Outline Understanding interface landowners Opportunities realized through interface forest...

Outline• Understanding interface landowners• Opportunities realized through interface forest

management Income (timber, tourism, herbs, edibles,

decorations, marketing) Reduced fire risk Amenities (scenery, trails, cool shade, privacy) Health Wildlife

• Vegetation management of interface forests Small scale systems Planning, safety, and costing Visible stewardship Cooperatives

Categories of ownership

Family forest ownership

31%

0.2%

0.4%

0.1%

5.6%

6.7%

56.1%

1-9 Acres

10-49 Acres

50-99 Acres

100-499 Acres

500-999 Acres

1000-4999 Acres

5000+ Acres

6%21%

15%34%

9%

11% 4%1-9 Acres

10-49 Acres

50-99 Acres

100-499 Acres

500-999 Acres

1000-4999 Acres

5000+ Acres

Fragmentation of forests

• Majority of forested land is in large tracts (greater than 100 acres)

• More than 50 million forested acres (23%) are divided into parcels less than 100 acres

• About 90% of owners will seek assistance on how to manage their small forested lands

Types of forest owners

• Timber managers Investments and best management

practices• Resident conservationists

Preserving natural beauty, wildlife and natural values

• Affluent weekenders Second homes on land

• Low-income rural residents Inherited the land

Characteristics of interface regions

• Tourist destination

• Retirement destination

• Resource production

• Trade and professional centers

• Counterculture opportunities

Categories of ownership

• New owners fall into six markets according to forest ownership needs and abilities: Absentee investors (4%) Career professional (13%) Wildlife preservationists (16%) New pioneer farmers (21%) Planners (21%) Young families (19%)

Management actions

• Strive to be economically feasible and ecologically sustainable

• Increased concerns about fire, invasive species, and trespassing

• Fewer verbal agreements

• Increased specific site restoration requirements

Embracing land management

• New owners are not adverse to management

• They are more concerned about protecting amenities and ecological qualities than maximizing profit

" I would be willing to accept less money from a timber sale if the logging actions

protected other forest qualities."

49%

35%

16%Agree

Neutral

Disagree

Willingness to cut trees for…

0%10%20%30%40%50%60%70%80%90%

100%

Timber $ Health Scenic

Probably will not do

Might do

Already do

Willingness to…

0%

10%

20%

30%

40%

50%

60%

70%

80%

90%

100%

Test Soil Inspect Land Write Plan UseHerbicide

Plant forPrivacy

Probably not

Might do

Already do

Residential migration

• New development increases pressure on amenities

• Newcomers’ concerns about management practices

Dangerous Offensive odors Traffic Competes with additional housing

development and retail stores

Professionals can help because …

• Most landowners are not opposed to managing their land

• Many landowners do not know possible management options the amount of funds required for

management the benefits of management

Professionals can address issues through various methods

Landowners feelings towards professional foresters

%Agree

%Neutral

%Disagree

Are a trusted source of knowledge about how to manage the trees on my land

54 38 8

Are more interested in making money than in the ecological health of my land

31 46 23

Are more interested in cutting timber than in the ecological health of my land

30 45 25

I don’t know anything about professional foresters

40 36 24

I would be willing to harvest a few trees and saw them up for lumber using a small, portable sawmill

42 25 33

I would be willing to accept less money from a timber sale if the logging actions protected other forest qualities

49 35 16

Trusting foresters

Cutting Timber

30%

45%

25%Agree

Neutral

Disagree

Making Money

31%

46%

23% Agree

Neutral

Disagree

Foresters are more interested in ____ than the health of my forest.

Addressing challenges

• Try new methods of reaching landowners

• Work to develop trust

• Find tools to produce amenity and ecological quality

• Work with landowners to develop a formal management plan

Opportunities realized through interface forest management

Alternative forest products

• Decorative

• Herbal

• Medicinal

• Edible

• Enhance property value

Challenge of interface 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

Fuel reduction methods

• Mechanical thinning

• Herbicides

• Prescribed burning

• Animal grazing

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

Picnic, park, and camp• Soil compaction kills

older, sensitive trees Use young, deep

rooted trees• Parking lots should

drain away from water source

have a swale to hold water and allow pollutants to settle.

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

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

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 What are the likely effects of expanding human populations, urbanization, and human populations, urbanization, and

infrastructure on wildlife and their infrastructure on wildlife and their habitats?”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

• Three main factors• Exclusion• Habitat modification• Repellents• Toxic baits and pesticides• Glue boards and traps• Scare tactics

Attracting wildlife

• 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

Effects of urbanization on the water cycle

• Forests intercept precipitation.

• Approximately two-thirds of incoming precipitation is released back into the atmosphere in contiguous forests.

• Remaining water recharges the groundwater and contributes to streams.

• Forest clearing generates more storm-water runoff and reduces the amount of water that soaks into the ground.

• Storm water carries pollutants.

Storm-water management

• Best management practices (BMPs) Detention ponds

• Low impact development (LID) practices Treat water where it falls Vegetated rooftops New methods to convey water

• Implementation obstacles Steep slopes Impacted soils Shallow water

Practicing visible stewardship

• 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

Mechanical vegetative management

• Generate income, amenity, forest health, and recreation opportunities Not just “harvesting timber”

• Issues and Tradeoffs Social acceptability Environmental impact Economic viability Operator safety

Small scale harvesting systems

• Lower capital investment costs• Horse logging• Small agriculture tractor• Small excavators/skid-steers• Small cable-yarding system• All terrain vehicles (ATVs)• Cut–to-length

Equipment

Cut-to-length

• Two person, two machine system

• Low-impact harvesting Distributed weight

Reduced soil compaction

Costs and Benefits Comparisons

• Wet weather sensitivity • Slope tolerance • Extraction distance• Tree size • Log length• Moving cost • Road • Log weight

Costing an operation

• A challenge to find a harvester• Harvest contracts

Transfer of ownership to contractor Encourage high production Pay a rate per ton Encourage high grading

• Hourly rate

Safety

• Small crews and equipment• Few safety options exist in the South• Follow OSHA requirements

Wear personal protective equipment Keep first-aid kit on site Create a safety plan

• Workers compensation insurance

Forest cooperatives• Participate voluntarily• Protect ecological systems• Share information, equipment, and labor

coordination of management across boundaries

• Protect privacy buffers• Create wildlife corridors for migration and

cover• Share access roads • Develop formal business arrangement

Convincing landowners’ to join

• Temptation

• Time

• Trust

• Role of the professional

Benefits of forest cooperatives

• Trusted knowledge• Increased property

access• Coordinated forest

health• Shared work activities• Profit• Value added• Political clout• Community

development

Summary

In the WUI natural resource professionals may find that implementing management goals can only be done with good communication skills and policy initiatives. It may be difficult to separate these elements because in practice they are used concurrently.

Credits

Photos• Slide 11: USDA Forest Service - Rocky

Mountain Region Archives, USDA Forest Service, www.forestryimages.org

• Slide 19, 26, 28, 34, 27, 44, 46: Larry Korhnak

• Slide 35: James Solomon, USDA Forest Service, www.forestryimages.org

• Slide 36: Ronald F. Billings, Texas Forest Service, www.forestryimages.org

Credits

Photos

• Slide 51: A. courtesy of Virginia Tech, B. John D. Hodges, Mississippi State University, www.forestryimages.org, C. http://www.cppa.org/album/cableyarding.jpg, D. courtesy of Virginia Tech

• Slide 52: http://www.ncrs.fs.fed.us/4101/focus/mgt_approaches/ecological/svor/

• Slides 57, 58: Courtesy of the Blue Ridge Forest Landowner Cooperative

• All other photos courtesy of Virginia Tech

CreditsReferences

• Slide 4, 5: Butler, B. and E. Leatherberry. 2004. USDA Forest Service National Woodland Owners Survey. Newtown Square PA: USDA, Forest Service, National Woodland Owner Survey.

• Slide 7: Klunder, R. A. and T. L. Walkingstick. 2000. “Rethinking How Nonindustrial Landowners View Their Lands.” Southern Journal of Applied Forestry 24(3): 150-158.

• Slide 9, 12, 13, 14: Kendra, A. and R. B. Hull. 2005. “Motivations and Behaviors of New Forest Owners in Virginia.” Forest Science 51(2): 142-154.

Credits

References• Slide 17, 18: Hull, R. B.; D. P. Robertson; and G. J.

Buhyoff. 2004. “Boutique Forestry: New Forest Practices in Urbanizing Landscapes.” Journal of Forestry 102 (1): 14-19.

• Slide 42: Hostetler, M. E.; G. Klowden; S. W. Miller; and K. N. Youngentob. 2003. Landscaping Backyards for Wildlife: Top Ten Tips for Success (Circular 1429).