Our December meeting will hopefully be in person, but if necessary it will be switched to Zoom in the event of a covid explosion. Should it not be possible to meet in person the Zoom connection information will be sent out as soon as a decision is made. There will be two presentations, all related to the Tamarack Fire. The first will be by Coreen Francis-Clark, the State Forester for the BLM in California and Nevada on the BLM’s plans for restoration after the Tamarack Fire. The second presentation will be by Matthew Setty of Nevada Environmental Consulting on their restoration program for the 800 acre Storm Crow private property immediately north and west of Markleeville.
Abstracts: Coreen Francis-Clark: Coreen Francis-Clark will discuss the recently released Camp Fire reforestation plan with a specific emphasis on reforestation techniques and the science behind planting species that may be better adapted to future climate projections. This reforestation plan was developed by BLM and American Forests in consultation with experts and practitioners in the field of reforestation such as Forest Service, Sierra Pacific Industries, University of California Cooperative Extension, Butte County, etc. The science behind the Camp Fire plan is being used by BLM in formulating the appropriate mix of species to be planted on BLM managed lands in the Indian Creek Recreation Area. Coreen will explain the reforestation concepts that are critical to ensuring survival of planted trees, providing for species diversity, and building a more fire resilient future forest within the Tamarack Fire footprint.
Matthew Setty: The Storm Crow LLC. owned lands include the unnamed ephemeral drainage north of Hot Springs Road and Millberry Creek/ West of Hwy 89 and comprise approximant 800-acres of private forest land. Prior to the Tamarack fire the watershed held a mature community of white fire, Jeffery Pine, Pinyon Pine and a few cedars. The planned watershed restoration work includes the logging of approximate 310 acres and the recycling of the wood mulch into the fire impacted soils. Additionally, an early winter aerial seeding program will introduce a wildland habitat and erosion control seed mix over the burned acreage. The appropriate state permits have been obtained to conduct the restoration work during the winter 2021-22 season in preparation for optimal spring planting conditions. A multi-year four species conifer seeding planting program will start in 2022.
Nevada Environmental will also be hosting a community information meeting at the Cutthroat Brewery at 5:30 pm on Thursday Dec. 2nd. Please reserve ahead of time with Stephanie at stephanie@nvenv.net or 775-338-7021.
Biographies: Coreen Francis-Clark: Coreen Francis-Clark has been the BLM CA/NV State Forester since 2017, and was the Carson District Forester starting in 2012 so she has field experience specific to reforestation in Alpine County. She has been with BLM since 1998, working in Southwest Oregon prior to coming to Carson in 2009. She started her career in 1993 on the Sierraville Ranger District which is a similar eastside pine type to what is found in Alpine County. There was a large fire on that District in 1994 and Coreen assisted with the salvage and reforestation projects in that fire area. Coreen holds a Bachelors in Forest Biology from Colorado State University and a Masters in Silviculture from Oregon State University.
Matthew Setty: Nevada Environmental (NVENV) is a Reno, Nevada based woman-owned small business that specializes in watershed sciences, design-permit-build wildland restoration projects, watershed hydrology, and biological consulting. NVENV provides a GIS based data management approach to environmental analysis, modeling, and planning. NVENV operates drones and fixed-wing aircraft as platforms to acquire watershed scale data for terrain modeling and vegetation mapping. As a small firm, NVENV leverages the power of advanced GIS data management and Python-based analytic tools to develop large-scale restoration plans. These environmental data tools help to craft sustainable ecological designs that balance cost with understanding of soils, hydrology, vegetation and implementation methods.
Future Meetings: January: No meeting. February: Michelle Coppoletta, an Ecologist with the Forest Service will be making a presentation on her recent paper with Dr. Brandon Collins on post-fire management of vegetation and fuels.
The December meeting will hopefully be in person on Tuesday December 7th at 6:00 pm at the Turtle Rock Park Community Center. Should it not be possible to host the meeting at the Community Center the meeting will be via Zoom video conference, and the Zoom connection information will be sent out as soon as the decision is made.
Alpine Biomass Collaborative 