The National Cohesive Wildland Fire Management Strategy started as a collaborative process with active involvement of all levels of government and non-governmental organizations, but primarily the public, to seek all-lands solutions to wildland fire management issues.
This Forestry Notes Special Report is intended to educate conservation districts about national and regional coordinated planning to combat wildfire and how districts may contribute to the objectives set within the National Cohesive Wildland Fire Management Strategy.
|
FORESTRY NOTES Q&A PAUL DELONG, AFF |
Paul DeLong is senior vice president for the American Tree Farm System & Conservation at the American Forest Foundation (AFF). He supports a talented team of conservationists working with partners to administer the nearly 20 million-acre Tree Farm program and implement projects on family-owned forest lands designed to protect drinking water supplies, at-risk wildlife and sustainably-produced wood across the country.
Recently, he spent time with NACD Forestry Notes to discuss his work and experience with forest conservation.
Tree Farm is a program that’s been around for many years, and it represents a lot of landowners. Can you talk about what you’ve learned about what drives that program for the landowner — what they take from it that helps them become better stewards of their forestlands?
Tree Farm’s turning 80 this year, and it’s had a remarkable history in terms of the largest network of family-owned forest landowners in the country. It’s something that, when you ask people who aren’t maybe even familiar with AFF institutionally, but you flash that sign, folks (say), ‘Oh, I’ve seen that. I know that,’ so it’s really recognized. And you hit a key point, which is the power of Tree Farm has been, for its eight decades, the fact that it is recognizing stewardship of landowners. Through that recognition, it actually then brings more landowners into the fold. For example, the signs are very powerful. It may be a neighbor talking to a neighbor, saying, ‘tell me about that.’ And by helping expand the reach in which landowners … can achieve their objectives, where they can get assistance. To the extent that the Tree Farm program is a great example of offering those opportunities to bring insight to landowners about their forests, about where opportunities exist to get technical assistance, financial assistance for things that they’re trying to accomplish that not only benefit them as landowners but benefit all of us. Tree Farm has been great as an education and recognition program.
|
USFS CHIEF PROVIDES KEYNOTE ADDRESS AT 2021 NACD ANNUAL MEETING |
U.S. Forest Service Chief Vicki Christiansen was among the keynote speakers during the 2021 NACD Virtual Annual Meeting. Chief Christiansen addressed the general session on Tuesday, Feb. 9, stressing the need for partnerships as agency leaders address critical forestry concerns such as wildfire.
“(Conservation districts) are critically important in connecting people to the land," Chief Christiansen said. "With your help, we can show people in our local communities how nature supports everything they do and how they can improve their lives by connecting to the land around them."
Christiansen also mentioned the need to support Shared Stewardship agreements in states across the country, and the importance of the Joint Forestry Team (JFT), of which NACD is one of four partners, along with the Forest Service, Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS) and National Association of State Foresters (NASF).
“Our cooperative forestry programs are growing strong, thanks to the Joint Forestry Team and thanks to our federal, state, and local partnerships, and the role the conservation districts play in all of them," she said.
|
|
Maine
SWCD co-sponsors apple tree pruning workshops
|
Somerset County Soil and Water Conservation District has organized apple tree pruning workshops for Feb. 21 and 27 at the Somerset County Cooperative Extension Office.
Apple tree enthusiast Joe Dembeck and Brian Erickson from the University of Maine Cooperative Extension will discuss methods and tools used to prune apple trees in order to increase their viability and production. Participants will have the opportunity to learn and test their skills pruning apple trees.
The workshop is free but advanced registration is required. The event is co-sponsored by Somerset County SWCD, Maine Woodland Owners – Upper Kennebec Valley Chapter, Somerset County Cooperative Extension and Maine Forest Service.
|
Washington
District assists
salmon habitat and food forest project
|
Matt Montoya, Grace Thompson and her brother Ben Thompson manage 45-acre Kodama Farm and Food Forest in Washington State. Kodama, according to Japanese lore, are tree spirits. This nearly five-year-old operation has become the site of a conservation easement purchased by the Jefferson Land Trust.
Once a dream for the three, their vision is now realized: a regenerative farm, using no-till, organic practices alongside Chimacum Creek in Beaver Valley.
Kodama has a five-acre orchard, cultivated to mimic a natural forest. The high canopy is fruit trees; below are berry bushes, hazelnuts, kiwi fruit, alpine strawberries, herbs and edible mushrooms.
In concert with the Jefferson Land Trust, the North Olympic Salmon Coalition (NOSC) is working with the Kodama farmers to restore 21 acres — nearly half their property — for Chimacum Creek salmon-rearing habitat.
NOSC, Washington State University and the Jefferson County Conservation District all partnered on this project, winning a Chimacum Watershed grant from the state Department of Ecology and the Environmental Protection Agency’s National Estuary Program.
|
Add your conservation district's tree sale, state association meeting, field day or celebration to NACD's calendar!
Click the button above to submit an event. Events will be reviewed by the website administrator and published to NACD's online calendar when approved. |
|
