SKAGIT CONSERVATION DISTRICT News Volume 31, Number 2 SCDSOIL • WATER • WOODLAND Summer 2015 Skagit Conservation District O ering free technical, nancial, and educational resources for landowners PROGRAMS INCLUDE Livestock/Small Farm Planning Youth Education Forestry Planning Native Plant Sales INSIDE THIS ISSUE: Community Wildfire Preparedness Planning • Fire & Forestry ........................ 2-3 Conservation Easements • Lessons from the Field ............... 4 Engineering Services • Samish News .......................... 5-8 Adult Education/Volunteer Programs • Kids for Conservation ................. 9 • On the Farm .............................10 www.skagitcd.org • Backyard Conservation .............11 • Community Stewardship ......12-14 • SCD Sta and Board News .........15 FIRE & FORESTRY STRESSED OUT FORESTS Humans know all too well what it means to be stressed out. o Diseased and insect infested trees are much more prone Things like work, relationship problems, tra c, and money to wild re ignition and spread. immediately come to mind. But did you know that forests can o Healthy trees that normally store carbon and o set fossil be stressed, too? Wait a second! Forests don’t have feelings! True, fuel emissions cannot properly store carbon if they are (although there are some that might disagree) but they can still stressed. Also, the carbon that is “banked” in our forests get stressed in a physical way. Healthy forests provide a plethora gets released to the atmosphere during a wild re when of bene ts to the functioning of our planet and the species that the trees are burning. exist on it. As humans, our existence is tied to our forests whether o Intense wild res can destroy the important organic we realize it or not. When forests get stressed, and those bene ts layer in the soil and cause massive soil erosion during that humans and other living things rely on start to slip away, our rain events because of the hydrophobic layer formed on future begins look a bit gloomy. The the soil when it has been destroyed. key to avoiding a stressed out, gloomy Soil productivity is essential to water future is to identify and address forest quality and stream ow. health problems BEFORE we see the “We are In Skagit County stressors to our forests dead trees. are interconnected with changes Bene ts of healthy forests: STRESSED on the landscape and climate; often . Clean water – healthy forests becoming a complicated and detailed act as a sponge to store, lter OUT!” web of cause and e ect. There are and release water within the two perspectives to take; one when watershed considering forest health, and one . Oxygen when addressing forest health. When . Fish and wildlife habitat considering the issue of the health of . Timber and other forest products a forest, it is important to look at the . Recreation bigger picture; considering things like . Long-term carbon storage that changing climate conditions, long- o sets fossil fuel emissions term planning, and the role of that forest within the entire watershed. Stream ow, duration & quality As an example of reasons why to is improved in a healthy consider changing climate as a major functioning forest factor in forest health, just take a look . Aquifer recharge at parts of California where the iconic . Habitat connectivity redwoods are dying at an alarming Sources of stress to our forests: rate due to drought stress. These . Population expansion, environmental changes can result in conversion to non-forest use, and tree species shifts, transforming the fragmentation of forestlands. forest landscape. o Wildlife habitat is reduced and fragmented; travel corridors and passages are lost. o Secondary conditions can cause water quality issues, like increased impervious pavement resulting in stormwater runo and pollution in local waterways. o Increased wildland-urban interface areas (the area where homes are adjacent to natural areas such as forests), which means greater risk of community damage/ destruction from wild res as well as damage to natural resources . Changing climate conditions With projected increases in temperatures, and reduced Photosynthesis 6CO2+ 6H2O+673 o Kcal (sunlight) = C H O +6O snowpack in the spring leading to drier conditions and 6 12 6 2 drought, trees compete for moisture. As competition increases and there is less available water, the trees get stressed. This stress results in their susceptibility to insect infestations and disease. 2 FIRE & FORESTRY The other perspective is much narrower. When addressing forest N. Johnson “A Restoration Framework for Federal Forests in the health issues, we really need to be keying in to speci c ecological Paci c Northwest”, published in the Journal of Forestry, December sites. For example, on a 5 acre lot, there may be one area where 2012. The authors propose a forest restoration strategy where hardwoods proliferate and the soil stays moist and another area forest types are based on ecological strati cation rather than within that same lot where lodgepole pine grows and the soils the traditional categorization of “Westside forests” and “Eastside are much drier. Would we want to address these two areas the forests”. Conditions typically associated with one or the other same way? Of course not! Knowing the speci cs of your site in occur on both sides of the Cascade Range. An example is the order to make smart management decisions is key. Managing Paradise Fire currently burning in Olympic National Park in the your forest so that the healthiest trees can thrive is one of the rainforest. The re is occurring very early in the season and most important things a forest landowner can do. Removing burning through the canopy due to unseasonably hot and dry trees in poor health will reduce the competition for available soil conditions that haven’t been seen since the Forks re in 1951. moisture and reduce threat from insects and disease. Actively It may seem a bummer to have to think about and address losing managing your forest provides important opportunities for the fundamental bene ts of our forests, but it’s too late to think adaptation because forests are the most plentiful source of the about it when the trees are red with disease and the landscape cleanest water. As water becomes increasingly scarce and air is scarred and blackened by re. Consider the social cost of quality concerns increase, the importance of maintaining healthy permanently losing forests. We have the ability to avert such forests in watersheds will increase substantially. The argument catastrophe and help establish resilient, healthy, bene cial forests for managing our forests based on ecological site conditions by looking at the big picture and getting out and helping our is well supported by new research provided by J. Franklin and forests thrive. For more information or assistance with assessing the health of your forest, please contact our Forester, Al Craney at 360-428-4313, or email [email protected]. You can also visit our website at skagitcd.org/forestry For other useful information, check out this webinar from the Western Governors’ Association called “Managing Forest Health for Water Resources” that can be found at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PGx-ilbKDhk QUICK TIPS FOR HOMEOWNERS: WILDFIRE PREPAREDNESS With re weather conditions so extreme this summer, it is a good idea for homeowners to be prepared! If you haven’t already given it thought, it’s time to get outside and take some action. Here are some quick tips for wild re preparedness. Wild re Preparedness Above: This house features Quick Tips: Firewise constructi on concepts such as a metal roof Increase the resilience of your home and non-combusti ble siding. by replacing ammable siding, roof and deck materials with non-combus- tible materials. Left : Some additi onal ti ps for around the yard/property. 1. Clear brush from along your This area is referred to as driveway to allow better access for “defensible space”, which is the emergency vehicles and make sure natural and landscaped area your address sign is clearly visible around a structure that has been (e.g. re ective numbering). maintained and designed to reduce fi re danger. 2. Clean roofs, gutters and decks; remove dead branches and pine needles; move ammable furniture inside if leaving for more than a day. Need some guidance with wild re preparedness 3. Replace vent screens with 1/8” or on your property? smaller metal mesh. Call our Firewise Program Coordinator, Jenny Hinderman, 4. Move wood piles at least 30 feet 360-428-4313 or email [email protected] to set up a free site visit. away from structures. 3 SCD • PAGE 5 LESSONS FROM THE FIELD The Cure for Knotweed: A success story here has been a lot of e ort The next spring, 6 foot tall hooker T the past few years to control willow and paci c willow whips were Japanese knotweed. As described planted in a very tight spacing, 2 to "Although this process may by Department of Ecology, “Japanese 3 feet from each other. These were seem slow, it has resulted in knotweed is an escaped ornamental densely planted in hopes that they the ideal outcome – that is becoming increasingly would have a chance to leaf out and a complete eradication common along stream corridors and start forming a canopy to shade out of a dense stand of invasive rights-of-way in Washington. The the fast growing knotweed. In order species forms dense stands that crowd to give the newly planted willows a knotweed ..." out all other vegetation, degrading leg up on the knotweed competition, native plant and animal habitat. This one application of herbicide was perennial plant is di cult to control applied to the knotweed. By year three, 2010, the willows had because it has extremely vigorous developed a good canopy and were rhizomes that form a deep, dense mat.