Proceedings of the Coast Redwood Forests in a Changing California: A Symposium for Scientists and Managers

USFS

The Coast Redwood Forests in a Changing California Science Symposium was held June 21-23, 2011, at UC Santa Cruz. Participants included graduate-level students, university forestry faculty, land managers, conservation groups, public agencies, and land trust members. 75 oral presentations showcased over 2 days, Ecology (15); Silviculture and Restoration (11); Watershed and Physical Processes (22); Wildlife, Fisheries, Aquatic Ecology (10); Forest Health (10); Economics and Policy (6 ); Monitoring (7). In addition, almost 40 posters were displayed. The first day of the symposium consisted of two simultaneous field tours, one to the North County and one to the South County. The North County tour focused on active redwood timber management on corporate ownerships operating under the unique policies that dictate decisionmaking on the central coast, and Cal-Poly’s forest management and research at its Swanton Pacific Ranch. It also included a brief tour of the Big Creek Lumber Company sawmill and a visit to areas burned in the more than 7,000-acre Lockheed Fire of 2009. The South County tour traversed the range of redwood forest conditions from the old growth of Henry Cowell State Park and the uncut 120 year old young growth of Nisene Marks State Park to uneven-aged young-growth stands established by individual tree selection harvesting on nonindustrial forest lands. Opening remarks started the second day of the symposium and began the academic concurrent sessions. Local historian Sandy Lydon spoke about the special history of the redwoods in the region, giving a brief synopsis of the settlement of the area. Steve Sillett, Humboldt State University forestry professor, described his discoveries in the redwood forest canopy ecosystems, as well as his findings on tree growth from dendrochronology measurements. Ruskin Hartley, Executive Director and Secretary of Save the Redwoods League, called on the audience to set “audacious goals and collaborative actions.” He maintained that nature does not develop boundaries and that in moving forward, we should focus on a shared set of goals and that public and private land should progress simultaneously. Concluding the session, Ron Jarvis, Home Depot’s VP of sustainability talked candidly about the role of environmental sustainability practices and policies as part of the home improvement retailer’s business model. He noted that when he began in the sustainability department, he undertook a 2-year long project to understand where every sliver of wood from over 9,000 products originated to ensure sustainable wood practices. The symposium concluded with closing remarks about the future of research in the redwood region from John Helms, UC Berkeley and Mike Liquori, Sound watershed. In addition, a panel including Dan Porter, the Nature Conservancy, Lowell Diller, Green Diamond, and Kevin O’Hara, UC Berkeley discussed the interface of research, management, and conservation. The overall discussion led to the conclusion that academic research and applied research should be made available to the field as a whole as findings progress and that more opportunities for networking and interactions should be made available to the forestry community.

Proceedings of the Coast Redwood Forests in a Changing California: A Symposium for Scientists and Managers

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