Gary Nakamura, Cooperative Extension specialist and Co-Director for the Center of Forestry, was appointed by Governor Schwarzenegger to the State Board of Forestry and Fire Protection. He has served on the board since 2007 and has been a forestry specialist for CNR since 1985. Nakamura previously worked for the U.S. Forest Service and Champion International Corp.
by Dean Keith Gilless
Frozen pipes never concern San Francisco residents, but Minnesotans insulate the pipes around their homes every winter. The West Nile virus scares many Californians but doesn't alarm Scandinavians at all. Where you are in the world goes a long way toward determining the things you worry about.
Some Californians shy away from using wood for fear of contributing to the deforestation so frequently associated with global warming. But relying on imported goods means burning fossil fuels to bring those goods to market, which increases greenhouse gas emissions. The arguments to promote "locally grown" are no more or less valid when considering one's consumption of lumber and other forest products.
Rachel Smith, a graduate student in Environmental Science, Policy and Management with the Moritz Lab, was recently interviewed by NPR about her experiences fighting fire in Southern California.
Excerpted from the interview:
"As we work, the forest shadows deepen. The temperature drops. The humidity soars. Gradually, the fire is cooling. By the time we reach the cedar, it's past midnight. Our incident commander decides to knock off for a few hours before we try to cut down the dangerous tree. We spend the night spiked out inside the fireline, nestled in a burned-over hollow. I sleep with my boots on, just in case."
By Bill Dennison, Cal Forestry alum & past president of the California Forestry Association
The U.S. Forest Service recently became the first federal agency to register with the California Climate Action Registry, a first step to track greenhouse gas emissions attributable to global climate change from U.S. Forest Service operations.
But it's not nearly enough.
Continue reading "Opinion: Thinning trees helps environment" »
Devastating over 1 million oak trees across Northern California in the past 10 years, Sudden Oak Death is a killer with no cure. But biologists including CNR's Matteo Garbelotto are looking to the trees' genetics for a solution.
John Dingman’s three-ring binder for his senior honors project overflows with data ranging from topographic maps to digital elevation models to tree cores. Dingman, a senior forestry major at CNR, spent the summer of 2006 trekking through Mount Diablo State Park to collect firsthand data for his project on vegetation type mapping using GIS.
Although hiking from sunup to sundown through ticks and scrub was often exhausting, Dingman talks about his research with a familiarity and enthusiasm that stems from a sense of personal accomplishment. He says, “I was surprised by how much I really enjoyed working on this project. I appreciated the time I spent outside collecting the data and analyzing the data to develop my own algorithms to reduce GIS spatial error.”His project is part of a unique CNR program called Sponsored Projects for Undergraduate Research, or SPUR Dingman says SPUR was a positive experience because, “it allowed me as an undergraduate to design a research project, and apply my knowledge to study vegetation change.” Through SPUR, Dingman worked with Professor Maggi Kelly of the Kelly Research and Outreach Lab to develop his plan and research methods.
Continue reading "Forestry Student’s Senior Project Applies New Technology to Old Data" »
Over the past decade, in numerous field sites throughout the world, mesh bags of leaf and root litter sat exposed to the elements, day and night, throughout the four seasons, gradually rotting away.
Now, those bags of decomposing organic matter have allowed a research team led by scientists from CNR and Colorado State University to produce an elegant and simple set of equations to calculate the nitrogen released into the soil during decomposition, which in turn could significantly improve the accuracy of global climate change models.
Continue reading "Study of rotting leaves could lead to more accurate climate models" »
This editorial by Professor David Sunding appeared Dec. 28, 2006, in the San Francisco Chronicle.
Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's executive order to begin implementation of a market-based compliance program encouraging businesses to reduce greenhouse-gas emissions is clearly a step in the right direction toward cleaning our air of harmful carbon particulates. The next step is to make it financially attractive enough for businesses to comply with the program.
Continue reading "Bringing carbon buyers and sellers to market" »
The John A. Zivnuska Computer Laboratory, is nearing completion at CNR's forestry camp in the Plumas National Forest. The 1,400 square foot cedar structure, built with open-beam log house construction, is expected to be completed in time for summer camp 2007. Alumni and friends are now contributing to the fund to equip the building with computers, geographic information systems, and other technologies.
Fire researchers at the University of California, Berkeley, are launching a new set of interactive online tools to help homeowners, community leaders and researchers assess the risk of wildfire damage to their homes and communities.
The interactive site, officially called the Fire Information Engine Toolkit, debuted Wednesday, Sept. 13 and can be found at http://firecenter.berkeley.edu/toolkit. It was developed by researchers at the Center for Fire Research and Outreach, based at UC Berkeley's College of Natural Resources. Users can type in a specific address to see if they live in a region at risk for wildfires, as well as obtain information about historic fires that have occurred in the area since 1950.
Homeowners can also use the site to get a science-based assessment of their vulnerability to wildfire based upon the answers they provide on an online form.
Continue reading " Researchers launch online wildfire risk assessment tool" »
From the front page of the San Francisco Chronicle:
Some of the world's best evidence of global warming was buried under 18 feet of snow in the Sierra Nevada last winter, and [UC Berkeley Forestry alumna] Connie Millar was determined to dig it out.Millar, a veteran field scientist for the U.S. Forest Service, sweated uphill with three colleagues on a July morning, headed deep into Lundy Canyon, just north of Mono Lake, one of the few access points to the Sierra crest along its rugged eastern flank....
This story also quotes Forestry alumnus Bob Coats.
Read the full story: WATER SIGNS
Miniature rock glaciers. Drying meadows. Warming lakes. High-elevation studies try to predict the impact of climate change
On the weekend of July 14, CNR's Forestry Summer Camp welcomed alumni and friends for the annual Summer Camp Picnic.
Continue reading "Summer Forestry Camp: Picnic and Progress" »
There’s progress on the climate front. Suddenly the U.S. is waking to the reality of climate change as glaciers melt and seasons become more extreme. For California, predictions of declining snow packs and drier summers mean threats to urban water supplies and higher risk of wildfire. Across the country, states are taking the initiative to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.
Frequent questions arise about the California Climate Action Registry and its Forest Protocols. Forest landowners are starting to learn more and examine how the Registry might benefit them. Some misconceptions have developed, thus a brief overview helps in understanding how the protocols work and the potential they offer to landowners, forests and the global environment.
Read the FAQ developed by visiting CNR faculty member Andrea Tuttle, former director of the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection:
http://nature.berkeley.edu/site/forms/pdf/forest_carbon_faq.pdf
By Andrea Tuttle
California's forests have something to celebrate.
The first forest projects in California designed specifically to fight global warming were recently announced at the United Nations conference on climate change in Montreal. By registering in the California Climate Action Registry, the Garcia River Forest in Sonoma County and the Van Eck property in Humboldt show a new model for protecting natural resources.
The projects will reduce greenhouse gases and restore streams and roads, all while working to produce timber. Perhaps most surprising is that well-known environmental groups, including the Conservation Fund, the Pacific Forest Trust, the Nature Conservancy and the State Coastal Conservancy, will actually manage logging on these lands to save them and better the environment.
Continue reading "Forest landowners playing role in fight against global warming" »
