- Author: Kim Ingram
You may have seen historic photos of Sierra Nevada forests with cars driving between the large trees, or heard how one could ride their horse from the woods into town with little difficulties. Those open forests with fewer trees were highly variable in structure and more resilient than forests of today. But what does that actually mean? Ryan Tompkins, Forestry and Natural Resources Advisor and Registered Professional Forester with the University of California Agriculture and Natural Resources, explains the connection between fewer trees and a resilient forest.
Photo: USDA Forest Service
What is forest resilience? Forest resilience is a measure of...
- Author: Kim Ingram
Invasive plants are defined by the Natural Resource Conservation Service (NRCS) as, “A plant that is both non-native and able to establish on many sites, grow quickly, and spread to the point of disrupting plant communities or ecosystems.” Depending on the location of your forest or oak woodland, this includes plants such as Scotch broom, cheatgrass, Tree-of-Heaven, pampas grass, and Himalayan blackberry. But for forest or oak woodland landowners who are looking to manage vegetation, there are also native plants that may be less desirable. The NRCS calls these either “Opportunistic native plants or...
- Author: Kim Ingram
Forests in the Sierra Nevada and southern Cascade Range are being stressed by many factors that put them at risk. High-severity wildfire, drought stress, insect outbreaks, disease, and a backdrop of changing climate are a few. A significant portion of Sierra Nevada and southern Cascade forests are owned and managed as small parcels (10 to 100 acres) by nonindustrial private landowners. To assist these landowners, CAL FIRE and the U.S. Forest Service Pacific Southwest Research Station have recently released the ‘Forest Management Handbook for Small Parcel Landowners.' This step by step guide is an additional resource designed to help small, private...
- Author: Kim Ingram
Now that the traditional fire season is nearing an end, it is never too late to think about steps to take before a wildfire impacts your home and forest. According to the Cal Fire Incidents Overview website, the 2021 fire season to date has either damaged or destroyed 3,629 structures and burned almost 2.5 million acres. For those private forest landowners impacted by these fires, claiming a casualty loss on their federal and state tax returns can help mitigate financial losses.
Larry Camp, a California forest landowner, California Registered Professional Forester, member of Forest Landowners of California, and retired IRS forester, gives us a brief overview of what a...
- Author: Kim Ingram
Enjoying and protecting nature are cited as the top two ‘very important' reasons why private forest landowners in the UC ANR Forest Stewardship Workshops own forestland. Many of these landowners express a desire to have their forest return to an ‘old-growth' state. But, what exactly does this mean? UC Berkeley Silviculture Professor Emeritus, John Helms, says this depends on several things.
Some definitions focus on tree or stand age and size, some on whether the area has been previously harvested and some on the structure of the forest in place now. Defining old-growth trees and stands usually...