Webinar
Description: Through a case study from Washington, DC, participants will learn how to get feedback from historically underrepresented groups and tailor cooperative extension programs to people of different races, ages, and academic backgrounds.
Some people, such as minorities and those from under-educated and lower income backgrounds, are typically excluded from conversations surrounding the degradation and improvement of ecosystem structure, function, and services. In an effort to provide an opportunity for under-served populations to be heard, inform content creation in academic courses and in cooperative extension programs, and create experiential learning opportunities for students at our land-grant university, we developed a survey instrument to gather public perceptions and knowledge on natural resources and climate change. This survey was administered in-person by undergraduate students at the University of the District of Columbia and online in Washington, DC. We will share the lessons we learned about effectively reaching people and how demographics of stakeholders need to be considered. Understanding what people know and perceive is key to designing effective educational programs, engaging in collective conversations, and building effective partnerships that find solutions for environmental problems that benefit the community.
Presenters: USDA Northeast Climate Hub. Contact Jennifer Ryan, Science & Technology Training Library content manager, for more information.
Description: Severe wildfires threaten forests and communities of the northern Klamath Mountains. Historically these forests thrived with frequent, low-mixed severity fire. However, hotter, drier summers, a century of fire exclusion, and past destructive logging practices are increasing the likelihood of destructive fire. Insights from historical fire regimes and stand conditions have been integrated with contemporary evaluations of wildfire risk and habitat needs to inform the collaboratively derived Rogue Basin Cohesive Forest Restoration Strategy.
Presenter: Kerry Metlen, Forest Ecologist with The Nature Conservancy of Oregon
Description: Recent policies including the Cohesive Strategy and the 2012 NFMA planning rule emphasize restoration of landscape resilience as a way forward for living with fire on national forestlands. But what does resilience mean, what does it take to plan for resilient landscapes, and what other factors complicate the achievement of resilient landscape outcomes? In this webinar we will present the results of a Joint Fire Science Program-funded research project based on three research elements: 1) a content analysis of Environmental Impact Statements; 2) a survey of USFS staff that have been involved in interdisciplinary planning efforts; and 3) case studies of three national forests that have recently revised their forest plans. Collectively, these studies shed light on how resilience has been operationalized within the U.S. Forest Service, what obstacles to achieving resilience have been identified, and what solutions appear to hold promise for overcoming the complexities of managing for resilience.
Panel discussion on grazing for fire prevention with Tracy Schohr, UCCE Livestock and Natural Resources Advisor for Plumas, Sierra & Butte Counties.
Description: As COVID-19 cases and wildland fire activity increase across the country, wildland fire personnel are looking for ways to quickly identify cases and prevent the spread of the disease on the fireline. The Southwest Fire Consortium will be hosting a webinar sharing information about the current state of the science and lessons learned from the 2020 wildfire season.
Presenters: Kathleen Navarro and John Piacentino from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH); Alex Viktora, from the Wildland Fire Lessons Learned Center will provide a summary of the lessons learned from the 2020 wildland fire season; Jayson Coil from Sedona Fire will provide a view from the field after multiple fire assignments in the Southwest.
Description: This webinar features a rancher and land manager panel discussing drought on targeted grazing landscapes.
Panelists: Andrée Soares, President – Star Creek Land Stewards LLC (Los Banos) and member of RMAC; Brad Fowler, Owner – The Goat Works (Grass Valley); Nathan Medlar, Owner – NM Ranch Services (Auburn)
Questions? Please contact Dan Macon at dmacon@ucanr.edu
Description: The Western Governors’ Association and the U.S. Department of Agriculture, under a Shared Stewardship Memorandum of Understanding, have been collaborating on efforts to meaningfully address the large-scale infestation of invasive annual grasses on western forests and rangelands. The result of this effort is a new toolkit for land managers to address the spread of invasive annual grasses in the West, including species such as cheatgrass, medusahead, and ventanata.
The toolkit is comprised of three elements:
- A roadmap for invasive grass management in the West, with new best management practices for the identification and protection of relatively intact “core” areas;Case studies highlighting the application of these practices in Idaho and Wyoming; and
- A new geospatial data layer to help state and local officials manage invasive annual grasses at home, while also offering opportunities to identify new cross-boundary collaborative projects.
Presenters: Lindy Garner, Sagebrush Ecosystem Invasive Species Coordinator, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service; Jeremy Maestas, Ecologist/National Sagebrush Ecosystem Specialist, USDA Natural Resources Conservation Service; Brian A. Mealor, Director and Associate Professor, University of Wyoming Sheridan Research and Extension Center; Brian A. Rutledge, Director, Sagebrush Ecosystem Initiative, The National Audubon Society
The first session in a series of seven on Shared Stewardship, Vicki Christensen, Chief of the USDA Forest Service; Jay Farrell, Executive Director of the National Association of State Foresters; Vernon Stearns Jr., President of the Intertribal Timber Council; Karen Hardigg, Executive Director of the Rural Voices for Conservation Coalition; and Mary Mitsos, President and CEO of the National Forest Foundation answered the questions, “If you were to look back five years from now, what would you be most proud of in terms of what has been achieved through Shared Stewardship?” and, “Where are cultural shifts needed to make those desired outcomes a reality?”. Speakers addressed a series of audience questions before the session concluded.
Description: Post-fire seeding has been widely implemented in the Great Basin in response to the threat of resource degradation and weed invasion following fire disturbance. The longstanding practice of seeding non-native forage grasses has worked well for some purposes, but seeding native species is a more sensible choice if natural vegetation recovery is a long-term objective. Seeding natives raises questions of cost, establishment ability and whether native species will be as effective as non-natives in outcompeting invasive annuals. We consider these issues in the context of a study where outcomes of native and non-native seed mixes were compared during an 18-year timeframe following wildfire. Successional trajectories of seeded treatments were compared with unseeded controls and late-successional reference communities to assess restoration potential of treatment options.
Presenters: Francis Kilkenny, Research Biologist, USDA Forest Service and Jeff Ott, Research Biologist, USDA Forest Service.
Webinar recording.
Description: Range of Variability (ROV) concepts – including Natural (NRV), Historic (HRV), Current (CRV), and Future (FRV) – are frequently used by the US Forest Service to help define land management goals. This webinar provides an introduction to ROV terminology and examples of how the Malheur, Umatilla, and Wallowa-Whitman National Forests in the Blue Mountains have applied ROV concepts during project planning when addressing key requirements of the Eastside Screens. The discussion includes overviews of tools commonly used to conduct ROV analyses.
Presenter: Nathan Poage, Forest Service Ecologist,