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Workgroups are the focal point and primary mechanism for accomplishing DANR's research and extension goals. They are structured to bring together all of UC's cooperative extension and faculty to work on emerging and continuing issues. These include needs assessment and issue identification, communication and networking, evaluation and reporting of program results, subject-matter in-service training, and extramural fund development. There are three workgroups dealing with forestry.
Forest Ecosystems and Communities Workgroup
Chair Gary Nakamura
In May this workgroup, in collaboration with the Center for Forestry, conducted a Colloquium on California Forest Ecology and Communities. About 50 faculty and extension people from Berkeley, Davis, Riverside, field stations and reserves and some county advisors participated. The Colloquium was aimed at improving communications and understanding within the areas of social forestry, forest health, and forest ecology and management, and a Proceedings was developed. Important current programs within the workgroup include pitch canker, coast live oak and tanoak dieback, exotic pests, air pollution impacts, soil and genetic resource conservation, remote sensing technology, fuels and wildfire, and harvesting technology. Important issues identified included:
- What are sustainable forest practices and their ecological, social, and economic dimensions?
- Will a significant proportion of the forest landscape be managed for commercial products? If not, how will management costs be covered?
- Is intensive forest management possible? If so, where and under what conditions?
- Who should decide what is sustainable, set priorities among conflicting uses, and define the choices for research and educational programs?
A statewide Riparian Forest Management program has been proposed. The Forest Ecosystems and Communities Workgroup would take the lead with the goals of: 1) improving ecological understanding, 2) improving management and restoration, and 3) preventing degradation.
Oak Conservation Work Group
Chair Bill Tietje
The first annual meeting of this workgroup, held last March in Santa Maria, brought together 38 Extension, Ag Experiment Station, and non-DANR members to share information, identify and prioritize workgroup activities, and to see and discuss oak research and conservation at the nearby Barham vineyard and at the UCSB Sedgwick reserve. Presentations were made on Oak Ecology and Management in England by IHRMP's Doug McCreary and on Sudden Oak Death Complex by Marin County Horticulture Advisor Pavel Svihra.
Current workgroup activities include:
- Statewide workshops, research, and outreach on: 1) oak woodland intermittent stream hydrology, ecology, and management, 2) vulnerability of oak trees to controlled burning; their protection and regeneration, 3) the use of the vegetation cover change GIS maps, and 4) training for local planners.
- Develop leaflets on economic values and conservation easements; revise A Planners' Guide for Oak Woodlands.
- Develop the 5th Oak Woodland Symposium for October 2001 in San Diego.
- Training for UC CE advisors on Sudden Oak Death Complex in Marin County.
The 2nd Annual Meeting of the Oak Woodland Conservation Workgroup is planned for winter, 2001. The meeting will be held in Marin County with field trips to research sites of the Sudden Oak Death Complex. We invite your participation
Monitoring Landscape Change Work Group
Chair Nina Maggi Kelly
The California landscape is valuable, spatially variable, and changing rapidly. Methods for monitoring and analyzing landscape change - for example, remote sensing and GIS - are increasingly used in attempts to understand the consequences of such change. For more information see http://camfer.cnr.berkeley.edu/monitoring/
Current activities include:
- Communication among researchers interested in using GIS/Remote sensing techniques.
- Annual workshops on methods for monitoring and analyzing landscape change.
- Identifying opportunities for multi-disciplinary research and outreach.
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