CalVTP in Practice: Lessons learned from oak forest and meadow restoration with the Butano State Park Forest Health Project
October 2nd, 2024, 10:00am – 12:15pm
Link to webinar recording
This webinar was an opportunity for participants to increase their understanding of conducting restoration in an oak woodland/meadow ecosystem in the coastal zone under the CalVTP.
David Cowman, District Forester for the San Mateo Resource Conservation District, provided an introduction to the Butano State Park Forest Health Project, including the historical and ecological framework for the project, the partners and funding involved, and how the project achieved CEQA and Coastal Act compliance. Hudson Northrop, Environmental Scientist at California State Parks, Santa Cruz District, discussed California State Parks’ mission, how the CalVTP facilitates ecological restoration and management in Butano State Park, and some of the short- and long-term monitoring and research occurring within the park. Shelby Kranich, ARC Forestry Registered Professional Forester, discussed the process of field layout, marking, and recording trees for removal, estimating volume, and how that influenced biomass management options.
| Time | Item |
|---|---|
| 10:00am | Webinar begins |
|
David Cowman: The Butano State Park Forest Health Project – Project Concept, Context, and Compliance |
|
|
Hudson Northrop: Ecological Restoration in a California State Park |
|
| Shelby Kranich: Applying the CalVTP: Project Implementation | |
| 11:18am | Break |
| Hudson Northrop: Monitoring, Research, and Long-Term Goals for Butano State Park | |
| Q&A Discussion | |
| 12:15pm | Webinar ends |
Link to presentation abstracts
Trainers:
Shelby Kranich, ARC Forestry Registered Professional Forester
Shelby Kranich, ARC Forestry Registered Professional Forester #3249, graduated from Cal Poly San Luis Obispo in 2019 with a Bachelor of Science in Forestry concentrating in Wildland Fire and Fuels Management. Ms. Kranich was born and raised in the Santa Cruz Mountains and spent several summers in college working on the steep forested terrain of the Santa Cruz Mountains conducting field work and planning for all aspects of forestry. Much of her college forestry experience consisted of collecting data for the assessment of tree mortality following the 2009 Lockheed Fire.
Ms. Kranich began working for ARC in June 2020 and since has developed a wide skillset developing and permitting some of the largest forest health and fuels reduction projects completed in the Santa Cruz Mountains. Ms. Kranich operates as a project lead developing, permitting, and supporting large scale CalVTP PSAs in the Santa Cruz Mountains including contractor and permit compliance. Ms. Kranich also specializes in field verification, layout, GIS, vegetation mapping, forest measurements, agency negotiations, surveys for cultural and historic resources, and a wide array of permit development.
David Cowman, District Forester, San Mateo Resource Conservation District
David Cowman is the District Forester (RPF #3236) for the San Mateo Resource Conservation District (RCD). Before joining the RCD, David spent five years with California State Parks in the Santa Cruz district in the natural resource management program. He joined the RCD in October of 2020, following the CZU Lightning Complex Fire. David holds a bachelor's degree from UC Santa Cruz and a Master of Science degree from San Jose State, where he studied the effects of prescribed fire on old-growth coast redwood stands in Big Basin Redwoods State Park. Currently, as the District Forester for the RCD, David helps to plan, permit, and manage large-scale forest health projects throughout the Santa Cruz Mountains and greater central coast, for both public and private land managers. He has significant experience in prescribed fire, forest ecology, forest and wildfire resiliency, as well as managing all phases of large-scale forest management projects. This includes navigating complex regulatory systems, managing budgets and contracts, performing and coordinating wildlife surveys, and operational management of contractors.
Hudson Northrop, Environmental Scientist, California State Parks, Santa Cruz District
Hudson Northrop is an Environmental Scientist with the Santa Cruz District of California State Parks. He graduated from UC Berkeley in 2021 with a Bachelor of Science in Ecosystem Management and Forestry. He continued at UC Berkeley and earned a Master of Forestry degree in 2022 while working under Dr. Scott Stephens and Dr. John Battles with research focusing on snag and fuel dynamics following drought mortality in Sierra Nevada forests. During college he spent multiple summers collecting data for various forest and fire ecology research studies in California. In 2022, he worked for a consulting Registered Professional Forester in Plumas County conducting field surveys, mapping, and permit development for a variety of forest health and fuel reduction projects.
Since April 2023, Hudson has been working with California State Parks and has been involved in various forest health and prescribed fire projects in the Santa Cruz mountains. He assists with project planning and permitting, field layout and GIS mapping, and forest monitoring data collection and analysis. He has also helped draft multiple burn plans and assisted in prescribed burn operations in the Santa Cruz District.
