Redwood Champions Amid Drought and Climate Disruption

published in the Mountain Echo, newsletter of the Sempervirens Fund, Fall 2014

by Betsy Herbert, Ph.D.

“Ancient redwood forests store at least three times as much carbon above ground than any other forests on earth.”

— Redwoods and Climate Change Initiative

Citation: Herbert, Betsy. "Redwood Champions Amid Drought and Climate Disruption." Mountain Echo, newsletter of Sempervirens Fund, Fall 2014.

Redwoods are extraordinary. The more we learn about them, the more extraordinary they prove to be. We’ve known for a long time that California’s coast redwoods (Sequoia sempervirens) are the world’s tallest trees and among the longest-living. Scientists are now confirming that redwoods play an important role in the local water cycle and in achieving a healthy, stable climate.

By meticulously measuring redwoods, scientists are determining how fast they’re growing, storing carbon and capturing fog, and how they are responding to climate change. For example, a team of scientists is working on the “Redwoods and Climate Change Initiative” (RCCI), with support from Sempervirens Fund to quantify how climate change is affecting California’s redwoods.

Climate champions

While all trees provide oxygen and help stabilize the climate, redwood trees are truly climate champions. "Ancient redwood forests store at least three times more carbon above ground than any other forests on earth," according to RCCI findings. Two mature redwoods store as much carbon as the average American produces in a lifetime, roughly 1,600 tons of carbon dioxide emissions (CO2).

Forests cover roughly 30 percent of the earth’s surface and store more carbon than is contained in the entire atmosphere!

How do forests pull carbon out of the air? Through the fundamental life process of photosynthesis, all plants capture energy from sunlight to convert CO2 and water into the building blocks for growth. During photosynthesis, plants pull in CO2 and release oxygen into the atmosphere, supplying the entire animal kingdom.

Coast redwoods are exceptional at storing carbon and releasing oxygen because of their enormous size, fast – and continuing – growth, and longevity. Attaining heights up to 350 feet and trunk diameters more than 24 feet, redwoods can live more than 2,000 years.

We now know that redwoods continue to grow as long as they live, packing on the girth, growing new tops after windstorms blow off old ones and sprouting millions of new needles. Thus they continue to pull in CO2 and release oxygen as they age--long after they attain their full height.

This discovery has dispelled an the old myth that old-growth redwoods stagnate and take up space in the forest. These forest elders are anything but “old and in the way!”

When trees are cut or die, they stop pulling in carbon. As they decay, they begin releasing their stored carbon back into the atmosphere. Different tree species have different life spans and decay at different rates. Once again, redwoods are extraordinary. After an old-growth redwood dies, it can take many centuries to decompose and release its stored carbon.

Redwoods in the local water cycle

Redwoods also play a critical role in local watersheds, both in terms of water quality and water supply. We’ve known for a long time that the vast root systems of redwoods carpeting our local watersheds help prevent erosion and that their deep loamy soils act as natural water filtration and storage systems. In addition, redwoods growing along streams provide shade, keeping the water cool for native fish.

What’s really extraordinary about redwoods is that they’ve evolved to use fog as their primary water source during times of year when rain is most scarce in northern California.

As the fog rolls in off the coast and creeps through the redwood canopy, it condenses on millions of redwood needles. If you’ve ever walked under a big redwood when it’s foggy, you know you need a raincoat to stay dry. This fog-drip is captured by redwood roots which spread out widely near the surface of the soil.

Todd Dawson, a UC Berkeley researcher and RCCI team leader, estimates that fog-drip supplies 30-40 percent of the water that redwoods require to grow!

Fog-drip from redwoods also supplies summer water to fish and humans. Spencer Robert Sawaske, a Stanford researcher, measured fog drip from individual trees in the Santa Cruz Mountains during the 2013 dry season. He found that older redwoods and Douglas firs on the Pacific Coast side near the ridgetops produced the most fog-drip--up to 38 inches recorded over 2.5 months! He also found that this fog-drip soaked into the ground and replenished stream flow.

San Vicente Redwoods (formerly known as CEMEX Redwoods) encompasses 13 square miles of forest land within this most productive area for fog-drip: between Skyline Ridge down to the Pacific Ocean. Thanks to Sempervirens Fund and our partners, the redwood trees within reserves in this area are fully protected and will continue to produce fog-drip for a healthy watershed and forest ecosystem.

Redwoods are key actors in the water cycle of the Santa Cruz Mountains. Water circulates from the soil, up their trunks, into the clouds and back to the ground. Many forces are at work to pull water up the trunks of these tallest trees in the world. There is pressure from below as roots absorb water from the soil. The cohesive properties of water keep it moving up the water column in the tree’s sapwood, much like water in a straw. Perhaps the most critical force is supplied by transpiration, as pores in the tree’s foliage release water vapor into the air, thus pulling more water up the tree.

During the current drought, the local redwood forest continues to tap fog as a water source and its deep loamy soils slowly release the water it captured from earlier rain.  No doubt this process has softened the effects of the current drought.

Can redwoods survive climate disruption?

The iconic coast redwoods have demonstrated legendary resilience to some severe onslaughts, including massive clear-cutting over the last 200 years. Today, coast redwoods are threatened by home-building, invasive species, conversion into vineyards, logging, fire suppression and habitat fragmentation. Now they face the additional threat of accelerating climate change.

Scientists are studying how rapidly changing climate conditions (such as increased temperatures, drought and altered precipitation patterns) may outpace a forest ecosystem’s ability to adapt, especially where that forest is already stressed or degraded.

Climate change is expected to bring warmer and windier conditions to northern California, along with increased wildfire frequency and severity, according to a 2004 study by U.S. Forest Service and Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory scientists. The study was right on target for Santa Cruz County, where the 2009 Lockheed Fire burned 7,800 acres in Bonny Doon and Davenport, including 2,400 acres of redwoods. Fortunately, the California Department of Forest and Fire Protection (CalFire) post-fire report found that the Lockheed fire “will not have long term detrimental ecological effects to the redwood forest type.”

Fog may also be on the decline. Dawson’s preliminary evidence showed a 30 percent decline in the number of fog days in the region over the past 60 years.

How can we help redwoods survive climate disruption?

Forest scientists emphasize the need to increase the adaptive ability of forests to withstand climate disruption. To help redwood forests, we can:

• minimize soil disturbance,
• protect and buffer old-growth reserves,
• reduce forest road densities,
• increase wildlife connectivity.

Sempervirens Fund is forging ahead with all of these stewardship activities on the San Vicente Redwoods, which connects 27,500 acres of contiguous protected land and shelters some 90 ancient redwoods that will be protected in special reserves.

By acquiring, protecting and caring for local redwood forests, Sempervirens Fund helps manage redwood ecosystems to increase their resilience to drought, accelerating climate change, and human disturbances. We are working with our donors and partners to create the Great Park to ensure that redwoods continue their extraordinary contributions here for thousands of years to come.

References
Dawson TE (1998) Fog in the California redwood forest: Ecosystem inputs and use by plants. Oecologia 117(4):476–485.

Jeremy Fried, Margaret Torn, and Evan Mills. 2004. "The Impact of Climate Change on Wildfire Severity: A regional forecast for Northern California." US Forest Service and Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory. [http://energy.lbl.gov/ea/mills/_archive/EMills-4-2-09/PUBS/PDF/Wildfire_and_climate_change.pdf]

"Global Forest Resources Assessment 2005, Progress towards sustainable forest management <http://www.fao.org/docrep/008/a0400e/a0400e00.htm> [http://portal.mxlogic.com/images/transparent.gif] ", a report of the FAO<http://www.greenfacts.org/glossary/def/fao.htm> produced in 2006 by a large international panel of scientists.

James A. Johnstone and Todd E. Dawson. 2010. “Climatic context and ecological implications of summer fog decline in the coast redwood region.” Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 107 (10) 4533-4538. [http://www.pnas.org/search?submit=yes&from_rbs=yes&andorexactfulltext=and&fulltext=johnstone+and+dawson+2010+fog]<http://www.pnas.org/search?submit=yes&from_rbs=yes&andorexactfulltext=and&fulltext=johnstone+and+dawson+2010+fog%5D>

Richard Preston. 2007. The Wild Trees: A story of Passion and daring. Random House, New York.

Forest scientist dispels common myths about old-growth redwood forests

By Betsy Herbert

Santa Cruz Sentinel

Posted: 12/19/13, 12:00 AM PST

When the subject is coast redwoods, people seem to come out of the woodwork to hear a talk, especially when an expert is doing the talking.

On Dec. 10, Dr. Will Russell drew some 125 folks to hear his talk, "Logging, Fire, and the Recovery of Old-growth Coast Redwoods," at Cubberley Community Center in Palo Alto. The Committee for Green Foothills sponsored the event.

Russell, associate professor of environmental studies at San Jose State, quickly took aim at three common misconceptions about redwoods. He and his research team investigate how redwood forests naturally regenerate after logging and fire.

"The first myth," according to Russell, "is that young managed redwood forests sequester carbon faster than old-growth redwood forests." The audience seemed intrigued, as if they had heard this claim before.

Until recently, scientists thought that old-growth redwood forests eventually just stopped growing and started slowly decaying. But a 2008 study published in the journal Nature found that old-growth forests can indeed continue to grow and accumulate carbon.

Results of recent research by the Redwoods and Climate Change Initiative, sponsored by Save the Redwoods League, are even more dramatic. After measuring tree growth and carbon sequestration throughout the entire range of old-growth redwood forests, these scientists concluded, "Ancient redwood forests store at least three times more carbon above ground than any other forests on earth," and "the rate of sequestration continues to increase with age of redwood trees."

Russell used this recent research to shatter the myth that young forests store carbon faster than old forests.

The second myth, he said, is that redwood forests need to be thinned to reduce fire hazard.

"It's not true," Russell said, explaining that unusual characteristics of redwoods need to be considered when managing them to address fire.

For example, redwoods sprout when they are cut or scarred, while most other trees used for lumber don't have this ability. When redwoods are thinned, the resulting sprouts around the cut stumps actually create fire hazard, Russell said, because the sprouts form a brushy mass that increases fuel on the forest floor.

Redwoods are also unusual because of their thick bark, which makes larger redwoods extremely resistant to fire. According to Russell's documentation, the only redwood trees killed by the Lockheed and Martin fires of the last decade were less than 7.5 inches in diameter. The larger trees, though burned and fire-scarred, regenerated by sprouting along their trunks.

Russell emphasized it's unwise to take a one-size-fits-all approach toward managing forests. For example, while it might be a good idea to thin pine forests in the Tahoe Basin to reduce fire hazard, pine forests are different from coast redwoods. Pines don't sprout when cut and they don't have fire-resistant bark.

To dispel the third myth -- that thinning redwood forests accelerates recovery of old-growth -- Russell discussed his own recent research, which was inspired by his boyhood experience of observing clear-cut forests in Mendocino County.

Some forest managers advocate thinning such logged-over forests to more quickly move the forest toward old-growth. Russell explained that while thinning forests allows the remaining trees to grow bigger, old-growth redwood forests are very complex, and much more than just big trees.

Russell's research analyzes how coast redwoods regenerate themselves. The research shows that different old-growth characteristics appear at different stages when forests naturally regenerate after being clear-cut. Yet, even after 100 years, some old-growth characteristics are still absent, such as the return of key native redwood understory plants.

"Restoration of redwood forests should focus on the soil and this understory recovery," he said.

Logging: Santa Cruz Mountains protection threatened

by Betsy Herbert and Lennie Roberts

Op-Ed, San Jose Mercury News, 06/21/2013

Santa Clara, San Mateo and Santa Cruz Counties' redwood forests, known as the Southern Subdistrict, are highly valued for their timber, wildlife habitat and carbon sequestration -- but also as places for people to live and enjoy the outdoors. Many mountain communities and the entire county of Santa Cruz also depend upon forested watersheds for their drinking water.
But a bill in the California Legislature would remove critical protections that counties in this region have relied on for decades.
Thirty years ago, when the state pre-empted local control over timber harvesting, Mercury News editorials argued that commercial harvesting in the largely urbanized Southern Subdistrict is a lot different from logging in the unpopulated forests of the North Coast in its environmental impact, its economic importance, its effect on the landscape and on recreation. So it was logical that our counties should have more stringent controls over commercial harvesting to minimize conflicts with residents and protect public health and safety.
Special State Forest Practice rules address these rural/urban interfaces. They provide for counties to participate in the review of proposed timber operations, make recommendations to mitigate environmental impacts and appeal to the State Board of Forestry if plans do not adequately protect public health and safety.
These critical local safeguards would be drastically curtailed or eliminated if AB 904 (Chesbro) is enacted.
AB 904 would create a new category of timber plan, a "Working Forest Management Plan" that, once approved, would be good "forever." There would be no public notification of future timber operations, and counties would be unable to appeal operations on behalf of the public. Timber management would be locked into today's rules and plans, unless landowners opt to change them.
The bill would apply a one-size-fits-all approach to counties with very different circumstances. Its goal of discouraging clear cutting provides no benefits in the Southern Subdistrict, where clear cutting is already prohibited. Another goal of reducing pressure on landowners to subdivide or convert timberland to other uses is also unnecessary here, as strict local zoning rules make forest conversion far less likely.
AB 904 would drastically increase the acreage cap for "small" landowners to enroll lands in an existing "forever" timber program, from 2,500 acres to 15,000 acres. It would be difficult, if not impossible, for teams from the Department of Fish and Wildlife, Regional Water Quality Control Boards, California Department of Conservation and each responsible county to thoroughly evaluate impacts on such large areas of difficult, remote terrain within the time frame allotted.
A growing list of citizen groups, nonprofits and water agencies have requested that the Southern Subdistrict be excluded from AB 904. These include the city of Santa Cruz Water Department, San Lorenzo Valley Water District, Chemeketa Park Water District, Aldercroft Heights Water District, Sempervirens Fund, Sierra Club California, Center for Biological Diversity, Santa Cruz Mountains Bioregional Council, Committee for Green Foothills, Central Coast Forest Watch, and Neighbors Against Irresponsible Logging.
AB 904 will be heard Tuesday by the Senate Natural Resources and Water Committee. We hope our concerns are heeded by this committee and Assemblyman Wesley Chesbro, who represents the North Coast area, and that the Southern Subdistrict will be excluded. What may be good for Humboldt and Mendocino Counties is definitely not good for San Mateo, Santa Clara and Santa Cruz.
Betsy Herbert, Ph.D., is a watershed manager with the San Lorenzo Valley Water District and a member of the Sempervirens Fund board of directors. Lennie Roberts is the San Mateo County legislative advocate for the Committee for Green Foothills.

Summit-area residents fear timber bill could resurrect rejected logging plan

By Betsy Herbert

Santa Cruz Sentinel, Earth Matters column

Posted: 06/21/13, 12:00 AM PDT

When Linda Wallace, a manager for a telecommunications company, goes home at night she doesn't look forward to poring over the fine print of a complicated legislative bill. But that's just what she and a group of her neighbors in the Summit Road/Highway 17 area have been doing for the past month.

AB 904 (Chesbro), a timber bill being considered by the state legislature, is of great concern to these mountain residents. They fear that if AB 904 becomes state law, it will clear the way for a contentious logging plan -- which CalFire rejected in 2007 -- to go forward again.

The logging plan, which was proposed by San Jose Water Company for 1,002 acres of redwoods near Lexington Reservoir, was defeated on a technicality . . . but only after Wallace and other residents of nearby Chemeketa Park, Oakmont, and Aldercroft Heights organized a well-publicized campaign to stop it. They formed Neighbors Against Irresponsible Logging (NAIL) to draw attention to problems that would result from helicopter logging of old redwoods along the steep canyons of Los Gatos Creek.

"That logging plan jeopardized our community," according to Wallace, who is also board president of Chemeketa Park Mutual Water Company. "It's likely that our water treatment plant wouldn't be able to handle the extra sediment from all that disturbance along the creek. There were also concerns about noise, dust, and landslides," she contends.

Despite the compelling issues raised by nearby residents, it was the findings of a consultant hired by NAIL that finally gave CalFire cause to reject the plan in 2007. The consultant showed that San Jose Water Company owned too much land to qualify for this type of logging permit, known as a Non-industrial Timber Management Plan. To qualify, an applicant must own less than 2,500 acres of forest land.

What worries mountain residents now is that AB 904 would expand the acreage limit for these logging permits from 2,500 to 15,000 acres, which would make San Jose Water Company eligible. "Once these permits are approved, they are good forever, and neighbors can't comment on subsequent logging operations," said Wallace.

Like many of his neighbors, Rick Parfitt, a Summit Road resident, believes that AB 904 was intended for other parts of the state to transition landowners away from clear-cutting. The bill would reward landowners who switch from clear-cutting by exempting their future logging operations from public review. "That doesn't make sense in the more urbanized counties like Santa Cruz and Santa Clara, where clear-cutting is already prohibited and we have lots of people living in the forested areas," said Parfitt. He says that he and his neighbors are working to get these counties excluded from AB 904.

Nancy Macy, chair of the Valley Women's Club Environmental Committee of the San Lorenzo Valley, agrees. "There is very little that a rural resident can do now to protect their own property from nearby logging operations. AB 904 takes away opportunities for public comment, putting us at risk," said Macy, who lives in Boulder Creek.

Chemeketa Park and Aldercroft Heights mutual water companies and the San Lorenzo Valley Water District have publicly opposed AB 904 unless it is amended to exclude this region. "Water districts depend on the already limited powers that they have to participate in the review of proposed timber operations. We wish to preserve those powers," wrote Terry Vierra, board president of the San Lorenzo Valley Water District.

The state assembly passed AB 904 last month (with Assemblyman Mark Stone voting no.). The bill now moves on to the state Senate, where it will be reviewed by the Senate Committee on Natural Resources.

Watershed education: Growing big ideas with small grants

By Betsy Herbert

Santa Cruz Sentinel

Posted: 03/13/13, 12:00 AM PDT

When the San Lorenzo Valley Water District initiated its watershed education grant program in 2003, it was not without controversy. Was it appropriate for a public agency to use public funds for watershed education? Some of the district's ratepayers said no, that the district should stick to the basics of supplying water to its customers. But others opined that watershed education is necessary to reduce human impacts to the local water supply. Proponents won the day and the board voted to approve the program.

Since then, positive community response to the watershed education grant program has steadily increased.

"Not only has the program benefited the youth of San Lorenzo Valley, it's also been a resounding success with adults," says district board member Jim Rapoza.

Now in its 10th year, the program has funded 53 grants -- ranging from $788 to $3,500 -- to teachers, graduate students, musicians, artists, watershed practitioners, citizen scientists and nonprofits. The district's annual budget for watershed-education grants is currently $25,000 -- less than one half of 1 percent of total expenditures.

Watershed education needs to start early, so several grantees have aimed projects at reaching elementary school children. Last year, members of the venerable Banana Slug String Band donned their creature costumes for a series of performances entitled, "We All Live Downstream." Singing, strumming and clowning, the band drew in young audiences to participate and learn about the water cycle, recycling and pollution prevention. The students thoroughly enjoyed the experience, while teachers gave the performances high marks for effectively teaching watershed concepts.

Outdoor educator Sarah Brummel was funded for three consecutive years to provide 16 scholarships to low-income first- through fifth-grade children to attend her nonprofit HOWL Summer Science Camp in the San Lorenzo Valley. HOWL engaged children in learning about the San Lorenzo River through hikes, trash removal, journaling and water-quality testing.

Jane Orbuch, a science teacher at San Lorenzo Valley High School, has consistently won grant funding for her innovative environmental monitoring course. Orbuch advises students who work on field-based environmental research projects, which are remarkably sophisticated. She assigns volunteer mentors to guide students in designing and implementing their projects. Mentors are math and science professionals practicing in various areas. Orbuch's students present their research at the Santa Cruz County Science Fair, where many students have won prizes, and gone on to take honors in the California State Science Fair and International Science Fair.

Watershed education is a lifelong process. Carol Carson, an environmental educator who focuses on adult education, has been repeatedly funded for her "Watershed Nature Walks." These walks have attracted hundreds of adults interested in the natural history of the San Lorenzo River watershed. Carson has assembled a lineup of experts in different fields to lead Saturday walks to accessible areas. Experts have included archeologist Mark Hylkema, endangered species expert Jodi McGraw, UC Santa Cruz Puma Project graduate students Veronica Yovovich and Yiwei Wang, geologist Frank Perry, and fisheries biologist Kristen Kittleson.

In 2010, the San Lorenzo Valley Water District began funding data collection/restoration grants to citizen scientists and practitioners to help complete needed projects on its Olympia Watershed property. Grants were awarded to local botanist Suzanne Schettler to map special status plant species, and to legendary weed-warrior Ken Moore to map and remove invasive plant species. Videographer Jordan Plotsky was funded to document historic mining relics left there by previous owners.

The district plans to announce its first round of 2013 grant awards sometime in April, followed by a call for new grant proposals aimed at enhancing the knowledge and condition of district-owned watershed lands. For more information, visit the San Lorenzo Valley Water District website, www.slvwd.com.

A new revenue stream from California's redwoods

By Betsy Herbert for the Santa Cruz Sentinel

Posted: 02/15/13, 12:00 AM PST

San Lorenzo Valley Water District is preparing to earn hundreds of thousands of dollars from its redwood forested watershed lands -- without cutting a single tree.

By conducting a rigorous inventory of the vast amounts of carbon stored in its forests, the district can qualify to sell carbon credits through the California Cap and Trade Program, a key piece of the state's Global Warming Solutions Act, also known as AB32.

On Feb. 7, the district's board of directors voted to proceed with a $45,000 carbon inventory on 1,620 acres of district-owned land, forested with older second-growth redwoods.

So-called "cap and trade" is a workable approach to reducing carbon emissions, the primary driver of global warming. The "cap" sets a limit on emissions, which the state Air Resources Board ratchets down each year, steadily reducing total statewide emissions to levels mandated by AB32. The "trade" creates a market for carbon allowances, such as those earned by the water district by avoiding logging its forests.

As forests grow, they pull vast amounts of carbon out of the air and store it in their trunks, leaves and roots. Forests cover approximately 30 percent of the Earth's surface, so climate change scientists are looking at forests with renewed interest to help solve the world's carbon problem.

What makes coast redwoods so exceptional at storing carbon is their enormous size, fast growth and longevity. Attaining heights up to 350 feet and trunk diameters more than 24 feet, redwoods can live more than 2,000 years.

Water district operations annually emit some 500 metric tons of carbon into the atmosphere, while its redwood forests accumulate roughly 30 times that. That means the district is set to earn lots of extra allowances, which it can then sell to other businesses that can't fully meet their carbon emissions allotment for that year.

Joe McGuire, a professional forester, estimated last fall that the district could sell allowances on 7 percent of its total forest carbon, equal to the amount of carbon in the trees that could be cut under an approved timber harvest plan. This sale could net the district approximately $550,000 over 12 years, based on the current price of $10 per metric ton.

"As the demand for carbon allowances increases, the price per ton will likely go up," said Margaret Bruce, who serves on the district board. "I think it's a wonderful opportunity, because the district has opted to avoid logging its property anyway, to protect water quality and habitat."

For hundreds of years, the dollar value of California's redwood forests has been based almost entirely on the dollar value of the timber that can be extracted from them. Such a valuation ignores -- to the distress of environmentalists -- the many other priceless contributions of forests in terms of biodiversity, watershed and spiritual sustenance. Ecological economists have worked for years to correct the balance sheet by assigning a dollar value to these invaluable "ecosystem services" provided by forests.

The door has opened for California's redwood forests to be valued in dollars for something in addition to their timber-producing capability. Through cap and trade, they can now be valued for their essential and significant contribution to averting climate change.

There are caveats for forest landowners interested in selling carbon credits. Their land must be zoned for timber production, the timber rights must be unencumbered, and they must be willing to forego some timber harvesting. Finally, the forest must be large enough to justify the expense of the inventory.

For some landowners, cap and trade offers a welcome new revenue stream from their redwood forests.

Elderly Aptos couples envision preserving their giant redwoods

by Betsy Herbert

published in the Santa Cruz Sentinel 6/15/2012

The only way to get to Dan and Pat Miller’s house in Aptos is to walk across a 3-ft wide wooden bridge spanning the steep canyon above Mangels Creek. As I cross the bridge, I feel like I’m walking back in time into a fairy tale. The Millers’ house, built in 1931, is dwarfed by the five giant old redwood trees that encircle it.

The Millers, now in their 80s, bought their 1.7 acre property 50 years ago. Since then, they’ve spent much of their life protecting the forest around them, including a 100-acre parcel adjacent to theirs known as Happy Valley, which is graced by 866 old-growth redwoods.

When Happy Valley—part of the old Mangels Ranch—was slated for logging in 1990s, the couple rallied the local community and pleaded with land trusts and State Parks in hopes of gaining support for their quest to include the property as part of Nisene Marks State Park.

Dan Miller, a retired marine biologist from the California Department of Fish and Game, used his scientific expertise to document the Happy Valley redwoods. His work made very clear the public trust value of the property. As a result, the Trust for Public Land eventually negotiated a deal with the owners, and Happy Valley became part of Nisene Marks State Park in 1999.

Given all of their work to protect redwoods, I ask the Millers how they plan to preserve the five old-growth redwoods on their own land. Pat Miller answered, “This property is staying in the family, and our kids feel the same way we do about the trees.”

Just blocks away from the Millers, another elderly couple—who wish to remain nameless—are also considering ways to preserve the old-growth trees on their property. He is an 87 year-old retired engineer who inherited his 5 ½ acre property 27 years ago from his parents. When he speaks about the nine ancient redwood trees on his land, his eyes sparkle with the enthusiasm of a young boy. “I wish I knew how tall they are . . . they must be some of the tallest in the county.”

We hike down to the trees, which rise about 250 feet from the bottom of a canyon below the couple’s house. We measure the distance around the trunk of the largest tree at 28.5 feet. He explains, “I’d like to dedicate these trees to my father, who knew about cared for all types of trees.”

He and his wife worry that after they sell the property or leave it to their children, the trees may be at risk sometime down the line. The couple has reason to worry. Unlike the cities of Santa Cruz or Capitola, which have heritage tree ordinances that protect trees 14 inches or more in diameter, the county’s heritage tree ordinance which applies to unincorporated areas like Aptos, can’t protect trees from state-permitted logging.

While County zoning ordinances currently do not allow redwoods to be logged on residential properties, such zoning is always subject to change.

So, this couple is now considering two options to preserve the trees, pending the advice of a real estate attorney. One way would be to find a land trust to purchase or accept a conservation easement, which would be crafted to protect the trees on the property, and which would apply to all future owners. Another way would be to place a deed restriction on the property.

“We’ve become very connected to these trees,” his wife explains. “We would hate to think that some road or subdivision would one day take them out.”

Salmon will return if given the chance

by Betsy Herbert

published in the Santa Cruz Sentinel on 4/21/12

It’s not all gloom and doom for the Pacific Coast salmon, whose plight has become a crisis. More than 650 scientists, students, land managers and policymakers attended the 30th annual Salmonid Restoration Conference in Davis April 4 -7 to share their work and ideas about restoring watersheds to bring back the salmon (www.calsalmon.org).

Sixty years ago, coho salmon returned from the ocean by the thousands to spawn in the San Lorenzo River, the largest watershed within Santa Cruz County. Today, it is noteworthy if even one coho returns to the river. In 2005, central coast coho salmon were listed as “endangered” under the federal Endangered Species Act, and steelhead have been listed as “threatened” since 1997. Throughout the state, habitat loss, water diversions, logging, fish hatcheries and dams have all contributed to the problem.
 
What to do about it? A series of conference keynote speakers made their impassioned pleas. “Get to Alaska, where salmon are still abundant” said Xanthippe Augerot, author of the Atlas of Pacific Salmon. She said that witnessing healthy salmon runs enables us to see beyond the “scarcity mindset.”

“Give salmon half a chance and they will come back,” said Assemblyman Jared Huffman, from Marin County. Huffman previously served on the board of Marin Municipal Water District during its ten-year effort with the state to protect coho salmon. As it turned out, the water district “gave up 15% of its water for the salmon,” he said, and the water district’s habitat restoration plan for salmon is “now a model for the rest of the state.”

Jim Lichatowich, author of the book Salmon without Rivers advised, “We need to dispel the 130-year old myth that we can return salmon to healthy levels by focusing on fish hatcheries instead of habitat restoration…the need for habitat restoration is real.”

Chuck Bonham, newly appointed Director of California Department of Fish and Game (CDFG) and previous California Director of Trout Unlimited, said that after six months in his new job he has “learned how hard it is,” given budget cuts and controversies. On the other hand, he has come to appreciate “how cool our mission is--to manage California’s diverse fish, wildlife, and plant resources, and the habitats upon which they depend, for their ecological values and for their use and enjoyment by the public.”

Bonham’s vision for CDFG is that it “will be the agency that presides over the recovery of the salmon rather than their demise.” One of the first things Bonham did on the job was to connect with all of his staff, who work scattered throughout the state, and he found them “totally committed to salmon.” He has since formed a team “to create a salmon return strategy that will allow any reader to understand how this will happen.”

John Laird, Secretary of California Natural Resources Agency, and Bonham’s boss, described his intent to solve the complex problems of “Managing the Delta for Fish and People.” Clearly, Secretary Laird, a former Assemblyman from Santa Cruz County, has tackled one of the state’s most thorny environmental issues.

While the speakers inspired, the conference workshops and technical sessions shared hands-on, practical methods of restoring salmon habitat, and the latest scientific research in biological, physical, and environmental stressors that affect salmon recovery.

Several sessions highlighted work in Santa Cruz County. A presentation entitled “Bowling for Coho” described an inter-agency project in Davenport. Large logs were anchored in San Vicente Creek to form pools and cover for coho salmon. Historically, the stream had been altered into a straight channel, like a bowling alley, allowing storm water to wash out critical fish habitat.

Can Redwoods Survive Climate Change?

by Betsy Herbert

Published 02/25/12 in the Santa Cruz Sentinel

It’s hard to imagine that the iconic coast redwoods (Sequoia sempervirens) could be vulnerable to extinction. After all, redwoods have demonstrated legendary resilience to some fairly severe onslaughts. Even after massive clear-cutting, redwood forests have rebounded--as they have over the past century in the Santa Cruz Mountains--with a force reminiscent of Stravinsky’s Rite of Spring. Redwoods are also renowned for their resistance to both fire and disease.

Yet, redwoods are at risk. The World Conservation Union (IUCN) has rated coast redwoods as vulnerable to extinction, primarily because of impacts from logging and development over the past 200 years. Throughout the current range of the redwoods--from Big Sur up to southern Oregon--only 4% of the old-growth forest now remains in tact.

And the onslaught continues. Redwoods are still subject to clear-cutting in many areas. Throughout their range, they are threatened by conversion into vineyards, housing development, invasive species, fire suppression, and habitat fragmentation. And now, climate change.

Scientists are studying how climate change is impacting forest ecosystems throughout the world, but regional climate conditions and forest types are widely variable. Generally, the concern is that rapidly changing climate conditions such as increased temperatures, drought, and altered precipitation patterns may outpace a forest ecosystem’s ability to adapt, especially if that forest is already stressed and/or degraded.

How will climate change affect California’s redwoods, and what can be done to ensure that redwoods survive?

Save-the-Redwoods-League, a San Francisco based land trust, is sponsoring a team of scientific researchers to investigate these questions. The 10-year project, “Redwoods and Climate Change Initiative” (RCCI) aims to quantify how climate change, in combination with other stressors, is affecting redwoods. [Disclosure: I serve on RCCI’s leadership task force].
RCCI’s team of scientists from Humboldt State University and UC Berkeley have established 16 forest plots throughout the range of the coast redwood and its cousin, the giant sequoia of the Sierra Nevada. They’ve installed weather stations in the treetops to collect climate data for each site. They’re also exhaustively measuring the height, circumference and branch structure of the giant trees to track their precise growth rate. And, they’re studying annual tree ring data, going back 1,000 years to determine how redwoods have historically responded to changing conditions, including temperature, precipitation, fog, and fire.

One of RCCI’s lead scientists, Todd Dawson, has documented how redwoods use fog to supply most of their summer water. Of special interest then, is how climate change may alter fog patterns within the range of redwoods. Dawson’s preliminary evidence shows a 30% decline in the number of fog days in the region over the past 60 years.

Climate change is also expected to bring warmer and windier conditions to northern California, along with increased wildfire frequency and severity, according to a 2004 study by US Forest Service and Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory scientists. The study turned out to be right on target for Santa Cruz County, where the 2009 Lockheed Fire burned 7,800 acres in Bonny Doon and Davenport, including 2,400 acres of redwoods. Fortunately, CalFire’s post-fire report found that the Lockheed fire “will not have long term detrimental ecological effects to the redwood forest type.”

As scientists are busy assessing the impacts of climate change on redwoods, what can be done to protect these forests? Forest scientists emphasize increasing the adaptive ability of forests to prepare for uncertainty. Minimizing soil disturbance, protecting and buffering old-growth reserves, reducing forest road densities and increasing wildlife connectivity are all recognized ways of helping forests become more adaptable to future impacts.

Reason enough to hug a tree: Coast redwoods combat climate change

by Betsy Herbert

published in the Santa Cruz Sentinel 1/28/12

Did you know that the world’s forests, including California’s coast redwoods (Sequoia sempervirens) are helping in a big way to combat climate change? As forests grow, they pull vast amounts of carbon out of the air and store it within their enormous biomass. Forests cover about 30 percent of the earth’s surface, so climate change scientists are looking at the forests with renewed interest to help solve the world’s carbon problem.

Most scientists agree that climate change is caused by increasing levels of carbon dioxide (CO2)and other greenhouse gases in the earth’s atmosphere over the last 200 years. Scientists attribute about 3/4 of the increase in CO2 to the burning of fossil fuels and about 1/4 to deforestation and land clearing.

How do forests pull carbon out of the air? Thanks to photosynthesis, all plants capture and use energy from sunlight to convert carbon dioxide and water into building blocks for growth. What makes coast redwoods so exceptional at storing carbon is their enormous size and longevity.  Redwoods can attain heights of 350 feet, with trunks exceeding 24 feet in diameter, and they can live for more than 2,000 years. So, redwoods store lots of carbon, and they store it for a very long time.

According to National Park Service Ranger Christine Walters, “One mature coast redwood tree holds more than 400,000 pounds of carbon in its trunk alone—the equivalent of about 800 tons of carbon dioxide.” That means that two mature redwoods store as much carbon as the average American produces in a lifetime, roughly 1,600 tons of carbon dioxide emissions.

Local land trust Sempervirens Fund completed a scientific inventory of the carbon stored in the 100-year old Lompico Headwaters Forest, which the group purchased in 2005.  In 2007, the 285 acre stand of redwoods on the property stored approximately 116,000 metric tons of carbon. According to Sempervirens Fund’s Laura McLendon, who oversaw the project, “Scientists project that in 100 years Lompico Headwaters Forest, if not logged, will store nearly three times as much carbon.”

Measuring the carbon stored in forests worldwide gets complicated, though. It turns out that forests not only store carbon, but they also release it. When trees are cut or die, they stop pulling in carbon. Afterwards, as they decay they begin releasing their stored carbon back into the atmosphere. Making things even trickier, different tree species decay at different rates. After an old-growth redwood dies, for example, it can take many centuries to decompose. When a young fir dies, though, it can decay in a few years.

On balance, forests anywhere between 15 and 800 years of age absorb more carbon dioxide than they release, according to Beverly Law, professor of forest science at Oregon State University. An old study in the 1960s suggested that old forests emitted as much carbon as they pulled in, and that message was taught in ecology classes until recently.  “The current data now makes it clear that carbon accumulation can continue in forests that are centuries old,” said Law.

Climate scientists continue to find more accurate ways to measure carbon stored in the world’s forests. NASA Earth Observatory recently released a map showing global carbon forest storage, the result of six years of research (http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/IOTD/view.php?id=76697&src=eoa-iotd) The darkest green areas on the map reveal areas with the densest, tallest, and most robust forest growth. Not surprisingly, the redwood forests of the Santa Cruz Mountains are mapped in dark green.

All eyes now on conservation plan

by Betsy Herbert

published in the Santa Cruz Sentinel 12/24/2011

On Dec. 16, 2011 Peninsula Open Space Trust [POST] and Sempervirens Fund became the official owners of the 8,532-acre property known as Cemex Redwoods, the largest expanse of unprotected redwood forest in the Santa Cruz Mountains. The $30 million purchase from Cemex, the largest producer of cement in North America, was jointly announced Dec. 8 by the five conservation groups partnering in the deal [POST, Sempervirens Fund, the Land Trust of Santa Cruz County, LTSCC, Save the Redwoods League and the Nature Conservancy]. (Disclosure: I serve on the Board of Directors of Sempervirens Fund.)

The five groups envision a new model for conserving the property, different from the old model of transferring property to State Parks. With State Parks' budget severely constrained, future public ownership of Cemex Redwoods became less likely. The new model envisions the potential sale of the property to a private landowner, perhaps a timber company, after stripping off development rights and placing restrictions on logging.
"Before we discuss the potential sale of the property, we first must identify and permanently protect streamside corridors, fisheries, old forest reserves, and wildlife corridors," said Reed Holderman, Executive Director, Sempervirens Fund. "Whatever is left over might be appropriate for some level of timber harvest, but the science-based conservation plan will be critical. We're all focused on that now."
Cemex Redwoods is heavily forested from its granite ridge tops, down through its steep, rugged canyons. Four creeks flow through it. The largest, San Vicente Creek, harbors endangered coho salmon, and is the sole source of the town of Davenport's drinking water.
Laguna Creek is a critical water supply for the city of Santa Cruz. The property was managed for timber production by Cemex and prior landowners for 50 years. Surrounded by 27,500 acres of protected land, Cemex Redwoods promises great recreational access and critical wildlife linkages.
There will be time for community participation in the conservation plan, according to Neal Coonerty, Santa Cruz County Supervisor, whose district includes the expansive property.
"Because of how vested the community is in Cemex Redwoods, this conservation plan must gain community support to ensure its success," he said. "Assurances will be needed to put to rest some of the anxiety in the community about the new model of conservation being proposed."
Each of the five groups will play a vital role in the project. During the acquisition phase, POST and Sempervirens Fund covered most of the initial costs, with POST contributing $15 million and Sempervirens Fund, $5 million. Additional funding included a combined $8 million from the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation and the David and Lucile Packard Foundation, and $500,000 from The Nature Conservancy. Ultimately, POST, Sempervirens Fund, Save the Redwoods League and LTSCC will share equally in the costs of protecting the land.
LTSCC and Save the Redwoods League will lead the conservation planning phase, initially by recruiting a team of scientists to assess the property's natural resources, followed by a conservation plan.
"Part of the vision for the property is to establish scientifically planned redwood reserves and restore water quality and fish and wildlife habitat," said Ruskin Hartley, executive director, Save the Redwoods League.
Once the conservation plan is vetted, LTSCC and Save the Redwoods League will purchase a conservation easement from POST and Sempervirens Fund. That easement will be legally binding on any future property owner.
"This project is sure to serve as a catalyst for future redwood habitat protection in the region, and it can't come a moment too soon," said POST President Walter Moore.