Forest Stewardship
On January 11, 2019, the Office of Recovery & Resiliency convened a day-long event at the Laguna de Santa Rosa Foundation to kick off a campaign to increase the pace, scale and effectiveness of management on public and private forest lands to reduce wildfire hazards, benefit life safety and ecosystem services, and improve landscape resiliency.
- Approximately 70 people with wide-ranging affiliations participated in the event.
This was a key step in creating a “network of networks” that will pursue aligned and connected efforts at the local, regional and state scales. The event included several speakers invited to raise awareness about current and pending government policies, initiatives, regulations, programs and funding. Terry O’Brien, a co-chair of the Governor’s Forest Management Task Force (FMTF), and Gabriel Schultz, co-chair of the FMTF’s Northern Region Prioritization Group provided opening comments that outlined the statewide needs and actions underway.
Morning Presentations
The morning’s presentation materials are available at the following links:
- Forest Summit Overview (PDF:1.06 MB)
Virginia Mahacek Natural Resources/Watershed Recovery Coordinator, Sonoma County Office of Recovery & Resiliency - Cal Fire Veg Management Program (PDF:554 kB)
Ben Nicholls Sonoma-Lake-Napa Unit, CAL FIRE - Cal Fire Forestry Assistance Program 1 (PDF:45.9 kB)
Cal Fire Forestry Assistance Program 2 (PDF:2.00 MB)
Stewart McMorrow Deputy Chief of Forestry Assistance, CAL FIRE and Meghan Reeves Forestry Assistance Specialist,CAL FIRE - Structural Hardening, Defensible Space, Ordinances (PDF:13.08 MB)
James Williams Assistant Fire Chief/Fire Marshal, Sonoma County and Caerleon Safford Fire Inspector I, Sonoma County - Legislative Changes & Efforts (PDF:988 kB)
Eric Hedge Regulations Coordinator, CA Board of Forestry & Fire Protection - Organizational, Governance and Financing Options Analysis (PDF:399 kB)
Robert Ewing, EBalive and Bud Bigelow, EBalive
Speed Sharing
Several shorter-presentations were shared to describe ongoing efforts and ideas by landowners, local organizations, researchers, and investors. Links to the mini-presentations and videos are provided below:
- Living with Fire (Video)
Dee Swanhuyser, Sonoma County Forest Conservation Working Group - Thinning beyond fire (PDF:13.2 MB)
Fred Euphrat, PhD, RPF, Forest, Soil & Water, Inc. - Jenner Headlands Shaded Fuel Break (PDF:1.19 MB)
Brook Edwards Regional Director, The Wildlands Conservancy Sonoma Coast Preserves - FireSafe Sonoma Update (PDF:75.1 kB)
Roberta MacIntyre and Caerleon Safford - Good Fire Alliance (PDF:1.61 MB)
Stephanie Larson, PhD Director and Livestock Range Management Advisor, UCCE – Sonoma County and
Jared Childress Prescribed Fire Specialist Audubon Canyon Ranch - Stewardship Resources for Small Landowners (PDF:269 kB)
Michael Jones, PhD Forest Advisor UCCE - Mendocino, Lake and Sonoma Counties - Mark West Watershed Community Wildfire Protection Plan(No link included)
Penny Sirota, Friends of Mark West Watershed - Local RCD Activities (PDF:1.06 MB)
Valerie Minton Quinto Executive Director,Sonoma RCD - RCD State-Wide Project Tracker System (PDF:1.53 MB)
Brittany Jenson Executive Director, Gold Ridge RCD - Re-imagining Landscaping (PDF:1.27 MB)
Caitlin Cornwall Biologist & Research Program Manager, Sonoma Ecology Center - Biomass to energy conversion technologies (PDF:4.41 MB)
Brian Bauer CEO, Resynergi Inc. and
Roger Ruan, PhD University of Minnesota - Forest Resilience Bonds in California (video)
Phil Saksa Director of Research, Blue Forest Conservation
County staff helped facilitate discussion groups to receive input, and an online survey was circulated to collect information that will be reported up to the Northern Regional Prioritization Working Group of the FMTF.
Living with Fire
How the Forest Resilience Bond Works