Posted by UC Berkeley News
During his years in the jungle of California, Rob York provided some quick and easy ways to find out if the forest was ready for fire. York “The first question I would like to ask is, ‘Can you run in the woods?’ That is to say.
York, Assistant Extension Extension Specialist and Associate Professor of Forestry Development at UC Berkeley, visited the 4,000-acre experimental forest in northern Sierra Nevada, standing on a pine tree. While the firefighting process allows most of California’s forests to be dense and dense, this forest plaster is one of the only places you can pass by.
Blodgett Forest Research Station is a 4,000-acre experimental forest in northern Sierra Nevada. (Photo by UC Regents by Evett Kilmartin)
“The idea is, if you don’t have a lot of surface fuel – wood and wood – you have to be able to run in it,” York added. “When I look at this forest, I may have to jump from that tree, but in general, I can run in it.”
For more than 50 years, York and other Berkeley forest researchers have used Blodgett as a living laboratory to study the effects of climate change on a variety of landscaping treatments – including prescribed burning, reforestation reduction and wood harvesting – to reduce the risk of severe wildfires and improve forest resilience. In addition to research, Blodgett regularly hosts workshops to show landowners various land management techniques.
A record-breaking wildfire in California A year later, work on Bloody’s is more important than ever, and state and federal agencies are pushing for more effective forest management practices. A.D. By 2020, the state and the U.S. National Forest Service have agreed to manage 1 million acres of California’s forests annually, and last month the Biden Administration entered into billions of federal funds to reduce wildfires in the state.
”[Blodgett] It is actually designed to show land management options and see how big scales are viewed.
Although once banned by blogging, it is now one of the tools researchers use to reduce wildfires and protect forest biodiversity. (Photo by UC Regents by Evett Kilmartin)
Testing with fire
According to Ariel Rowton, managing director of the Berkeley Forest Research Center, Blueberry Forest is a representative of millions of hectares of conspiratory conifer forest. After most of the trees were planted in the early 1900’s, the forest was donated to Berkeley in the 1930s, which is used to study sustainable wood production. In addition to the few artefacts that have been cut down earlier, most of the trees have grown back and are about 100 years old.
Since its inception in the 1950’s and 1960’s, active forests have now been subdivided into a series of treatments. And firefighting was once part of the blogger’s policy – Harold Biswell, a former firefighter who was banned from using fire for fear of interfering with wood gathering – is now one of the main tools used by bloggers to protect biodiversity. And reduce the risk of severe wildfires.
Ken Russell, interim forest manager at Blogget, shows how to use an initiated fire to hold two dripping torches. (Photo by UC Regents by Evett Kilmartin)
“People then asked, ‘Why do you want to use fire for land administration?’ They want to grow trees, grow wood. Scott Stephen, associate professor of forest science and associate director of the Berkeley Forest, said the idea of seeing Black and Char was far from ideal. “It is remarkable that a few decades ago, researchers Rob and Ariel and others did not have the opportunity to do what they were doing here.
In the open and airy jungle of York, easy-to-run forest trails, dark cut marks are 10 to 15 feet high on each tree trunk. Ecologists believe that before European colonization, these forests experienced fires once or less in 10 years, leading to the creation of very similar open forest structures. Here two years ago, Rowton, York, and their colleagues set out on a fire that was ordered to remove excess fuel from the ground and reduce the risk of fire.
John Bates, a professor of ecology at Berkeley, says: “I think it’s important to remember that after the last snowstorm, nature did not take much of a human intervention. “There has always been some kind of stewardship.
According to the researchers, it took 15 to 20 years of active management and regular maintenance to bring forest tracts to this state. Over the years, they have worked to build an open forest structure by collecting large trees for wood, but they have abandoned the larger one. They used a machine called masticator to cut down small trees and carry out regular firefighting.
Rob York, an associate professor of forestry development at Berkeley, says healthy jungle is one of the best places to go. (Photo by UC Regents by Evett Kilmartin)
While there are effective forest management strategies that can be effective in the short term, New York explains that it will often take some special treatment within a few years to restore the forest successfully and reduce its fire risk.
“It can be challenging to reach the forest structure we want,” says York. “It takes a lot of time and requires a lot of investment.”
Climate change is narrowing the annual windows when it is ideal for the ordered burn, limiting when and how often forests can safely burn. Warm and dry conditions make burning in the summer very dangerous, while in the winter rain and snow make the forest very wet and damp and prevent fires. However, a study by Blonde shows that with proper management decisions, winter burns can be made more effective.
“Because the wood grain has removed some of the cover and the ladder has been treated with oil, it now emits a lot of light into the ground and dries quickly,” Routton said. “We have reached a point where we can easily burn because of our past leadership work.”
Using machines to remove small trees and brushes by hand is less risky than the recommended burn but often costs a lot more. (Photo by UC Regents by Evett Kilmartin)
Forest friends
Although York likes to think of running in the trees, battles have a slightly different scale to assess forest health.
“You have to be able to run in the woods,” Battles said. But when I finish my run, I want to see all six of my friends.
Friends of the Battle The six species of trees that comprise the Conspiracy Confederate Forest are the oak, the pondosa pine, the sugar pine, the white pine, the Douglas pine, and the cedar. Fire suppression – and the dense, overgrown forest structures that can result – often supports the survival of these species more than others, leading to forests occupied by only one or two species. This lack of biodiversity can reduce the forest’s overall resilience to stress, such as bark beetles or tree pathogens, which often target some of these species but do not use others.
According to Battles, the open structure and frequent fires on this Blu-ray tract allowed all six of his friends to blossom.
John Battles, a professor of forest ecology at Berkeley, would love to see a mix of all six species of trees, including the conservation forest. (Photo by UC Regents by Evett Kilmartin)
“I see my friend Ponderosa pine, because the shade you don’t see often in the unburned forest is unbearable – it needs light. I see oak, and it needs fire to get more oak trees,” Bates said.
Over the past 20 years, studies have shown that combustion and mechanical melting with tools such as mastic have improved soil quality and water supply and have no negative impact on the forest ecosystem. Burning or removing plants and trees can release carbon dioxide into the atmosphere, which accelerates the effects of climate change, reducing the risk of severe wildfires and helping the entire forest to maintain long-term carbon storage.
But implementing these techniques on 33 million acres[33 million ha]of California’s forests is a daunting task. Ordered combustion requires a great deal of knowledge and is limited by weather conditions and air quality regulations. Meanwhile, deforestation of mechanical trees is costly and does not generate any income for landowners other than collecting wood – although Berkeley researchers suggest that creating a market for small trees and other wood biomass will help offset carbon emissions.
“Fire was very common in this system, and it is no different from most forests in California. But, the more time you spend, the more you start to change. ” “That is why we need to bring together the philosophy of both the public and the private sector in order to move forward. Blodgett is 4,000 acres – this is fun, but it does not really meet the needs of the state. We always hope that our work will show people what is possible and that they will continue to do so.
Scott Stephen, a professor of forest science at Berkeley, hopes that his work on the blog will serve as a model for forest management in the rest of the state. (Photo by UC Regents by Evett Kilmartin)
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