- Posted By: Jaime Adler
- Written by: Yana Valachovic
The Northern California Prescribed Fire Council provides continuing education opportunities for those using fire in forest management and conservation activities. Although prescribed fire councils are common in the U.S., this is the first such council in California. Council participants include public and private resource managers, researchers, firefighters, fire safe councils, tribes and regulatory agencies. The council hopes that by working together, this diverse group can increase individual members’ expertise in using fire for resource management and can improve fire-related education in the state. The council aims for a better public understanding of the value of prescribed burning in the state’s fire adapted landscapes, for...
- Posted By: Jaime Adler
- Written by: Rick Standiford, Susie Kocher, Mike De Lasaux, Jaime Adler
Recently three leaders from the Taiwan Forestry Research Institute (TFRI), a division of Tawain’s Council of Agriculture (COA), traveled to Northern California to meet with UCCE foresters to gain information about our outreach program that they might be able to apply in Taiwan. Dr. Yue-Hsing “Star” Huang, Director of TFRI; Dr. Meng-Ling Wu, Department Chief of Forest Protection; Dr. Gene-Sheng Tung, Assistant Researcher in the Department of Forest Protection spent three days at UC Berkeley, UC Berkeley’s Blodgett Forest Research Station, South Lake Tahoe, and in Quincy and Plumas Counties exploring extension projects and learning how UCCE Foresters initiate and maintain relationships with landowners, managers, conservation groups, and...
- Posted By: Jaime Adler
- Written by: Steve Quarles, UCCE Forest Specialist
The ASTM E05.14 Subcommittee on Exterior Fire met today. Task groups that are developing standard test methods to evaluate vents and decking products updated the subcommittee on progress made since the last meeting (these committees meeting every six months, in early December and early June). All of these draft standards are in some stage of balloting at the subcommittee or main committee level.
Professor Joe Urbas, University of North Carolina-Charlotte, gave a presentation to the subcommittee on a research project that he has been working on. Professor Urbas has been evaluating the effectiveness of wetting agents applied to vegetation and building components in resisting radiant heat exposures. The wetting agents he evaluated...
- Posted By: Jaime Adler
- Written by: Steve Quarles, UCCE Forest Specialist
The American Society for Testing and Materials (ASTM) Committee E05 on Fire Standards is meeting this week in Anaheim, California. ASTM is a standards writing organization. Today many task groups met to review and consider changes to standard test methods. For example, the task group that oversees ASTM E-84, Standard Test Method for Surface Burning Characteristics of Building Materials met. This test is used to determine the flame spread rating (Class A, B, or C) for construction materials, and is one of the measures used to describe the performance of deck boards that comply with Chapter 7A of the California Building Code. Chapter 7A is the state code that applies to new construction in California. Today it was announced that a...
- Posted By: Jaime Adler
- Written by: Bill Stewart, UCCE Forest Specialist
Making estimates of the life cycle benefits of harvested sawlogs are now required as part of every timber harvest plan in California. While forest managers are intimately familiar with what happens in the forest and at the landing, we are dependent on others to synthesize current and historical data to come up with accurate estimates of the ‘carbon footprint’ of sawlogs after they have left our control. Unfortunately, a number of the common calculators used in California to estimate the life cycle benefits from sawlogs depend on historic and poorly documented estimates that significantly undercount the climate benefits of harvested products. This post highlights some noticeable differences between accounting systems...