Hello everybody, welcome to
The County Seat I'm your host
Chad Booth. We are not in the
studio today we across the state
border we are in the North
Kaibab National Forest in the
neighboring state of Arizona.
Today we are going to be talking
about some innovative ways of
looking at forest management as
this forest is going thorough
planning currently. We are
going to start our program today
by looking at some of the things
they have done and
accomplished and we will come
back with a panel of experts to
talk about things they are about
to accomplish but first let's get
out on the ground.
Here at the forest service, Here on the north
Kaibab Ranger District. Our new project is called
KPERP it's the Kaibab Plateau Ecosystem
Restoration Project. Its to restore, bring fire
back into the ecosystem on about 511,000 acres
the purpose and need for the KPERP project is
that through years of fire suppression and lack
of natural fire we got very dense forest
conditions so the KPERP project is to bring
prescribed fire back on the landscape in a safe
sound manor to try and thin these overstocked
forest and recycle nutrients have the normal
functioning ecosystem for the watershed
wildlife and recreation. By studding tree rings
and past fire scares we've seen in the
southwest is fire you cannot exclude from the
ecosystem fire will occur KPERP is a project that
will allow us to re-introduce fire safely on the
landscape and its across 511,000 acres, if we
don't bring fire safely back on the landscape we
run the risk of Stan replacing wildfire and we've
all seen the devastating results of uncontrolled
wild fire
This is a ponderosa pine stand that will
historically burn every 5 to 30 years we have
gone in yesterday and doing a little touch up
today, of applying prescribed fire on the
ground. The intent of that prescribed fire is to
reduce fuel loads return fire into a fire adaptive
ecosystem, protect the lodge here, and also
make sure we can keep the highways open
keeps traffic flowing in the event of a large fire.
This will really help protect this area in the
event of a wildfire approaching the area.
Natural lighting caused fires account for a good
90% of the wildfires humans account for the
other 10% so a vast percent of our fires do
indeed occur by lightning. We're reducing the
fuels were restoring the ecosystem now in the
event that a lighting strike does occur the fire
that would result in this area would be a much
lower intensity firefighters would have a greater
success rate in being able to suppress those
fires.
So KPERP and future NEPA that will allow
logging that will be done to help us maintain a
sustainable population of trees of all sizes,
including our precious old growth Ponderosa
Pine.
This forest has a good deal of management,
commercial timber harvest, small tree thinning
and also prescribed burning, which we saw a
little bit before. This would be the third
treatment in this area the first treatment
probably took place in the 1960's with some of
these older stumps here. Open up the stands
protect it from major disturbance like wild fire
but also to improve the prey based and just the
whole ecosystem for animals not just goshawks
but other types of wildlife as well would all
benefit from this treatment.
This area is an example of an area that needs
management, very dense very thick young
trees, we call these dog hair thickets in
ponderosa pine there definitely a fire hazard
and a fire danger, this is an example of more
than 500 trees per acre which is really unnatural
it's not historic, historically we would have less
than 100 trees per acre in these areas.
This is still pretty dense in here for larger trees
so we will have some commercial treatment
here eventually to thin that out to a more
healthy condition.
We feel that our forest management practices
lately are a good example of sound forest
management for generations to come.
Welcome back to the County
Seat we are having a
conversation today about some
innovative ways to look at forest
management and deal with
some of the change in conditions
in the western forests been a
year where the topic is front and
center in a lot of states so it's
always interesting to find a new
way to look at things. Joining us
for our conversation is
Commissioner Jim Matson from
Kane County, UT and has a
background in forestry and the
district ranger for the North
Kaibab Randall Walker thank you
for taking the time to be with us
today we appreciate it. I would
like to start by doing a recap of
where we have been how you
see the way forest management
now as compared to 20 years
ago.
I think we have more public
involvement with some of our
processes. We had in 1976 a
national forest management act
that came out since then we
have been involving the public
now we try to do more
collaborative and up front things
with folks so that so they are on
board with what we are doing
and how we are managing the
forests.
What are some of the new
things you have incorporated in
the last couple years?
Right now we are in our NEPA
process, the National
Environmental Policy Act trying
to do large scale landscape areas
do them more quickly to get
them out on the ground so we
can implement as we do have a
lot of land out there that has
overstocking and things like that
because we have not been
logging, thinning, and have not
had fire on the landscape for the
last 20 years at least. Fire on the
landscape we started putting
fires out 100 years ago.
So in some of the other shows
we have done you might help us
Jim logging used to be a large
part of how the forest was
managed and I would imagine
through the collaborative
process it's been in that period
of time when commercial
logging has stopped and sales
have become shorter term and
smaller which makes it harder
for somebody to commercially
be engaged with the forest
service is that something that
can change to the benefit of the
costs of maintaining a healthy
forest?
There is no doubt about it in my
mind. I think the key thing is
evolving and has been changing
over the past 20-50 years is that
Randall's collaboration takes a
lot of work particularly when you
got many interests group that
have a stake in this thing the
environmental interests clear
through the local economies
people that want to invest in
Fredonia or Kanab or Pang itch
for that matter put a sawmill in
they get going with a program
process then they knock on the
rangers door and say alright
where is my next 2 million board
feet and somebody says well we
haven't quite gotten to that yet.
Well what do I do with my 20
million dollar saw mill? How do I
operate through these processes
while this is all going on? As this
has been maturing and coming
to this particular point it would
be my hope that is something
that benefits land landscapes
and get into the business of and
talking about acres treated and
watersheds sustained and
reduce the risk and the hazard
so I guess I gave you a long
answer that is the way I see it
and this is what the forest is
attempting to do in a fashion we
can utilize better.
people watching the show right
now yeah the evil disgusting
foresters the logging industry
should not be involved we
should be completely hands off
and let nature do its thing what
would the results of the forests if
we did that Randall?
thin them out they just grow for
themselves and are not
concerned with the values that
humans have the economies
that we have here as well
overstocking and results of the
devastating forest fires we have
had because there are so many
tress and the crowns cannot be
enclosed because latter fuels
and if we do the logging and
thinning and undue fire
landscape prescribed fire we
actually thin those trees out and
reduce the intensity of the fire or
when it does come or when it
comes as a wildfire.
So these catastrophic fires that
we have now we have seen
across the west and California
when man wasn't dominant in
the landscape they used to be
there because we didn't engage
in the forest and the population
just moved on I mean Governor
Brown just commented this last
week he said this is the new
abnormal where we are going to
have these huge and massive
fires and we just need to learn to
live with it because our
environment has changed. Is
that a fair assessment or is it
because we are taking a non-
touch can we do better?
We absolutely can and we have
to because if we destroy
watershed or end up with a lot
of fires because of crown and all
are dead because there is an
alternative out there that can
manage those acres in a more
environmentally effective way or
the rest of its going to be even to
the extent and even a judge
would be able to understand this
thing as its being describe by
Randall Walker and his team.
So Randall do you think it's
possible in your experience that
if all the shackles were lose you
could manage perpetually forest
in a pristine and healthy state I'd
say in its prime would be a way
to say that.
If I had the budget and the
personnel to actually do the
work on the ground I believe we
could that is one reason we are
doing this project right now we
are with the Kaibab Ecological
Restoration Project we have
shortened that to KEPAP so that
is a project we are working on
it's on the plateau my district is
655,000 acres and the project
we are working on is 511,000
acres Most of the district we
have removed most of the
wilderness areas we don't do
active management in the
wilderness areas and we do have
a couple other projects that we
already have on the books that
we want to modify those for
what we are working on.
Do you think there is a possibility
in the future if we start
managing forests to their prime
that the only place destructive
fires will happen is in the hands
off wilderness areas?
Without a doubt. There is
always that day you cannot plan
for something going to happen
we would have to have a huge
budget and huge personnel to
implement this trying to
prioritize areas so that we can
gracefully slow down fires so we
can get better control of fires in
different areas and also provide
local economies as well.
So if you do that in a graduated
step and say I cannot do that all
at once but if you are picking
and prioritizing projects can you
actually get ahead so in the long
term you could have the forest
in balance.
To a certain degree the tress
keep growing so you have to go
back in you have to have a
certain rotation for about 20
years of treatment of prescribed
fires and with the harvest we go
in and take a certain number of
trees we try to leave the forests
as natural as possible up here we
have ponderosa pine and mixed
conifer and ponderosa pine we
treat it as uneven management
that means we treat a group and
leave a group so it looks natural
when you are finished.
Right it opens the space up
opens it up for grass lands and
wildlife I think it would be great
for people to look at what a
really good forest looks like.
We try to retain all the parts that
are there we used to take out all
the diseased trees but those are
habitats for different types of
creatures we try to leave a
variety of different habitats for
all those animals we have out
there.
Excellent we will take a break
and be right back with The
County Seat.
Welcome back to The County
Seat we are talking about new
and innovative ways that we will
be approaching management on
the North Kaibab with a
restoration project with over
500,000 acres. Jim, as a private
industry guy who has experience
on that side has that landscape
side of things attract a
commercial component that
may help the forests service off
set their costs.
In fact they will probably attract
several interests that would end
up competing with each other
for the rights to access the raw
material that we take from those
lands in order to meet those
management criteria as they
start to do that they will see
bidding that will raise the price
of that material and as we are
putting it into the building
material all will benefit from that
so lots of jobs.
There are quite a few upside
although are some people that
do not believe anybody should
profit off of public lands even
when its managed here is my
question for both of you in a lot
of people's minds at one point
when somebody went in and
logged they cut everything and
then they plated seeds and they
grew up and 50 years later they
would cut it again and it had
been universally decided that it
was not a good thing has our
technology changed to a point
that we can manage the kind of
cutting that you are prescribing
on a large scale where you target
a certain diameter you leave
under a tree and some diseased
you cherry pick how you clean
an area out or you use do flying
saws off of helicopters help
that?
WE still do clear cuts in certain
species of trees up here mostly
ponderosa pines so we do
uneven aged management of
that type.
What does that mean uneven
aged management?
It means you have all different
ages of trees on the landscape
you don't go in like a clear cut so
you take them all out and so as
they grow up they all grow up
equally.
So in this case you say we are
going to target this area and take
out the 30 or 50 years old trees
you set a specific target and say
this what we are going to take
out of this area.
On uneven aged management
we take all ages but we leave all
ages we take some we leave
some but they are in patches
more the way a natural forest
would grow.
Can people make that viable I
know there is a lot more you can
take out of a forest now you can
make bio mass and different
things.
I think the main thing these
communities can invest in these
communities near the forests is
the stability of the federal
programs that are producing this
stuff industry work will adapt to
whatever is available and so now
it's a matter of seeing okay for
that particular landscape that is
what the objectives are and call
for these proposals and oh by
the way we set a minimum price
and when you guys mind
meeting here at 2:00 Thursday
October 25th and we will bid that
project out and if it has any size
or substance to it you will find 3
to 5 different people competent
to take that project on.
They need enough longevity in
the time period to make and
investment is that how that
works?
Yes.
That leaves me with another
question and we will get right to
that after a quick break.
Welcome back to the County
Seat I have a question
gentlemen, we have talked
about a program you as an
elected official and somebody
who has had a previous life if
commercial forestry and you as a
lifelong forester administrator
you have a new program and
you both are on the same page
which does not always happen
and I guess my question is what
is the secret of success to
making this pilot project a reality
that people will engage in.
We have the NEPA process th
I mentioned earlier that have
standards and guidelines and if
we follow those processes we
have folks that are wanting to
inhibit our movement for
whatever reason they cannot do
that because we will move
forward because we follow the
rules of law and once you get it
before the judge they will see
that we followed the rules and
we covered all our bases and
analyzed all the different affects
to the different resources and
that is what we do under NEPA
we analyze all of these
resources.
If you guys are effective enough
can you shorten the time of the
lawsuits to the point where they
just give up trying?
We do have a new process
where it's an objective process
it's not an appeal process we try
to get those objections out of
the way before we sign any
documents now so we work with
folks and ask them why you are
objection to this process and if
they have a point we can change
what we are doing.
What are your thoughts, Jim
I think that as Randall has
describe this it's a necessity that
we figure out how to make this
thing work do it collectively and
in a neutral way and get
everybody involved and if
someone wants to blow up the
program let them go ahead and
give them a shot at it otherwise
if someone is going to come here
and make an investment and
produce a product and it will
come off the national forest lets
create the direction.
If we are setting a goal to have a
healthy prime sustainable forest
does it take private industry with
the forest to make that viable
with the environment in
general?
Yes we do not have the money
or the budget to do that and
they have that and can provide a
produce and helps the economy
and the local folks and it
provides jobs for people at the
mill.
Thank you it's been a very good
conversation we invite you to
share this with your friends go
onto our social media and watch
it again on YouTube we have lots
of ways for you to engage in the
process and we welcome your
comments about this program so
that we can all benefit from
different points of view. So go
to social medial like us follow us
and comment remember that
local government is where your
life happens, be part of the
solution
For more infomation >> Winter Storm Causes Commuter Chaos, Catches Millions Off Guard | NBC Nightly News - Duration: 1:56. 
For more infomation >> Tucker: Left continues to dismiss the caravan threat - Duration: 11:44. 
For more infomation >> Team Blake Live Playoff Performances - The Voice 2018 (Compilation) - Duration: 13:56. 
For more infomation >> More Than 600 Missing In Northern California Wildfire | NBC Nightly News - Duration: 1:39. 
For more infomation >> Stewie & Brian Meet Johnny Weir & Tara Lipinski | Season 17 Ep. 7 | FAMILY GUY - Duration: 1:14. 
For more infomation >> DeVos Proposes Changes To The Way Colleges Handle Complaints Of Sexual Misconduct | NBC Nightly News - Duration: 1:47. 
For more infomation >> Zuckerberg defends Facebook after release of NYT article - Duration: 4:48. 
For more infomation >> Justice Dept Files Undisclosed Criminal Charges Against Wikileaks Founder Assange | NBC Nightly News - Duration: 1:47. 
For more infomation >> Woolsey Fire Containment Jumps, But Confusion Over Whether Residents Can Return Home - Duration: 3:00. 
For more infomation >> Amazing El Toro Tiny House Is Handcrafted From Reclaimed Materials | Lovely Tiny House - Duration: 3:37. 
For more infomation >> Tijuana abarrotada… y siguen llegando migrantes | Noticiero | Telemundo - Duration: 3:03. 
For more infomation >> Sid Has A Meltdown | Season 1 Ep. 7 | THE COOL KIDS - Duration: 1:43. 
For more infomation >> Margaret Gets Invited To Murray's Thanksgiving | Season 1 Ep. 7 | THE COOL KIDS - Duration: 1:17. 
For more infomation >> Viernes 32 del Tiempo Ordinario – 16 de noviembre de 2018 – Ciclo B - Duration: 1:49:18. 
For more infomation >> "婆媳"同框争金马？ 孙俪周迅将角逐最佳女主角 - Duration: 3:31. 
For more infomation >> 【字幕あり】（中級）フランス語の簡単会話 vol.65 あんまり言えないけど - Duration: 0:35. 
For more infomation >> Smart Beta ETFs
For more infomation >> M CUBED||TELUGU LATE 2018 NEW SHORT FILM|| Directed By Sharan Moorthy - Duration: 11:04. 
For more infomation >> MANNY SINDER FRIDAY NIGHT STREAM - Duration: 4:38:16. 
For more infomation >> PHP初心者の方に知ってほしい5つのこと - Duration: 10:09. 
For more infomation >> 10 Aquaman Villains That You Should Begin To Take Seriously - Comic Basics Lists - Duration: 9:09. 
For more infomation >> Benedict Cumberbatch Bir Soyguna Müdahale Etmiş | TÜRKÇE ALTYAZILI - Duration: 2:18. 
For more infomation >> Air Supply Melhores Musicas Grandes Sucessos 2018 - Duration: 1:12:14. 
For more infomation >> "Estamos contentos": la reacción de Soledad y su hijo luego que Salas asumiera paternidad - Duration: 2:08. 
Không có nhận xét nào:
Đăng nhận xét