Before you Buy: Forest Stewardship Resources

Forests in the Sierra Nevada and southern Cascade Range are being stressed by many factors that put them at risk. High-severity wildfire, drought stress, insect outbreaks, disease, and a backdrop of changing climate are a few.

There is increasing concern about fire hazard from fuels accumulation in riparian areas and what forest landowners can do to manage these areas. Riparian vegetation and forests have ecological importance in terms of water quality and quantity, and wildlife and aquatic habitat.

Invasive plants are defined by the Natural Resource Conservation Service (NRCS) as, A plant that is both non-native and able to establish on many sites, grow quickly, and spread to the point of disrupting plant communities or ecosystems.

What does a resilient forest look like in California's Sierra Nevada? A lot fewer trees than we're used to, according to a study of frequent-fire forests from the University of California, Davis.

You may have seen historic photos of Sierra Nevada forests with cars driving between the large trees, or heard how one could ride their horse from the woods into town with little difficulties.

Mechanical thinning of overstocked forests, prescribed burning and managed wildfire now being carried out to enhance fire protection of California's forests provide many benefits, or ecosystem services, that people depend on.

Enjoying and protecting nature are cited as the top two very important' reasons why private forest landowners in the UC ANR Forest Stewardship Workshops own forestland. Many of these landowners express a desire to have their forest return to an old-growth' state.