CalVTP in Practice: Lessons Learned From the Urban Interface in San Mateo County Parks
Thursday, September 14th, 2023, 9:00am - 11:45am
Link to Webinar Recording
This was an opportunity to learn about a collaborative forest health and fuel reduction project at Huddart and Wunderlich County Parks, in Silicon Valley’s wildland-urban interface (WUI). Participants increased their knowledge of the planning and design process for ecosystem focused forest health treatments and gained insights into the practical application of the California Vegetation Treatment Program – Programmatic Environmental Impact Report (CalVTP PEIR).
The webinar focused on the collaboration between San Mateo County Parks, the San Mateo Resource Conservation District (RCD), CAL FIRE, and contractors including Auten Resource Consulting and Mountain F. Enterprises. This project was designed to maximize the co-benefits of fuel reduction, while applying treatments with an ecosystem-focused lens of reintroducing low-intensity disturbance into forest and shrubland landscapes in the parks. As one of the first and largest CalVTP projects approved and completed in the region, participants gained valuable lessons-learned from the project team across all phases of the project, from design and permitting to implementation and monitoring, as well as effective communication of a project of this size and scale to an urban and suburban audience.
Participants learned how the project’s success was ultimately contingent upon a diverse group of stakeholders relying on different yet complimentary skill sets to accomplish a common goal. We heard from subject-matter experts from San Mateo County Parks, the San Mateo RCD, Auten Resource Consulting, and Mountain F. Enterprises, and learned about areas for improvement across all phases of the project, with examples ranging from how to coordinate nesting bird surveys to what pieces of equipment are the most efficient for certain tasks.
| Time | Item |
|---|---|
| 9:00am | Webinar begins |
| Dan Krug: From Idea to Action: Managing Forest Health in Huddart and Wunderlich Parks | |
| David Cowman: Forest Health in San Mateo County – A Collaborative Approach | |
| Shelby Kranich: Applying the CalVTP: Project Design & Implementation | |
| Q&A | |
| 10:00am | Break |
| Jim Finney: Vegetation management Huddart Park and Wunderlick park | |
|
Evan Cole: Resource Retention and Avoidance in Large-Scale Fuels Reduction Projects |
|
| Hannah Ormshaw: Community and Stakeholder Engagement | |
| David Cowman and Shelby Kranich: Overall Project Successes, Insights, and Changes for the Future | |
| Q&A | |
| 11:45am | Webinar ends |
Trainers:
Hannah Ormshaw, Assistant Parks Director, San Mateo County Parks
Hannah Ormshaw is the Assistant Director for the San Mateo County Parks Department. She has worked for the parks department for over five years, and has an academic and professional background as a geographer & ecologist. Her work for the Parks Department includes overseeing parks capital improvement and visitor serving projects, community engagement and outreach, natural resource management, and park planning.
Dan Krug, County Arborist/Urban Forester, San Mateo County Parks Department
David Cowman, Forest Ecologist, San Mateo Resource Conservation District
David Cowman is a Forest Ecologist with 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. He finalized his research in the park in May of 2020, a few months before responding to the CZU fire there, in August of that same year. Presently, as the forest ecologist 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 on-the-ground management of contractors.
Shelby Kranich, Senior Associate Forester, Auten Resource Consulting
Shelby Kranich, a Senior Associate Forester for ARC Forestry, 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.
Jim Finney, Project Manager, Mountain F Enterprises, Inc
Evan Cole, Natural Resource Manager, San Mateo County Parks
