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Presentation 2.2: Opportunities Realized Through Interface Forest Management. Outline. Introduction Interface management products Variety of products besides timber Timber can pay for further management of the land Challenges to multi-managing the land Summary. Introduction.
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Presentation 2.2:Opportunities Realized Through Interface Forest Management
Outline • Introduction • Interface management products • Variety of products besides timber • Timber can pay for further management of the land • Challenges to multi-managing the land • Summary
Introduction • Avoid “timber” versus “nontimber” • Income generation is just one of many opportunities available on interface forests • Timber harvesting is compatible with many other forest products and can help pay for management needed to provide these products
Multiple objectives • Variety of reasons to manage the land: • Income generation • Fire risk reduction • Amenity resources • Forest health • Wildlife • Water management
Alternative forest products • Decorative • Herbal • Medicinal • Edible • Enhance property value
Business venture Marketing nontimber forest products website http://www.sfp.forprod.vt.edu/special_fp.htm Poaching Nontimber forest industry
Timber and pulp income • Longer rotation ages • Processed timber • Forest certification • Christmas trees • Biomass
Property value • Universal technique used to value tree • Increase or decrease based on the trees Aggregating across the South, the total compensation value for residential trees approaches one trillion dollars.
Conversion harvests • Increased amenity values on residential property • Facilitate silvicultural management • Aesthetic trees increase property value
Tourism income • Hunting leases • ATV trails • Wildlife viewing areas • Eco-tourism • Bed and breakfast lodging • Hiking • Retreats
Liability and Marketing • Liability is an issue if people are invited on property • Avoid negligence • Obtain liability insurance • Successful business requires planning • Understand customer • Understand competition • Develop marketing plan
Exercise 2.5 Discussion Questions • What resources and information should your agency provide to encourage successful ventures? • What perceptions and constraints are barriers to landowners launching these enterprises? • Marketing and liability concerns are important to any successful business. Do you have examples of landowners that have successfully addressed these concerns?
Challenge of managing WUI fire • Common in southern ecosystems • South has most fire starts and acres burned • Objections to interface fire include • concerns about forest aesthetics and forest health • concerns about safety of structures • access and responsibility • negative impacts of smoke on human health and driving safety
Firewise solutions • Firewise communities • Large fire breaks (golf courses, farms) • Firewise structures • Nonflammable material, gutters, windows, driveways • Firewise landscaping around structures • Lean, clean, green
Firewise plant characteristics • High moisture content • Broad and thick leaves • Low chemical content • Open and loose branching patterns • Deciduousness • Low amounts of dead materials
Plants to avoid in defensible space • Saw palmetto • accumulate dead leaves (fronds) • Juniper • resins in leaves and branches • Mountain laurel • dense leaves and branches close to ground
Fuel reduction • Mechanical thinning • Herbicides • Prescribed burning • Animal grazing
Case Study 11:Life on the Edge: Interface Issues in Bastrop, Texas
Amenity resources • Scenery • Trails • Privacy • Shade Typically the MOST important product of interface forests
Scenery sells • Park-like stands with large trees and low ground cover • Low or no downed wood, trash, waste • Open vistas and meadows • Thinning creates depth of view, larger trees • Ephemeral features
Naturalness • Value natural appearances • Minimize human intervention • Careful design
Picnic, park, and camp • Soil compaction kills older, sensitive trees • Use young, deep rooted trees • Parking lots • should drain away from water source • or have a swale to hold water and allow pollutants to settle
Trail creation • Add loops • Create diversity • One-way traffic • Single entry point • Interconnected • Plan skid and logging roads to become trails • Consider use conflicts
Trail building considerations • Soils • Trail size • Trail grade • Trail alignment • Streams, lakes and trails
Privacy and Shade • Vegetation visual buffers • Vegetation performs poorly as an acoustic buffers • Shade can significantly reduce • temperature (10-15 degrees) • cooling costs (10-80%) • Shade can direct/block cooling breezes
Regional amenity • Visual character of a region • Transformation of lands • Visitor perceptions • Recreational activities
Practicing visiblestewardship • Public perception • Visual screening • Cues-to-care • Forest management • Environmental impacts • Terminology
Cues-to-care • Waste and damage • Neatness • Schedule and duration • Planning and safety • Communication • Re-vegetation • Appearances • Community commitment
Screen/hide management • Add visual buffers • Keep aesthetics in mind • Limit downed wood • May create negative perceptions • Communicate with the public
Exercise 2.7: Discussion Questions • Which suggested aesthetic timber harvesting techniques are most feasible? Why? • Which techniques are least feasible? Why? • Which techniques are least costly? Why? • In addition to laying out skid trails and logging roads with a future trail system in mind, what other work is needed to finish a trail system? • What other techniques exist to increase scenery and trails in the wildland-urban interface?
Forest health • Historically narrow in scope • Expansion of definition • Influenced by people • Investment • Environmental safety • Personal opinion and values • Experience is the key
Site management • Construction damage • Roots and stems • Toxic chemicals • Tree-friendliness • Species selection • Nursery personnel
Insects and diseases • Bark beetle and wood borers • Defoliating insects • Sap-feeding insects • Girdling insects • Canker diseases • Tree decline • Leaf diseases
Abiotic factors and invasives • Abiotic factors • Lightning strikes • Drought • Flooding • Invasive plants • Kudzu • Invasive animals • Coyote • Armadillo • Nuisance animals
Case Study 1:The Challenge of Controversial Resource Issues: Southern Pine Beetle
Wildlife • Approximately 87 million people participate in wildlife-associated activities each year • Approximately $108 billion is spent on these activities per year • Managing for wildlife is a challenge due to • forest fragmentation • development • landowners opinion about wildlife
Effects of human expansion “What are the likely effects of expanding human populations, urbanization, and infrastructure on wildlife and their habitats?” • Non-native species threaten the survival of some sensitive wildlife species. • Urban and agricultural land uses have created forest islands. • Disturbed areas facilitate the spread of non-native species.
Human-wildlife conflicts • Vectors for disease • Lyme disease • West Nile virus • Car accidents • Property damage • Control strategies • Species diversity
Managing nuisance wildlife • Human-wildlife conflicts • Exclusion • Habitat modification • Repellents • Toxic baits and pesticides • Glue boards and traps • Scare tactics
Limit amount of lawn Increase vertical layering Leave snags and brush piles Provide water source Plant native vegetation Put up feeders and houses Remove invasive exotics Manage household pets Reduce pesticide use Expand scale of habitat Attracting wildlife
Effects of urbanization on the water cycle • Forests intercept precipitation. • Approximately 2/3 of incoming precipitation is released back into the atmosphere. • Remaining water recharges the groundwater and contributes to streams. • Forest clearing generates more storm-water runoff, reduces amount of water that soaks into the ground.
Strategies to minimize threats • Watershed management plan • Forest protection • Land acquisition • Conservation easements • Reduction of impervious cover • Minimize paved surfaces • Clustering development