The Science of Forest Management

And I am not talking about raking the forest as some would have us believe is all that is necessary to care for the forest and help prevent forest fires. No, I am talking about clearing away the undergrowth, removing dead and unhealthy trees, and thinning the forest canopy. It is also about planting new trees and bringing back sections of forestland to a healthy state and in a small way fight the effects of climate change.

While I would love to do this myself on our property, 100 acres is a bit much for one person to tackle. And then there is issue of the poison oak. So how can I get this done? I could hire someone to do the work but that would be cost prohibitive. I could chip away at it for the next decade and maybe clear a few acres and hope that no fires come before I create a good buffer. One thing for sure, based on my comments above, I would probably not call the U.S. Government. So what do I do?

I went to see the U.S. Department of Agriculture.

Actually it was the local USDA office in Merced, CA, which incidentally was housed in a converted strip mall. Within the USDA there is the agency, Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS) and they partner with companies and individuals in an effort to conserve, maintain, and improve natural resources and the environment. However, in order to work with NRCS, I had to be registered with the USDA. So back in Merced with the local USDA office I completed the paperwork to be registered as a farm.

Following the registration, which was a surprisingly easy process, the next requirement was to visit the NRCS office in Mariposa and fill out an application to apply to be accepted into the landscape conservation and forest management program. Before they could approve the application however, they had to conduct a forest management survey.

Now I know that government applications and processes can take some time and I was prepared to wait. Imagine how surprised I was when a week and a day after I submitted the application, the survey was conducted. The NRCS agent spent three hours hiking our property, collecting burrs and a fair amount of urushiol from my least favorite plant, Toxicodendron diversilobum.

I was most interested in the results and in getting some insight into the nature of the 80 or so acres of our property that I have yet to see. In speaking with the agent I asked about next steps along with a clarification on expectations. His report would be attached to the application and then submitted to the USDA for acceptance into the program. He said that this part of the process could take a good while to be completed as both the application and report needed to be reviewed by several people within the USDA.

One week later I received a call that we had been accepted into the program!

My contact at NRCS said that the next step is to complete the application for funding where it is determined just how much federal assistance I’ll receive. The way it works is that they determine what portions of our property need work and what the work entails and then decide on an amount per acre. Before the application can be processed a cultural survey of our property needs to be completed. Culture you say. Yes, an archeologist needs to survey our property for heritage sites. As it turns out, the Ahwahneechee band of the Miwok people may have settled on our property and we would need to protect and preserve those sites as a part of our obligation to the program. The NRCS set an expectation that this part of the process could take up to two months.

And one week later, nothing happened. So much for my expectation of this part only taking one week.

One important note regarding this was that there were two individuals that were instrumental in helping us learn about this program. One is a friend who works in the local Mariposa USDA office with the Regional Coordination Program Area (RCP) the other was a representative from a local family-owned company, Double Tree Forest Management. Both individuals provided us insight and contact information and the drive to get this done as they both said the process could take months if not years.

As a side note, our friend in RCP overheard her co-workers in NRCS talking about how one applicant was accepted into the program in two short weeks. The NRCS folks were amazed at the speed in which the application was processed and accepted. It turns out that there are applicants that have been waiting on approval for over 2 years. The applicant that was accepted in two weeks, that was me.

So why did the process go faster for us? I have two theories. One, our property sits within the Sierra National Forest, effectively government property even though it is privately owned, and I believe that they saw our property as not only benefiting us but the U.S. Forest Service (an agency within the USDA) as well. Two, a long stretch of our property is adjacent to California Route 49, a major North-South corridor, which if we had a fire on our property it could potentially impact travel between the South and Western entrances to Yosemite National Park.

So now we wait for the second survey and for funding to be approved. In the meantime, I have been conversing with the owner of Double Tree Forest Management to better understand the work they do and what that would mean for Foxtail Farm.

Double Tree has told us that they will do the work that NRCS prescribes for the amount that they are willing to fund. So nothing out of pocket. To better understand how they do the work, I viewed several of the videos on their website, https://www.doubletreefm.com/videos and found them quite interesting. They use masticators that turn the underbrush into mulch and my favorite machine “The Stumper” which reduces large tree stumps to mulch in less than 10 minutes. In my conversations with them, they said that they can clear 100 acres in about 2-1/2 weeks and when they are done, our property will look like a park, with stands of healthy trees and selected shrubs that provide habitat for the birds and mammals that live here.

What this means for Foxtail Farm is that we will have lots of acreage that we can replant with fruit and nut trees, as well as native Ponderosa Pines and Incense Cedar and have large sections where we can build hiking trails for guests and ourselves.

If (when?) this happens and the results are as they describe we will have a spectacular property that is much more fire resistant, virtually free of Poison Oak, and able to be viewed and enjoyed for the beauty and natural features we know exist but are now hidden beneath an impenetrable canopy of brush and dead and dying trees. Who knows, maybe all that will be required for us to keep the property in good shape is a couple of good, sturdy rakes.