THE CALIFORNIA DEPARTMENT OF FORESTRY AND FIRE PROTECTION

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The California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection continues to cooperate with the University, State agencies, local government, conservation groups and others on ecological, management and planning issues related to California's hardwood rangelands. CDF is involved in research studies, monitoring, geographic information systems (GIS), nursery production, cost-share assistance programs, field service forestry, and input into land use planning activities.


Research Summary

CDF's Strategic Resources and Planning Program (formerly Forest and Rangelands Resources Assessment Program) funds hardwood research through the State's Environmental License Plate Fund. The following summary identifies new projects established since the last Progress Report, and progress made on others.

Two projects which are related to vegetation change are still in progress. Vegetation changes in blue oak reviews historic photos to assess oak stand structure changes over a 40 to 60 year period. Resampling VTM plots assesses changes in stand structure and regeneration on ground plots first sampled in 1935. The California hardwood monitoring project reflects the second phase of SRPP's long-term monitoring effort. It will provide an accuracy assessment of the first statewide mapping project (based on 1981 photos) and provide a second map based on 1991 Landsat imagery. Finally, a project to digitize historic valley oak stands from the VTM coverage has been completed. The stands are concentrated on the central coast.

A new project, Factors affecting blue oak recruitment and regeneration, will identify factors determining sapling recruitment. The study will include management history such as grazing, fire, and harvest; environmental factors such as vegetation type, stocking, and tree density; and site factors such as topography, soils, moisture, etc.

Two new projects related to wildlife include the following:

Development effects on wildlife will produce an expert system for predicting wildlife response to different levels of development and associated impacts. Vertebrate model validation will determine what habitat characteristics affect vertebrates in oak woodlands, allowing us to model the presence of vertebrates according to habitat structure.

The Sustainable landscapes criteria project will promote the development of regional landscape-based standards for maintaining sustainable oak ecosystems on the central coast and in the upper Sacramento. The project provides for a technical group in each region to identify biological risks to oak ecosystems associated with alternative "future" landscapes, and to identify criteria for maintaining sustainable systems. A policy group will provide input to ensure that criteria are practical and can be incorporated into planning and management decisions. This project has not yet begun for the upper Sacramento.

Evaluating achievement of Board of Forestry goals

CDF sponsored two "think tanks" to evaluate IHRMP progress in achieving a vision of oak woodland protection described by the Board of Forestry in 1986 in Policy Options for California's Hardwoods. One group of researchers and managers convened to assess how the program could ensure that "sufficient habitat diversity is achieved statewide to protect the viability of critical wildlife species." It determined that in order to achieve this goal, research and conservation efforts must address multiple species protection. This will require focusing on entire ecosystems and considering different "futures" for those ecosystems. To develop conservation strategies, we must assess the risks associated with alternative future landscapes and communicate those risks to policy and decision makers.

Another group met to discuss how to refine the goal of "preserving soil and water quality" on hardwood range for further action by the IHRMP. This group reached similar conclusions about the need to consider entire systems, including woodlands and associated vegetation, upslope and downstream users, and wildland and urbanizing land uses. The group considered residential and industrial developments, wildfires, and grazing to have the potential for significantly impacting water quality. These and other activities varied regionally in importance. The group said that while data specific to hardwood watershed beneficial uses and impacts were limited, technologies were adequate to begin to assess watershed impacts and to establish best management practices. Institutional stumbling blocks, such as poor communication, lack of coordination and cooperation, and inadequate incentives among researchers, government, and landowners, have hampered implementation.

Seedling Production by CDF Nursery Program
CDF has two nurseries that raised over 85,000 oak seedlings last year including black, blue, coast live, canyon live, interior live, and valley oaks. Magalia Nursery (near Chico) raised about 70,000 bare root stock, mostly for valley, black, and blue oaks. L.A. Moran Reforestation Center in Davis raised over 15,000 container stock, primarily black, blue and interior live oaks. CDF sells oaks in lots of 50 or more; they cannot be sold for landscaping uses. Oaks have been purchased largely by small landowners and used mostly for erosion control, habitat, and fuelwood plantings. Surplus oaks have been provided to agencies and groups such as the Soil Conservation Service, resource conservation districts, and RC&Ds (rural conservation and development groups).

Monitoring changes in hardwood coverage
CDF has assumed responsibility for monitoring changes in the availability and condition of hardwood rangelands. This included a long-term effort to detect changes on wildland and developing hardwood lands, based on periodic statewide mapping. A baseline map was developed from 1981 photos and distributed to planners, CDF field personnel and others. Standardized maps by county are now available from Stephen P. Teale Data Center in Sacramento. A second project will produce an accuracy assessment of the first map and a new map based on 1991 Landsat imagery.

A short-term monitoring effort was also conducted to follow trends in harvest activities on wildland areas and to indicate areas for more intensive monitoring efforts. CDF personnel visually estimated acreage and harvest intensity on wildland sites they were able to locate by aircraft. This effort did not attempt to include sites being cleared for development. Visual estimates indicate that the majority of commercial type harvest operations are found in the upper Sacramento Valley area, and that large areas continue to be harvested. Additional landscape-level monitoring and cumulative effects analysis may be needed to determine whether this type of cutting is sustainable with respect to oaks, wildlife and watershed stability.

Natural Resource Management Activities
CDF foresters throughout the state have worked with landowners and others to plant and manage trees, prescribe burns, address forest and tree insect and disease problems, and evaluate wildland impacts from development activities. CDF is a signatory on the Coordinated Resource Management Planning memorandum of understanding which commits agencies to support coordinated land management, usually watershed-based, by groups of land owners. CDF is a participant or lead in many of these, including some in hardwood areas. CDF expertise may be used to plan burns, restore woodlands and other forestry-related activities.

CDF also administers the California Forest Stewardship Program, a federally funded cost-share program which provides assistance to improve forests, woodlands, and associated resources. The Stewardship Incentive Program (SIP), a component of the umbrella program, can provide funds and assistance to private landowners for conservation efforts on woodlands. A limited amount of funding from the California Forest Improvement Program can also been used on oak woodlands for habitat improvement and conservation objectives. Contact foresters at local CDF ranger units for information on these programs.

Biodiversity Protection
CDF is also a signatory on the Biological Diversity memorandum of understanding. This recognizes the need by state, federal and local agencies, to rise beyond attempts to manage for single species and to provide for sustainable ecosystems by protecting the inherent diversity of those systems. Managing for biodiversity will entail a more regional focus. This paradigm may become more important for oak woodland areas as concerns arise about species, such as the California spotted owl, and as local governments attempt to plan for more efficient and ecologically sound development. CDF has developed GIS-based software to help biologists, managers, and planners begin to analyze landscape level effects of different management choices so that we can protect diversity at all scales.

Land Use Planning Assistance
CDF cosponsored a symposium with the University and the California Oak Foundation related to oak conservation in the planning process. It targeted developers, development consultants, planners, and others. CDF also cooperated with the University on A Planner's Guide for Oak Woodlands (in press) to promote oak conservation at the ecosystem level.