Interface Management - PowerPoint

							   Presentation 2.2:
 Opportunities Realized
Through Interface Forest
     Management
Outline
• Introduction
• Interface management products
• Variety of products besides timber
• Timber can pay for further management
  of the land
• Challenges to multi-managing the land
• Summary
Introduction

• Avoid “timber” versus “nontimber”

• Income generation is just one of many
  opportunities available on interface forests

• Timber harvesting is compatible with many
  other forest products and can help pay for
  management needed to provide these
  products
Multiple objectives
• Variety of reasons to manage the land:
   Income generation
   Fire risk reduction
   Amenity resources
   Forest health
   Wildlife
   Water management
Alternative forest products

• Decorative
• Herbal
• Medicinal
• Edible
• Enhance property
  value
Nontimber forest industry

• Business venture
• Marketing nontimber forest products
  website
   http://www.sfp.forprod.vt.edu/special_fp.htm

• Poaching
Timber and pulp income

              • Longer rotation ages
              • Processed timber
              • Forest certification
              • Christmas trees
              • Biomass
 Property value

• Universal technique
  used to value tree

• Increase or decrease
  based on the trees


Aggregating across the South, the total compensation
value for residential trees approaches one trillion dollars.
Conversion harvests
               • Increased amenity
                 values on residential
                 property
               • Facilitate silvicultural
                 management
               • Aesthetic trees
                 increase property
                 value
Tourism income
• Hunting leases
• ATV trails
• Wildlife viewing areas
• Eco-tourism
• Bed and breakfast
  lodging
• Hiking
• Retreats
Liability and Marketing
• Liability is an issue if people are
  invited on property
   Avoid negligence
   Obtain liability insurance

• Successful business requires planning
   Understand customer
   Understand competition
   Develop marketing plan
     Exercise 2.5:
Interface Moneymakers
Exercise 2.5 Discussion Questions

• What resources and information should your
  agency provide to encourage successful
  ventures?
• What perceptions and constraints are barriers to
  landowners launching these enterprises?
• Marketing and liability concerns are important to
  any successful business. Do you have examples
  of landowners that have successfully addressed
  these concerns?
Challenge of managing WUI 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
Firewise plant characteristics

• High moisture
  content
• Broad and thick
  leaves
• Low chemical content
• Open and loose
  branching patterns
• Deciduousness
• Low amounts of dead
  materials
Plants to avoid in defensible space
                  • Saw palmetto
                     accumulate dead
                      leaves (fronds)
                  • Juniper
                     resins in leaves and
                      branches
                  • Mountain laurel
                     dense leaves and
                      branches close to
                      ground
Fuel reduction
• Mechanical
  thinning
• Herbicides
• Prescribed
  burning
• Animal grazing
     Exercise 2.6:
Firewise Conversations
       Exercise 2.13:
Juggling Multiple Objectives
    Case Study 21:
Wildfire Preparedness in
       Mississippi
      Case Study 11:
Life on the Edge: Interface
 Issues in Bastrop, Texas
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
Naturalness

• Value natural appearances

• Minimize human intervention

• Careful design
 Picnic, park, and camp
• Soil compaction kills
  older, sensitive trees
    Use young, deep
     rooted trees

• Parking lots
    should drain away
     from water source
    or have a swale to
     hold water and allow
     pollutants to settle
Trail creation
                 • Add loops
                      Create diversity
                      One-way traffic
                      Single entry point
                      Interconnected
                 • Plan skid and logging
                   roads to become
                   trails
                 • Consider use conflicts
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

• Visual character of a region

• Transformation of lands

• Visitor perceptions

• Recreational activities
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
  Exercise 2.7:
Scenery and Trails
Exercise 2.7: Discussion Questions

• Which suggested aesthetic timber harvesting techniques
  are most feasible? Why?
• Which techniques are least feasible? Why?
• Which techniques are least costly? Why?
• In addition to laying out skid trails and logging roads
  with a future trail system in mind, what other work is
  needed to finish a trail system?
• What other techniques exist to increase scenery and
  trails in the wildland-urban interface?
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
    Exercise 2.8:
Promoting Forest Health
       Case Study 1:
      The Challenge of
   Controversial Resource
Issues: Southern Pine Beetle
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 human
  populations, urbanization, and infrastructure on wildlife
                   and their 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
•   Human-wildlife conflicts
•   Exclusion
•   Habitat modification
•   Repellents
•   Toxic baits and pesticides
•   Glue boards and traps
•   Scare tactics
Attracting wildlife
• Limit amount of lawn   • Put up feeders and
• Increase vertical        houses
  layering               • Remove invasive
• Leave snags and          exotics
  brush piles            • Manage household
• Provide water source     pets
• Plant native           • Reduce pesticide use
  vegetation             • Expand scale of
                           habitat
Exercise 2.9:
Wild Stories
      Case Study 4:
Deer Debate in Hilton Head,
      South Carolina
Effects of urbanization on the
water cycle
• Forests intercept precipitation.

• Approximately 2/3 of incoming precipitation is
  released back into the atmosphere.

• Remaining water recharges the groundwater
  and contributes to streams.

• Forest clearing generates more storm-water
  runoff, reduces amount of water that soaks into
  the ground.
Strategies to minimize threats
• Watershed management
  plan
• Forest protection
   Land acquisition
   Conservation easements
• Reduction of impervious
  cover
   Minimize paved surfaces
   Clustering development
Control of pollutant sources

• Limit fertilizer application
   Community programs
   Demonstration gardens
• Improve the treatment of wastewater
   Septic systems
   Management tools
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
   Case Study 19:
Treasuring Forests in
      Alabama
Summary


Understanding the variety of opportunities,
values, and ecosystem services that
interface forest management provides is
key to developing a positive relationship
with landowners.
Credits
Photos
• Slide 5, 7, 10, 26, 27, 28, 32: Virginia Tech
•   Slide 6, 8, 9, 15, 23, 31, 36, 39, 50: Larry Korhnak
•   Slide 16: Bobby Dean,
    http://www.archives.state.al.us/emblems/wild_flow.html
•   Slide 17: Chris Evans, The University of Georgia, www.forestryimages.org
•   Slide 37: James Solomon, USDA Forest Service, www.forestryimages.org
•   Slide 38: Ronald F. Billings, Texas Forest Service, www.forestryimages.org

References
• Slide 8: Nowak, D. J.; D. E. Crane; and J. F. Dwyer. 2002. “Compensatory
   Value of Urban Trees in the United States.” Journal of Arboriculture 28(4):
   194-199.
Credits
 References
 • Slide 16, 17:Behm, A.; A. Long; M. C. Monroe; C. Randall; W. Zipperer; and A.
    Hermansen-Baez. 2004. Fire in the Wildland-Urban Interface: Preparing a
    Firewise Plant List for WUI Residents (Circular 1453). Gainesville FL: University
    of Florida, Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences, Florida Cooperative
    Extension Service, School of Forest Resources and Conservation.

 •   Slide 42: U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and U.S. Department of Commerce, U.S.
     Census Bureau.2002. 2001 National Survey of Fishing, Hunting, and Wildlife-
     Associated Recreation 2-6, 37-51.

 •   Slide 43: Wear, D. and J. Greis. 2002. The Southern Forest Resource
     Assessment: Summary Report (Gen. Tech. Rep. SRS-54). Asheville NC: USDA,
     Forest Service, Southern Research Station.

 •   Slide 46: Hostetler, M. E.; G. Klowden; S. W. Miller; and K. N. Youngentob.
     2003. Landscaping Backyards for Wildlife: Top Ten Tips for Success (Circular
     1429).