The proceedings of the 2012 Blodgett Research Workshop is now available.

Click HERE to access the proceedings in PDF format.

A new report on the Sierra Nevada Watershed Ecosystem Enhancement Project (SWEEP), co-authored by Center for Forestry co-director Bill Stewart, is available.

From the Executive Summary:

“In this white paper on the Sierra Nevada Watershed Ecosystem Enhancement Project (SWEEP), we make the case that upstream management of Sierra Nevada forests can significantly increase the value of downstream water resources by shifting water towards higher value uses and optimizing the timing of runoff.”

Click here to access the pdf from the Mountain Counties Water Association Website: http://mountaincountieswater.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/01/SWEEP_published_112911.pdf

Research on the impact of climate change on trees in the Sahel region of Africa by former Center for Forestry visitor scholar Patrick Gonzalez is highlighted by a recent UC Berkeley news release.  Dr. Gonzalez’s paper will appear in the Dec. 16 issue of the Journal of Arid Environments.

Click here for the news release: http://newscenter.berkeley.edu/2011/12/12/climate-change-kills-trees-in-africa/

Sierra Pacific Industries: History, New Technologies, & Emerging Markets

Watch Mark Emmerson’s 2011 Lecture

Mark Emmerson, Sierra Pacific Industries

About Mark:

Mark Emmerson is the Chief Financial Officer and a member of the Board of Directors of Sierra Pacific Industries, one of the nations’ leading lumber, millwork, and window manufacturers headquartered in Redding, California.

Mark is a graduate of the University of California at Berkeley and puts his formal training as a CPA to full use in leading the Company’s accounting and financial activities. Mark also has lumber manufacturing experience, having managed the construction phase and later operations of the Anderson sawmill complex. Mark is a member of the Board of Directors for the California Forestry Association, the President’s Advisory Commission for the University of California, and has served in various capacities on both the American Forest and Paper Association and the American Forest Foundation.

The approximately 1,850,000 acres of industrial forest land are the backbone of the Company’s sawmills, millwork and window manufacturing facilities, and electrical co-generation plants which now employ approximately 3,500 people throughout California and Washington. In spite of the Company’s tremendous growth, the basic principles of hard work and a commitment to a family atmosphere among employees is a dominant factor in day-to-day operations.

Mark and his wife Marisa live in Redding, California and have three children, David 21, Bradley 17, and Miles 12.

Declaring Peace in Timber Country: Sustainable Forests in a Perpetual Business

Watch Neal Ewald Lecture

Neal Ewald, Green Diamond Resource Company

About Neal Ewald:

Since 1988, Mr. Ewald has managed the 435,000-acre California Division of Green Diamond engaged in harvesting, reforestation, silvicultural and wildlife research, tree improvement, and timberland acquisition. In his tenure at Green Diamond, the company has attained long-term landscape habitat management plans that protect sensitive terrestrial wildlife and aquatic species including the first Habitat Conservation Plan developed by a private landowner in 1992 for the northern spotted owl. He will discuss the transition of forest management toward landscape approaches to sustainability in a perpetual business model.

A report on the environmental impacts of woody biomass harvesting for energy by William Stewart, Robert Powers, Kathryn McGown, Lindsay Chiono and Teresa Chuang was completed in 2011 and provides a thorough review of the major issues and literature relevant to California. Click on the below link to read the report.

Environmental Impacts Of Woody Biomass Harvesting For Energy

Dr. Rob York, Blodgett Research Station manager and adjunct assistant professor at UC Berkeley, has co-authored a new paper for the journal Forestry entitled, “A gap-based approach for regenerating pine species and reducing surface fuels in multi-aged mixed conifer stands in the Sierra Nevada, California”.

The summary reads:

“Multi-aged stands in a mixed conifer forest of California were treated to mitigate harvest-related increases in surface fuels and to prepare sites for natural regeneration of Pinus species. The study was designed to (1) assess effectiveness of small gap fuel treatments (piling and burning in 0.04 ha gaps) on surface fuel and modelled fire behaviour;(2) test the effect of substrate quality on germination of Pinus species; (3) measure the influence of gap creation on light availability and stand-level light heterogeneity. While the fuel treatment only covered 10 per cent of stand area, it was effective in avoiding increases in stand-level surface fuel following harvests. Fire behaviour was predicted to be moderate following the treatments. The harvest coupled with the gap surface fuel treatments did not change predicted fire behaviour compared with the pretreatment stands. There was a significant but variable increase in germination of Pinus ponderosa seed when sowed on ash substrates compared with bare soil. No substrate effect was detected for Pinus lambertiana. The 0.04-ha gaps created distinct pockets of light and greatly increased stand-level light heterogeneity. This gap-based approach to regenerating multi-aged stands coupled with small-scale fuel treatments is promising for
reducing fire hazard and regenerating shade-intolerant species.”

Click here for the full paper: http://forestry.oxfordjournals.org/content/early/2011/10/31/forestry.cpr058.full.pdf+html

Center for Forestry co-director Dr. Bill Stewart has co-authored an article called “Managing Forests because Carbon Matters: Integrating Energy, Products, and Land Management Policy” in a special issue of the Journal of Forestry.

Read it here: http://www.safnet.org/documents/JOFSupplement.pdf