National Association of Conservation Districts

Forestry Notes

June 2010
Volume XIX, Issue 7
| PDF version | Archive of Previous Issues |

1. The Urban Answer
2. California RCD Examines Value of Native Seed Use
3. States Forced to Fight Fire with Fewer Dollars
4. WFLC Updates Wildfire Cost Study
5. Forestry Briefs

1. The Urban Answer
With help from the governor, South Dakota's districts add a little green to communities

For years, Angela Ehlers had been in communication with the governor’s office, petitioning for increased conservation funding throughout the state and offering ideas for how good work could be done.

Then, in June 2008, the executive director for the South Dakota Association of Conservation Districts received word that Governor Mike Rounds had $100,000 for tree planting -- could she help? Without hesitation Ehlers dove nose first into drafting a proposal, relying on the help of Rounds’ office and conservation district leaders throughout her state.

The governor selected four of the five demonstration projects pitched in the proposal. The work would need to be completed by the following June. “It was tight, but we made the deadline with two weeks to spare,” laughs Ehlers.

To help secure the grant, Ehlers needed the recommendation of South Dakota State Forester Ray Sowers, who was well familiar with the work districts had done around the state.

 “We thought it’d be an ideal fit,” says Sowers. “Our districts are some of the largest tree planting organizations in the state. I immediately asked Angela if she had some sites in mind.”

Says Ehlers, “We tried to highlight non-traditional tree planting projects, not just your standard windbreaks on the farm.” Three of the four focused around urban forestry needs; the other was designed to showcase the benefit of using trees through CREP.

A brief summary of each of the four demonstration projects:

• A tree bank for boulevard trees was established in Brookings County with the help of the Brookings Conservation District, City of Brookings, Brookings County, South Dakota State University, and three small communities within the county. Says Ehlers, “(North Dakota and South Dakota) have a large percentage of green ash trees and we were concerned of what the impact emerald ash borer could have on those small communities. This was a demonstration project for what could be done to prepare for when we’re going to have to remove those trees, or other trees that get old and need replacing.” The city and county put up land near the local airport, the university provided student assistants to take care of the site and check the survival rates, and the communities provided labor for the plantings. Brookings Conservation District provided technical expertise to select the right species and to make sure the trees were planted in the corrected areas. “It makes a great opportunity to demonstrate to the communities what can be done when you work together to plan for the future,” she adds.
  
  
• The northeast portion of South Dakota can draw some powerful straight-line winds, some upwards of 100 miles per hour. Not long ago, three communities with a combined population of 3,000 people lost more than 3,000 trees. This demonstration project targeted the communities within the Day County Conservation District, where the District put on workshops to teach homeowners how to handle the damaged trees – helping to identify which trees could be saved and how to dispose of the unsalvageable trees. Later, foresters were invited to show homeowners how to plant and take care of the new trees. According to Ehlers the project used a 50 percent cost-share to replant 3,000 landscape-sized trees.
  
  
• Another project focused on the values of green energy in the Town of Howard in Miner County. The Miner County Conservation District worked with the economic development center, the county and the town to plant a green belt around part of the community to block the sanitary sewer lagoon and control the smell. The green belt also helped to control snow drifting and provide shelter for the area nursing home, where residents will now be able to observe birds instead of the lagoon. The alternative school in Howard conducted energy conservation studies with students who learned all the advantages trees can provide in terms of energy efficiency.
  
  
• The final project demonstrated the advantages trees have in the Conservation Reserve Enhancement Program (CREP). Conservation contributors to this project were later delighted to learn that the same farmstead they were working on had been one of the first Civilian Conservation Corps demonstration projects in South Dakota in the 1930s.

In each case, the representative district was responsible for managing the project and the match required to complete it. At the end of it all, everyone felt good about the work that had been accomplished.

Says Sowers, “Tree planting is a good practice. It’s overlooked because (people don’t understand) the value trees bring to the community. They green-up the community and make it a healthier place to live.”

After the four demonstration projects had been completed, the Governor visited all of the sites for a press briefing.

Says Ehlers, “We were thrilled by how, when the districts were given a challenge … they stepped up to the plate.”

Ehlers also spoke of how adaptive the districts were in making things work; even when heavy snow prevented the Governor’s plane from reaching one of the scheduled briefings.  “No problem,” says Ehlers. “Everyone went home, we came back three days later and they had just as big of a crowd, if not bigger.”

Ehlers offers a bit of encouragement to districts in others states leery about approaching government for funding.

 “Conservation districts do good things, and we need to remember that,” she says. “People in government want to accomplish good things. If you can show the benefits and the partners, government will listen. But you have to be persistent, and you have to help them understand what you’re about and why it’s important.”

For more information, contact Angela Ehlers, executive director for the South Dakota Association of Conservation Districts at (605) 895-4099 or by emailing her at sdacd.mail@sdconservation.org.

2. California RCD Examines Value of Native Seed Use
Thanks to the work of one district employee and the data she and her partners have collected, conservation leaders may be able to protect and better restore California’s forests.

As the plant restoration ecologist for Riverside-Corona Resource Conservation District, Arlee Montalvo has spent the past two years collecting data on native shrubs, annuals and perennials that may be used in restoration efforts in southern California. Beginning this spring, Montalvo will transition into the second phase of the project, taking that knowledge and applying it to alluvial scrub habitat.

Montalvo first started studying the benefits of native seeding in restoration in 1993 as a post-doctorate fellow with the Pacific Southwest Research Station. While there she examined things such as the potential differences among populations in how well they survived and reproduced after being used in restoration or rehabilitation, and how well the hybrids survived in mixed populations.

There were many seed transfer guidelines for trees, she says, but not much work had been done for non-tree species, especially in southern California. The biggest question was where could practitioners acquire native seed, and whether it was the best fit for the natural habitat?

Says Montalvo, “Often I found decisions were made based on availability; they used what they could get quickly to get the work done.”

A big mistake, she says. “From place to place they’re genetically different, the rainfall patterns are different, the number of degree growing days are different … it’s just like a crop plant, you use different strains in different parts of the country depending on environment.”

Wanting to shift her work from research to outreach and practice, Montalvo accepted a post at the Riverside-Corona Resource Conservation District in 2004. There she remained focused on the same fundamental obstacle, that southern California populations of native seeds were often not readily available to practitioners.

“Most of the seeds (of some important species and most native plant material releases) were coming from Northern California, Utah, the Central Valley,” she says, “… places where environments are so different from ours.”

In 2008, Montalvo secured $43,500 of U.S. Forest Service Plant Material Program funding in collaboration with Jan Beyers of the Pacific Southwest Research Station to begin assembling research on native seeds that could be used by local practitioners for reseeding efforts, including those for wildfire restoration.

The two-year project began with a workshop where leaders from a number of agencies, including the Forest Service, Bureau of Land Management, the California Department of Fish & Game, and restoration practitioners brainstormed on the species that could be developed as seed sources for the region.   

After a final list had been formed, Montalvo did extensive literature searches on each species.

Says Montalvo, “I tried to get everything I could find about their ecological amplitude, how well they do in different environments, is there a lot of differentiation among populations of the species, what are the total distributions, what we know about how the seeds germinate, how long they survive in storage, and if they’ve been farmed before.”

With that data she is building a section on Riverside-Corona’s website where southern California practitioners can learn about each plant type, with links to and from the U.S. Forest Service’s Celebrating Wildflowers site for additional information. The section is expected to go live online by the end of this summer.

“People can look at this information so they don’t have to recreate the wheel every time they want to use (a native species),” she says.

In April, Montalvo began the second phase of the project, applying the data to the landscape. Using the San Bernardino and Cleveland National Forests as test sites, with land stretching between the Inland Empire and Riverside-Corona Resource Conservation Districts, Montalvo assembled a group of collaborators that includes both districts, the Forest Service, the California Native Plant Society, the San Bernardino Valley Water Conservation District, and a local farmer to study alluvial scrub types often affected by forest fire, flooding, and construction.  Based on data, the team will prepare plant lists for planting projects in different types of alluvial scrub and determine if there are species that need to be farmed to make seeds available.  A small farming project will be done to increase seeds of one or two species that are difficult to obtain through wildland collections.

In June the group will finish collecting samples from the Forest.

“We’re gathering the information that will help guide how we use seeds – what species and where the seeds come from,” says Montalvo.

Right now, many practitioners use seed that comes from a general list offered by consulting companies that assist after a fire or construction.

“It’s not good to use a boiler plate plant list, one should be paying attention to the particular area,” says Montalvo. “You don’t want to mix apples and oranges or create a sort of Disneyland if you’re trying to recreate natural habitat.”

For more information about the seeding research and demonstration project, contact Arlee Montalvo, Riverside-Corona Resource Conservation District plant restoration ecologist, at 951/683-7691 ext. 218, or by emailing her at montalvo@rcrcd.com.

3. States Forced to Fight Fire with Fewer Dollars
Smaller budgets in South Carolina and Alabama cause leaders to show concern

Though southeastern wildfires may not be as fierce or as well-documented as those in western states, they nonetheless must be dealt with each fire season.

South Carolina residents have not forgotten how the 2009 Horry County fire consumed 76 homes and damaged almost 100 others along its path of destruction. State fire experts predict more fires and more danger; new construction is being developed near at-risk areas each year, bringing human lives, buildings and property ever closer to wildland.

But should South Carolina face multiple fire threats, or an intense fire season, it may not have the funds to defend against those fires. State officials acknowledge that South Carolina will probably have less than $10 million in its firefighting budget this year, a little more than half of the $18 million South Carolina firefighters had to work with for the 2008 fire season.

“Our firefighting force is stretched thinner,” South Carolina Forestry Commission Senior Staff Forester Mike Bozzo told reporters in May.  “We’ve not been able to replace equipment in the last several years … we’re not anxious to put older equipment in front of a full raging fire and put our fire fighters in danger.”

Timber is South Carolina’s number one manufacturing industry, and officials believe the budget cuts may give outsiders the impression the state is not committed to protecting that industry.

The cuts have been blamed on the state’s need to tighten wherever it can in the rough economic climate, leaving South Carolina with little alternative but to turn to neighboring states for help should South Carolina suffer a harsh fire season.

Alabama is experiencing similar budgetary problems. The Alabama Forestry Commission (AFC) must trim its staff by one-third come October, due in large part to the Commission having to work with $5 million less in its next budget.

Said Alabama State Forester Linda Casey, “We don’t want to alarm people; however, a reduced number of firefighters will result in increased size and severity of wildfires, making suppression more difficult, as well as magnifying safety and fatigue issues for AFC firefighters. As fewer firefighters are required to cover a larger territory, response time will increase. This decrease in protection may particularly affect the homes and personal property of citizens living in rural areas, as well as the Wildland Urban Interface . . . the area where communities meet the forestland.”

Casey pointed to the 2007 Waycross-Okefenokee Fire (Florida and Georgia) as an example for how a dry summer can turn catastrophic. Suppression efforts for that fire cost $44.1 million, with an estimated timber loss of more than $65 million. It burned more than a half-million acres.

4. WFLC Updates Wildfire Cost Study
The Western Forestry Leadership Coalition has released an update to its report, “The True Cost of Wildfire in the Western U.S.” The report effectively illustrates the many costs associated with wildfire, not just the direct costs of fire suppression and estimated damage, but also indirect costs such as lost tax revenues and future costs such as the ongoing health problems of those impacted closely by the fire.

The report focuses on six fires that occurred between 2000-2003: the Cannon Ferry Complex Fire (Montana), Cerro Grande (New Mexico), Hayman (Colorado), Missionary Ridge (Colorado), Rodeo-Chedeski (Arizona) and Old, Grand Prix and Padua (California). For each case study, the report summarizes the fire and breaks down the expense for the following categories: suppression costs, other direct costs, rehabilitation costs, indirect costs and additional costs.

The case study data provided shows a total cost of between two and 30 times the reported suppression cost of each of the six fires profiled.

In its conclusion, the report observes that from 2000 to 2008, suppression funding jumped from 25 to 44 percent of the U.S. Forest Service’s annual budget, leaving fewer dollars for under-funded programs whose goal is to contribute to wildfire prevention and protection. The report also offers six recommendations, including the full funding of the FLAME Act, the need to invest in forest management practices, and additional funding for research.

To view the 18-page report, visit http://www.wflccenter.org/news_pdf/324_pdf.pdf.

5. Forestry Briefs

Idaho study highlights the value of urban trees
A study that examined a 118-mile area in Idaho’s Kootenai County offers evidence for how trees in urban settings make a positive contribution. The study also identifies suitable planting sites for new trees in the cities of Coeur d' Alene, Hayden, Rathdrum and Post Falls. A few highlights from the study’s findings: achieving the goal of planting 76,000 trees in the county could amount to an energy savings of $98 million over the next 40 years; the existing trees in the county filter 125,000 tons of pollutants each year, offering an annual savings of $3 million. The $248,000 study was paid for by the U.S. Forest Service. To learn more about the study, read the following article published by the Spokesman-Review: http://www.wflccenter.org/news_pdf/360_pdf.pdf.

HFRP receives funding for nine states
The Healthy Forest Restoration Program (HFRP) was one of three USDA programs to receive additional conservation assistance. A total of nine states will receive more than $4 million in assistance for HFRP: California, Indiana, Kentucky, Maine, Michigan, Ohio, Oklahoma, Oregon and Pennsylvania. Administered by NRCS, HFRP encourages landowners to restore, enhance and protect forestland resources on private land through easements and cost share agreements as well as working with landowners to provide valuable habitat for the protection of endangered species. Funds are being allocated based on requests for program funding from the states. These requests take into account the number of applicable acres for each program and the interest the states’ landowners have in program participation. For more information, visit NRCS online at http://www.nrcs.usda.gov/programs