with its highest honor, the “Francis H. Raymond Award for Outstanding Contributions to California Forestry.” The presentation will be made during the Board Meeting scheduled for Wednesday, August 27, 2014 in the first floor auditorium of the Resources Building located at 1416 9th Street in downtown Sacramento.
from California State Board of Forestry:
NEWS RELEASE
California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection
Board of Forestry and Fire Protection
CONTACT: Matt Dias, Board Staff, 916-653-8031
RELEASE DATE: August 5, 2014
University of California, Berkeley Forestry to be Honored for Outstanding Contributions to California Forestry
Sacramento - The California State Board of Forestry and Fire Protection will present the University of California (UC), Berkeley Forestry Program with its highest honor, the “Francis H. Raymond Award for Outstanding Contributions to California Forestry.” The presentation will be made during the Board Meeting scheduled for Wednesday, August 27, 2014 in the first floor auditorium of the Resources Building located at 1416 9th Street in downtown Sacramento.
UC Berkeley Forestry represents a strong cadre of Cal Foresters that today are well-represented as leaders in the management, conservation, regulation and research of California's vast forestlands. Academic contributions of the program have positively impacted forest management and policy throughout the world since the program started a century ago, in 1914. Some of the notable achievements include: developing the underpinnings for modern remote sensing, the first milling studies of second growth redwood and giant sequoia, research on seedling physiology that revolutionized seedling production, and ecological investigation on the role of fire in forested environments. Over the past century, the UC Berkeley Forestry program has provided opportunities for students with an interest in forest management, science, and policy with the skills to succeed in their academic careers. The UC Berkeley Forestry program is responsible for producing many of the Registered Professional Foresters within the state.
Additionally, the UC Berkeley Forestry program, through the Blodgett Research Forest Station in the Sierra Nevada, continues to work diligently at promoting forest stewardship through demonstration and research and annually extends informative tours to local and state elected representatives as a means of informing policy makers on the art and science of sound forest management. The UC Berkeley Forestry program is a well deserving of this prestigious award given the breadth of involvement and influence on forestry in California over the past 100 years.
The award is named for Francis H. Raymond, who was the Director of the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection from 1953 to 1970. Mr. Raymond was one of the primary advocates for the passage of the Professional Foresters Law in 1973. Since 1987 it has been awarded to a group or individual who has achieved excellence in forestry in California.
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This is the latest HD version of the Blodgett Biomass Recovery Project, highlighting the benefits and challenges associated with managing forest biomass and transforming it into a source for renewable energy generation. This project was managed by the Placer County Air Pollution Control District in cooperation with UC Berkeley - Blodgett Forest Station and many other partners. This project is perhaps the leading illustration of biomass utilization in forest management and renewable energy in California, where nearly 9 million acres of forest stand in need of treatment (USFS estimate).
This video, commissioned by the Placer County Air Pollution Control District, highlights the benefits and challenges associated with managing forest biomass and transforming it into a source for renewable energy generation. This project is perhaps the leading illustration of biomass utilization in forest management and renewable energy in California, where nearly 9 million acres of forest stand in need of treatment (USFS estimate).
Blodgett Biomass from Fresh Air Media, Inc. on Vimeo.
