I am Erika Zavaleta and this is Ecosystems of California.
And today, we're looking at the practice of forestry which is the management
of timberlands for the sustainable meeting of societal needs, values and desires.
In the California Ecosystems, in which forestry is practiced range really widely.
They include a variety of the mountain forest types in the Sierra Nevada.
They include the coast redwood forest and mixed evergreen forest of the coast.
And they also include certain kinds of oak woodlands.
But today we're visiting a highly productive kind of forest
in California that's a big part of its history of timbering and
that is the coast redwood forest type.
Forestry, as a practice,
I think it's often just sort of set aside as a threat to ecological systems.
And one of the things that we want to talk about today and
explore is the ways in which forestry has evolved
at least in the best of circumstances to be really compatible with a much
broader range of goals than just the economic extraction of wood products.
So, the visit we are making today to the San Vicente Redwoods in Santa Cruz County,
California is an opportunity to look at how forestry
pulls together meeting the need for an economic flow of revenues
with the demands of maintaining and improving wildlife habitat,
native biological diversity, watershed values, and
a host of other ecosystem functions and services that are also valued by society.
Logging and forestry have a long history in California and over time they've
taken place on only about 30% of the forested lands in California.
The other two thirds are protected in various ways as parks,
reserves, and lands that are set aside for other kinds of uses.
And of that 30% of California's forested lands that are harvested,
about 60% are federal lands managed by the national forest service.
And then the remaining 40% or
so are privately owned like the property that we're visiting today.
So we're in the San Vicente Redwoods in Santa Cruz County with Nadia Hamey who is
a forester responsible for managing this property.
Nadia, thanks for joining us today.
>> My pleasure.
>> Can you tell us a little bit more about this property that we are on today because
it is a very unique one from the perspective of forestry.
>> So, this property was owned by a cement company in Davenport for
at least the last 100 years.
And it was purchased in 2011 by a conservation partnership made up of
Peninsula Open Space Trust, Sempervirens Fund, Save the Redwoods League and
the Land Trust of Santa Cruz County.
And it's a pretty exciting, new kind of way to care for conservation land.
There is a conservation easement held by Save the Redwoods League that has
dedicated portions of this property and perpetuity to working forest,
as well as preservation reserve, and restoration reserve.
We're in the working forest part of the property now,
where we plan to implement sustainable timber harvesting on a rotation.
Which will, over time, increase the average tree size, and
accentuate our wildlife habitat and help turn our water course and
lake protection zones into more of a lake serial or old growth character over time.
While in a matrix of the majority of the working force,
being managed for sustainable wood production.
All of the revenue from the timber harvest will go back into the property to
do road maintenance.
There's about 70 miles of road on this property, some of which will need
resources to abandon, others will need resources to be maintained and upgraded
to be able to handle 100 years storms without causing erosion and sedimentation.
Particularly in proximity to our water courses.
Other portions of that revenue from the timber harvest will be used
to implement evasive species control.
And work with volunteers on that.
Also, cool projects that will improve the aquatic habitat on the property.
We are right now working on a large woody debris installation project
along San Vicente Creek to increase the habitat value for
salmonids, make more pool and high water refugia and
hopefully activate the floodplain in big storm events.
We're also currently in the preliminary stages of setting up to do
a prescribed burn along a portion of the shaded field break on this property.
So all the resources from the timber harvest go back into our really long
list of opportunities to improve the habitat quality on the land.
And at some point,
portions of this property will be opened to public access and so we'll be able
to showcase the various efforts that are being made in all of those regards.
>> I'm right above that tree you and Adam were at.
When you guys split, you can walk up here now.
>> Okay sounds good, we'll see you shortly.
