New Free Workshop: Stewarding a Climate-Resilient Forest West of the Cascades

Learn hands-on strategies for managing healthy, resilient forests in Jefferson County.

At this free workshop in Jefferson Land Trust’s Valley View Forest, professional foresters will introduce forest owners to a set of simple, hands-on strategies for increasing their forests’ resilience in the face of a warmer and drier climate.

Participants will develop a deeper understanding of the ecological risks facing Jefferson County forests due to wildfire, drought, disease, and insect infestation. We will discuss how to evaluate the current health of a forest based on desired future conditions, when thinning might be appropriate, and how to select trees for thinning. Finally, we’ll discuss how forest owners can use woody biomass to create wildlife habitat structures such as constructed logs, snags, and habitat piles.

Saturday, April 29, 2023

10:00am – 4:00pm

Valley View Forest
1921 Center Rd
Chimacum, WA 98325

Register for the Workshop

Topics

Instruction will be a combination of lecture, demonstration, and hands-on activities, including:

• Expected Climate Impacts: Temperature and precipitation changes we can expect and likely impacts on Pierce County forests, including fire risk, pests & disease, and species vulnerabilities.
• Stand Assessment 101: How to “read” and understand what is happening in your forest from an ecological perspective, and how to evaluate how climate-adapted your forest is. Topics include species competition, tree canopy classes, and timber quality.
• Choosing climate-adapted species: Which native species are well-suited for the anticipated future climate of this region. Sourcing native tree species from other regions. Drought and heat-tolerant understory and mid-canopy species.
• Forest Management Goals & Options: Strategies for reducing fire risk, improving timber growth and quality, emulating natural fire disturbance in your forest, and increasing resilience to climate change.
• Tree Selection for Thinning: The rhyme and reason for thinning from below, thinning across diameters, tree spacing, and species selection.
• Utilizing Cut Material: Strategies include lop & scatter, habitat piles, creating biochar, making constructed habitat logs, firewood, chipping, etc.
• Funding Forest Stewardship: How to fund your forest health work through cost-share programs.

Free Site Visits

Participants can sign up for a limited number of free two-hour site visits with a forester. During the site visit, the forester will help landowners refine plans for managing their forest and answer site specific questions. To register for a free site visit, please email kirk@nnrg.org.

Speakers

Kirk Hanson | Northwest Natural Resource Group
Other speakers to be announced soon

Workshop presented by

Northwest Natural Resource Group and Jefferson Land Trust

This workshop is offered at no cost thanks to support from USDA NIFA Western Extension Risk Management Education. 2022 Education Project #14826, “Improving Resiliency Management and Reducing Risk for Western Washington Forest Producers”.