News and updates from the
Institute for Sustainable Forestry
New Forestry News
ISF Updates:
Looking
to the Future
Events:
May 20th
ISF Spring Walkabout
Websites:
For the past 15 years ISF has worked diligently to support our shared vision of sustainable forest management that meets the needs of wildlife, landowners, communities and future generations on the north coast of California.
Since ISF was founded economic, ecological and social factors impacting forest management have changed. Increases in fuel loads, global warming, real estate values, exurban development, and wood products consumption create a mandate for Sustainable Forest Management.
It has never been more important to articulate objective analysis of the issues facing California forests. In this context ISF continues to work with a broad cross section of forest and community stakeholders to develop innovative solutions to complex forest management issues.
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Forest
Fragmentation
Greg Blomstrom
As you drive home one afternoon, you notice a new “for sale” sign stuck in the ground on the forested parcel next to your house. A quick inspection of the sign taxes believability: For sale this lot plus an additional 430,000,000 acres of private forestland – inquire with owner.
Seem unlikely – think again. The US’s private forest lands are being sold off for development at an unprecedented pace, a pace that has troubling implications for clean water, biodiversity, recreation, etc.
Ecosystem
Services
John Rogers
The California regulatory environment is a clear indication that we, the people of California, value forestland for much more than its ability to produce timber. We also value the services that forests provide: clean water, wildlife habitat, open space, and the feeling of respite we experience when we look out over a well-managed unbroken forested landscape and imagine… that something is still right with the world. But, how much do we value them?
We expect local ranchers and timberland owners to pay their taxes, provide local jobs, and to maintain stream conditions that can support healthy salmon populations. Yet we only want to pay them for raising timber and cattle—not for raising salmon… or murrelets, or owls.
Future Forests: Efforts
to Protect Working Forests
Richard Gienger
While efforts to adequately regulate industrial forestry will continue, there is a certain 'ceiling' or resistance there that will never satisfy our need for long-term 'right-relationships' with forestlands. We need to establish new models that fit with our aspirations. The environmental and conservation oriented organizations and people need to reevaluate priorities. We need to work together with rural communities to establish and acquire large areas of forestland where the needs of the forest and the needs of the people of the area and the region are integrated. This is beginning to happen...
Forestry and Fire Safety
Cybelle Immitt / John Rogers
“In the Southern Humboldt region and across much of the Pacific Northwest forests are in varying stages of recovery from the lasting effects of high-impact logging operations. It is difficult to extrapolate from the existing information exactly how these forests looked before logging. We do know that until many decades have passed, second growth forests are particularly susceptible to catastrophic fire. Recent fires in the region remind us of the inevitability of fire. With continuous fuels connecting the forest/meadow floor to the high canopy, wildfire can burn with extreme intensity… These intense wildfires also pose an ominous threat to rural landowners and homesteaders.
“As stewards of the land which will be our legacy, we must come to terms with fire as an elemental force which can cause destruction on a devastating scale or help us to create landscapes that are healthy, fire tolerant and rich with economic and biological niches.”
Peter Tittmann - SHFSC Homeowners Brochure
Working Forest Bonds
An ISF proposal
Working Forest Bonds leverage public investment in forest values and ecosystem services with private capital and mitigate a key economic driver of intensive forest management practices. The program would reward sustainable long-term management plans such as NTMP's and enable community-based investments in forest acquisition for sustainable forest management.
Forest
Fragmentation
Greg Blomstrom
Ecosystem
Services
John Rogers
Protecting
Working Forests
Richard Geinger
Forestry
and Fire Safety
Cybelle Immit / John Rogers
Working
Forest Bonds
An ISF proposal
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Institute
for Sustainable Forestry
PO Box 1580
Redway, CA 95560
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