The plan does not include associated cost estimates., Based on its ecological restoration implementation plan, USFS estimates that 9 million acres of national forest system lands in California would benefit from treatment. Additional efforts around protecting lives and property through home hardening and other measures must be vigorously pursued by government and stakeholders at all levels concurrently with the pursuit of the recommendations in this report. State Forest. Forests cover a third of California, but the state owns only 2 percent of that land. The multitude of state agencies and regulators involved with reviews and approval authority have significantly inhibited needed forest management health activities as identified in the report as follows: While the multiple state permits required to carry out many forest health activities (described in Figure 7 on page 12) are intended to protect against undue negative environmental impacts, these requirements are likely inhibiting some of the potential positive environmental effects that improved forest health could yield. This policy includes both naturally caused fires and intentionally prescribed fires. 2 years ago; News; 0:22; Recommended for you. It's not the first time Trump has blamed forest management for deadly wildfires. The 1,000 year long tree ring data record provided in the information above demonstrates that California has been subjected to extensive intervals of natural climate change driven cycles of droughts and precipitation events for centuries. Implementing several of these recommended actions is necessary to execute the priority fuel reduction projects referenced above. In one fell swoopdebates over attribution of 20th century warmingall go away. There are 33 million acres of forest(ed) lands in California. Its Past Time to Manage California Forests November 28, 2018. These include families, individuals, conservation and natural resource organizations, and Native American tribes. Specifically, in 1991, there were 54 woody biomass processing facilities across the state, with the capacity to produce around 760 megawatts of electricity. WHY FORESTS MATTER Forests Provide Critical Statewide Benefits. Forests, including the redwoods, need periodic fires to create new life. Who manages California's forests? Roughly 40% of the 33 million acres of forest in California are owned by private landowners, and 99% own less than 500 acres. For example, trees in dense stands become more vulnerable to diseaseincluding infestations of pests such as bark beetlesand less able to endure water shortages from drought conditions. In terms of duration, these past megadroughts dwarf the famous droughts of the 20th century, such as the Dust Bowl drought of the 1930s, the southern Great Plains drought of the 1950s, and the current one in the West that began in 1999 and still lingers on as of this writing in 2005.. As of September 30, 2014, the Forest Service manages a total of 192,922,127 acres (780,728.15 km 2), With its highest point at 6,271 ft (1,911 m) on Monument Peak, elevations are not as high here as in most of California's other national forests. We note that in recent years, the Legislature has provided Cal Fire with additional yearround firefighting staff, which should increase the departments capacity both to combat wildfires and conduct prescribed burns and other proactive forest management activities.. Specifically identified in the report is an extremely important requirement often ignored by those trying to assign or deny responsibility for Californias forest management problems on the basis of who owns these lands. The BLM manages forests and woodlands in accordance with the multiple-use, sustained yield mandate of the Federal Land Policy and Management Act of 1976 which means everything that forests provide today will also be provided in the future. These forests were healthy and abundant with wildlife, and they stayed healthy through climate cycles that included droughts and so-called mega-droughts that lasted a century or more. Getty. Boggs Mountain Demonstration State Forest. Globally, forests are necessary to reach net-zero emissions. This is resulting in the ineffective and costly misallocation of billions of dollars that are driving the continuation of unhealthy forests and increasing wild fire risks and occurrences. Additionally, the state of California has a large number of regulatory agencies whose procedures and processes have significant impacts on the ability of actions to go forward in a timely and effective manner regarding necessary forest management efforts. First, all documentationincluding a burn plan, CEQA compliance, and air quality permitsmust be completed by the landowner and Cal Fire for the project in advance. Legislators have been debating mismanagement of our forests, but whose timberland are they talking about? Once upon a time, forests in California were logged, grazed, and competently managed. The study clearly identifies the multiple entities that have ownership responsibility for Californias forestlands including state, federal, local agencies and private parties having numerous regulatory, environmental and administrative responsibilities and authorities relative to Californias forest and the manner in which these agencies share jointly in the responsibilities for addressing actions needed to improve the forest health and watershed management. Trees dont arrange themselves according to property lines. now Video. Millions of acres are in need of treatment, and this work once completedmust be repeated over the years. Different agencies h There is strong archaeological evidence for the destabilizing influence of these past droughts on advanced agricultural societies, examples that should resonate today given the increasing vulnerability of modern water-based systems to relatively short-term droughts., Recent advances in the reconstruction of past drought over North America and in modeling the causes of droughts there have provided important new insights into one of the most costly recurring natural disasters to strike North America. The BLM manages forests and woodlands in accordance with the multiple-use, sustained yield mandate of the Federal Land Policy and Management Act of 1976 which means everything that forests provide today will also be provided in the future. Urbanization, development and parcelization in rural areas are changing land use away from forests. now Video. Train crew frees a "The federal government through the U.S. Forest Service (USFS), Bureau of Land Management (BLM) and National Park Service owns about 19 million acres of the total 33 million acres of forestlands in the state of California representing about 57% of the forest areas. In California state, the federal government owns nearly 58% of the 33 million acres of forest, according to the state governor's office. State and local governments own about a 3 percent (1 million acres) combined. As discussed earlier, biomass that is not utilized is most frequently disposed of by open pile burning. Priority areas where forested areas are at risk are shown the figure at right where red is high priority, orange is medium priority, and yellow is low priority. However, a significant number of bioenergy facilities have closed over the course of the past two decades. WHY FORESTS MATTER Forests Provide Critical Statewide Benefits. While this is a relatively small share of the over 4 billion trees in the state, historically, about 1 million of Californias trees would die in a typical year. Overall tree density in the states forested regions increased by30 percent between the 1930s and the 2000s. The teachers unions have done to Californias public schools what environmentalists have done to Californias forests. Indeed, the standing forest volume continues to increase on both private and public forest lands. For roughly a century, government managers of Californias forests have aimed to suppress all wildfires, including very small, low-level natural fires. Accordingly, USFS has changed its policy from firecontrolto firemanagement, allowing fires to play their natural ecological roles as long as they can be contained safely based on weather patterns, terrain, proximity to development, and other factors. Historically, much of this excess forest product was burned to produce bioenergy.