The Reforestation Dialogues and Symposium, a two-day event held in November 2018 organized by U.S. Forest Service Region 5 and the USDA California Climate Hub, was designed to promote co-concept generation and co-production around the current challenges and opportunities related to reforestation across the state in the lens of a changing and increasingly dynamic climate. This page includes links to the agendas from both days, plus the PowerPoint presentations presented by researchers and managers.
Reforestation Dialogues – November 28, 2018
Introduction
Explore topics and presentations shared at the “Forest Science and Manager Dialogues: Developing Reforestation Tools for Silviculturists.” The goal of this one-day event, designed in partnership by USFS Region 5 and the USDA California Climate Hub, was to bridge the “scientist-manager” nexus to facilitate effective reforestation efforts across all lands in the context of a changing climate and social, political, and economic landscape.
Event Overview
Scientist-manager dialogues were designed to exchange information around the needs, concerns, and time-relevant decisions that silviculturists interface with when prioritizing, planning, and implementing reforestation projects. With a focused understanding of the needs and decisions that forest managers make, scientists can refine investments and outputs with the needs of the manager in mind. This “by invitation” dialogue event intended to effectively link the science-manager interface with a focus on investments in reforesting California’s forests in the context of climate change, large fires, and tree die-off events.
Agenda Synopsis
The day opened with a session focused on the “day in the life” of a forest silviculturist. With this grounding, the agenda opened into a series of three talks by research scientists on 1) factors that promote increased levels of natural regeneration, 2) a decision-support tool for increasing reforestation success in post-tree mortality situations, and 3) patterns of reforestation success and failure in post-fire environments. In the afternoon, we held three, concurrent break-outs intended to foster conversations around the topics of young stand management, planting location prioritization, and considerations around plant materials, seed sources, and seedling stock types. The break-out highlights were summarized for the larger group in preparation for the subsequent Reforestation Symposium.
Reforestation Symposium – November 29, 2018
Introduction
Explore the topics and presentations shared at the “Establishing Resilient Forests for California’s Future: Reforestation Symposium.” The goal of this one-day event was to foster information-sharing to promote resilience and adaptive capacity for California forests.
Event Overview
Within the past decade, the state’s forests have experienced drastic changes due to destructive and severe wildfires, a 1,000-year drought which brought historic tree mortality, and the associated stressors that come with a changing climate. With a detailed understanding of the marked pace of change conditions, this symposium is focused around issues related to reforestation strategies and practices to increase the adaptive capacity for tomorrow’s forests. This event will provide a forum where scientists (or researchers) and managers can share results, advancements, and experiences related to reforestation to help frame these important future forest management actions. We will address topics including: 1) reforestation today for future resilient forests; 2) tools and resources for reforesting California forests; and 3) shaping useful reforestation science and tools for managers – an exercise in co-production.
Agenda Synopsis
The Symposium started with a session presented from the manager perspective on national and regional reforestation policy, priorities, and challenges. After this foundational introduction, the day transitioned to a session about how climate is influencing and shaping forests and reforestation. This talk led into a panel discussion about what reforestation looks like in the future with climate change which, in turn, was followed by a reforestation tool “lightning” round. The afternoon opened into three, concurrent break-out discussions focused on where reforestation should occur, what should be planted, and how we can ensure that reforestation succeeds. The day concluded with break-out report-outs and summary points.
Other critical partners instrumental to both the Dialogues and Symposium were CAL FIRE, the Sierra Nevada Conservancy, and University of California Cooperative Extension.