Southern Urban and Interface Forests - What's New

Across the South, rapid urbanization is transforming previously rural areas and creating new environmental challenges. Desoto County sits in the northwestern corner of Mississippi, across the state line from the city of Memphis. Since 1970, the county has experienced an increase in population of 430 percent, growing from 36,000 people in 1970 to 159,000 in 2010. Along with the population growth, urban development, roads, and traffic have increased tremendously and introduced serious air and water quality problems to the traditionally agricultural county.

The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has included Desoto County with Memphis in an ozone “non-attainment” area, meaning that ozone emissions are above allowable limits set by federal regulation. Ground level ozone, the main ingredient in smog, can trigger asthma attacks and causes lung damage. The ruling will likely mean that the state will have to take expensive actions to reduce pollution emissions from cars and commercial/industrial sources.

One group, led by the county extension director, Joy Anderson, is hoping that the urban tree canopy can play a part in the solution, and return Desoto County to attainment status. Working with Eric Kuehler, technology transfer specialist for Urban Forestry South, Desoto County conducted a series of iTree analyses including iTree Eco, Canopy and Vue. Using local volunteers and forestry students from Mississippi State University to collect the data, the county assessed over 250, 1/10th acre plots randomly located within five land class categories. The data allowed for an assessment of the structure, function, and value of the urban forest in terms of size and make-up of the urban canopy and its role in removing air pollution and sequestering carbon. 

Scott Bagley, Program Director of the National Network of Forest Practitioners will give a webinar session on Forest Cooperatives. Join us for this one-hour session that will:

• highlight examples of how cooperatives are bringing more landowners into forestry, coordinating cross-boundary projects to enable treatment of small-acreage parcels, and maintaining stewardship continuity across generations.

• share information about the progress of a national roundtable of forest cooperative leaders who are working together to share lessons learned.

• describe how cooperatives are facilitating peer-to-peer learning, assisting landowners with climate change adaptation, and exploring ways to sustainably aggregate biomass.

• describe how cooperatives and other conservation and natural resources professionals can work together to conserve working forests and re-weave forested landscapes parcel by parcel.

In this webinar session, Karen Firehock with the Green Infrastructure Center will: (1) describe the reasons, processes, and approaches for identifying and evaluating a community’s natural resource assets and how to conserve them; (2)demonstrate why a green infrastructure planning approach is a useful way to conserve critical natural assets while channeling growth and development to more appropriate areas; (3) describe the role played by local governments and county foresters in natural resource assessment and stewardship; and (4) suggest how to apply natural resource asset maps within a locality's existing land planning tools and regulations to conserve key forest resources in developing landscapes.

This 4-part webinar series will focus on the theme "Considering Natural Resources in Land-Use Decision Making Processes." Natural resource professionals often refer to "being at the table" in reference to their participation in multi-stakeholder processes such as land-use planning. Therefore we use the same language is used in the session titles of this series. Each session will address the theme from a different perspective.

Session Details:

October 12th, 12:00-1:00 pm EST

Why should we be at the table?Natural resource managers' perspective
(Susan Stein, Private Forest Studies Coordinator, US Forest Service)

October 17th, 12:00 pm-1:00 pm EST

Why we need you at the table? and How do you get to the table? Land-use planners' perspectives (Craig Diamond, Environmental Economist, Consultant)

November 10th, 12:00-1:00 pm EST

What happens when we are at the table together? A case study from Sumner County, Tennessee (Dwight Barnett, Area Forester, Tennessee Division of Forestry and Michael Briggs, Transportation Planner, Metropolitan Nashville Planning Department)

November 18th, 12:00-1:00 pm EST

What do you do when people start throwing food at the table? A conflict management perspective (Steve Smutko, Spicer Chair of Collaborative Practice, University of Wyoming, Department of Agriculture and Applied Economics)

Who should participate?
Natural resource professionals who want to learn more about wildland-urban interface issues, opportunities, and strategies.

Can I receive continuing education credit?
The CR webinar series provides a convenient, free professional development option for busy professionals who want to earn continuing education credits without paying travel expenses or taking time off work. Participants who log in to the liver session may be eligible for Society of American Foresters and International Society of Aboriculture continuing education credits. The archived sessions can be viewed for continuing education credits for up to one year.

Click here for session details and for more information on how to access the webinar. You can also earn more about the Changing Roles Professional Development program by clicking here.

This session will be presented by Dr. Steve McNulty, Team Leader, Ecologist, Eastern Forest Environmental Threats Assessment Center. USDA Forest Service.

This webinar session will:
• provide an introduction to climate change
• discuss interactions between climate change and other environmental stresses on US forest health including increasing climate variability, bringing more intense precipitation events, doughts, and heat waves. These changes will then affect soil erosion, sedimentation, and wildfire.
• discuss potential changes in insect and disease outbreak.
• discuss long-term climate change leading to changes in ecosystem composition
fisheries, and wildlife habitat, forest and range land productivity, and stream flow.

 

This session will be presented by Dr. Steve McNulty, Team Leader, Ecologist, Eastern Forest Environmental Threats Assessment Center. USDA Forest Service.

This webinar session will:
• provide an introduction to climate change
• discuss interactions between climate change and other environmental stresses on US   forest health including increasing climate variability, bringing more intense precipitation events, doughts, and heat waves. These changes will then affect soil erosion, sedimentation, and wildfire.
• discuss potential changes in insect and disease outbreak.
• discuss long-term climate change leading to changes in ecosystem composition
fisheries, and wildlife habitat, forest and range land productivity, and stream
flow.