At the International Fellowship Program we learn from the people working on the front lines of natural resource management. People that are applying the theory!! We have the opportunity to ask them about their experiences in management, good or bad. These interactions in the field, in our big classroom "the landscape", allow fellows to get new ideas on natural resource management to bring back home.
These are the 21 study tours fellows attended on 2019.
Fellows are assigned to write articles of study tours with topics related to their project of interest. By writing these articles fellows have the opportunity to research deeper the topic they are covering and express their opinion on it through their own cultural lens.
Small Forest Land Ownership: Little Beaver Creek Tree Farm
Little Beaver Creek Tree Farm, owned and operated by second-generation
owners Anne and Richard Hanschu. The tree farm was established in 1956
when Anne's father purchase 212 acres. When it became time for Anne and
Richard to take over the property, they retired from their previous
careers as a schoolteacher and veterinarian, respectively, and relocated
from Oklahoma to Oregon. According to Richard, "forestry is the best
way to retire." Not having had any formal training in forestry, the
Hanschus completed Oregon State University's master woodland manager
extension program, which the couple credits with providing practical
meaning and application to information and ideas. The Hanschus now own a
total of roughly 500 acres divided across three properties, which they
actively manage for"economically-minded sustainable production." In
addition, Anne and Richard host group tours on their property to share
with others the forest management lessons they have learned during their
tenure. During our visit, the Hanschus walked us through their
operations, talked about what it’s like to be a family-run and operated
tree farm, and showed us the work they’ve been doing on their property. Read more...
Urban Forestry: Forest Park
Forest Park is one of the largest urban forests in the US, so what
better place to look at the issues presented in managing urban trees?
The site is currently predominantly second-growth Douglas fir and
bigleaf maple, as timber production only ceased in 1948 following the
park’s creation. The park is funded at a city level but also raises
additional capital by bidding for government grants. Managers work in
close cooperation with the Forest Park Conservancy Trust, a partnership which allows a greater amount of habitat restoration to take place. Read more...Seedling Nursery Management: IFA Nurseries, Inc.
Since 1941, IFA Nurseries has been providing foresters and landowners with a full-service conifer seedling system that offers the following: risk diversity, custom growing, excellent facilities, and experienced management for their reforestation seedling contracts. In total, IFA Nurseries has grown over 1.5 billion seedlings since its establishment. Read more...Agroforestry: Lago di Merlo Vineyards
On a week-long trip to northern California, the International Fellows
visited Harry Merlo, Jr. at his vineyard for a morning tour on
agroforestry. Harry Merlo, Sr., philanthropist and World Forest
Institute founder, raised his son Harry Jr. in the winemaking tradition.
Harry Sr. began at the age of five, crushing grapes with his feet for
his father, Giuseppe Merlo, in the Italian section of Stirling City,
California. The tradition continued with the acquisition of Harry Sr.’s
vineyard near Geyserville, California in 1965. Eventually, family
interest in winemaking led his son, Harry Jr., to study viticulture and
enology at California State University, Fresno. Following graduation,
Harry Jr. ultimately became Manager of Lago di Merlo Vineyards &
Winery at the Merlo Ranch in Sonoma County. Under Harry Jr.'s
leadership, the Merlos have expanded their vineyard to over 200 acres
and currently grow Sangiovese Piccolo, Merlot, Cabernet, and Sauvignon
Blanc. Read more...Redwoods Restoration: Redwoods National and State Parks
Our first introduction to the amazing redwoods happened along
the Avenue of Giants in Humboldt State Park as we drove in. After getting some
information in the park’s visitor center, we had the opportunity to further experience
the inevitable admiration and emotional high of walking among these giants in
the Founders Grove trail.
There we had the great opportunity to share space with them as closely as we
wanted to, touching, hugging, or simply trying to absorb the moment. For me, this
was a childhood dream come true.
The next day, we visited Prairie Creek Redwoods State Park
to learn about the redwoods restoration program that has been running since
1978. We were given a warm welcome by the park’s forester, Jason Teraoka, and
restoration specialists, Neil Youngblood and Scott Powell. The redwoods
restoration program is meant to restore, protect, and reconnect redwoods that
were heavily harvested as the result of an aggressive forestry biologic asset
liquidation strategy that led to the parks’ creation. This restoration program
management evolved from roads removal to a multi-level landscape focus. An
important indicator of success of the road restoration efforts is the presence
of different-sized gravel types in streams, allowing for cavities among them, which serve
as wildlife habitat. The absence of these cavities occurs when eroded dirt
covers them. Read more...Sawmill Operation: Sierra Pacific Industries
In Anderson, California we visited one of Sierra Pacific Industries’ twelve industrial facilities. Sierra Pacific is one of the few remaining vertically integrated forest products companies in the US. This tour provided a good opportunity to note how the efficiency-seeking culture of the US is implied in all the processes we observed. Beyond the plant’s operations, we were able to confirm that different management planning techniques, such as optimal harvest scheduling, are also applied in the formulation of Sierra Pacific’s forest management plans. Read more...4th World Congress on Agroforestry
Over 1,200 experts from a hundred countries met in Montpellier, France for the 4th World Congress on Agroforestry on May 20-22, 2019. Just six miles inland from the Mediterranean Sea, Montpellier is one of France's oldest university cities. The world congress is held every 5 years, and this year was the first time it was held in Europe. The congress has previously been held in the United States, Kenya, and India. In addition to the scientific program and posters, side-events, field trips, and a rich social program all kept participants busy during the entire week. Agroforestry, or the intentional integration of agriculture and forestry, has recently drawn much attention from scientists and farmers across the globe recently for its potential benefits. The overall objective of this world congress was to strengthen the links between science, society, and public policy. The program covered a wide range of topics, such as: climate change, biodiversity, agroecology, land degradation and restoration, public policies, adoption, finance, germplasm, landscapes, and more. Read more...Forest Disturbances and Fire Ecology: Columbia River Gorge
On this day, the International Fellows were VIPs accompanied by Robin Shoal from the U.S. Forest Service as we visited a forest recovering from a recent fire. We went to “The Gorge”, one of nine National Scenic Areas (NSA) in the United States. The Columbia River Gorge NSA is Portland’s backyard, and about 4 million visitors per year visit Multnomah Falls and other gorgeous waterfalls while others hike the trails that were left undisturbed by the Eagle Creek Fire. Read more...Forest-Related Education for the Next Generation: Outdoor School
Ongoing for more than 60 years in Oregon, Outdoor School provides the opportunity for students in fifth or sixth grade to move from their school classrooms into the outdoors to learn and immerse themselves in nature. In 2015, the Oregon Legislature passed Senate Bill 439: The Outdoor School Law, which means every Oregon student in fifth or sixth grade will have the opportunity to attend a week-long Outdoor School program or an equivalent outdoor education experience. Read more...Community Forestry and Conservation: Columbia Land Trust
Ecosystems form the basis for human life on Earth; it is universal
knowledge that people need nature to thrive. Human welfare and economic
development depend on services and products provided by a healthy
environment, such as water quality, food (fish, fruit), raw materials
(timber, fuel), climate regulation and recreation, to name a few.
The Columbia Land Trust is funded through grants from the federal government and independent organizations and from private donations. Timber revenue from Management Plans that use silviculture tools to support restoration (including replanting with native tree species and the implementation of longer rotation intervals between harvest) also contributes to the Columbia Land Trust’s budget. Read more...Making Space for Trees: Designing Tree-Friendly Infrastructure
The World Forestry Center recently hosted the 2019 Oregon and Community
Forestry Conference on Thursday the 6th of June. The theme of the
conference this year was making space for trees and designing
tree-friendly infrastructure. Five of this year’s International Fellows
attended the conference to gain insight into managing trees in an urban
situation.
The keynote speaker, Howard Stenn, is a Seattle-based landscape gardener. His key message was “grow your soils before you grow your trees.” This is of particular importance in the urban environment where trees find themselves in a stressful environment. Space for roots is limited, water availability is often reduced, and the heat island effect all add to the pressure faced by urban trees. Howard noted that compaction is the biggest limiting factor to urban trees. Read more...Forest Practices in Eastern Oregon: MC Ranch
MC Ranch is a property that was once owned by Crown Pacific. Harry Merlo
purchased the land in 2002 and then acquired timber rights in 2005.
After the acquisition of timber rights, the ranch has been managed for
various purposes ranging from timber production to cattle grazing to
conservation of wild animals and endangered species. MC Ranch covers
12,000 acres with the predominant tree species being Ponderosa pine,
Douglas fir, White fir, Western larch, Engelman spruce, and Lodgepole
pine. The primary objective of the property is to balance the ecological
needs of the land with the short- and long-term needs of the landowner.
The property boasts a hilly topography with numerous ponds, springs and
streams. Read more...Wildfire Incident Response: Blue Mountain Inter-agency Dispatch Center
As a good citizen, if you see a
fire, you call 911 to report it. The response to the call could vary from
no action, if the fire is immediately stopped, to hundreds of firefighters,
engines, and aircraft in the case of an incident type 1. But how is the incident response managed?
First, your 911 call arrives at one of the dispatch centers located across the country. The call is collected by a dispatcher, a person who receives reports of the discovery and status of fires, confirms their locations, acts promptly to provide the people and equipment likely to be needed for the initial attack, and sends the resources to the proper place. The Blue Mountain Interagency Dispatch Center (BMIDC), based in La Grande, Oregon, is the interagency focal point for coordinating the mobilization of resources for wildland fire, prescribed fire, and other all-risk incidents throughout northeast Oregon and southeast Washington. Read more...Non-Timber Forest Products: Oregon Woodland Cooperative
The Oregon Woodland Cooperative (OWC) currently has 75 members with
approximately 30,000 acres of land. During the 1940s and 1950s, loggers
purchased timber from small family-owned forests at prices far below
normal market value. Sawmills tend to pay less to small private
forestland owners than to large timber companies. Additionally,
landowners need revenue to pay their land tax. Therefore, OWC was
founded in 1980 in order to protect the rights of small woodland owners
and to strengthen the local economy. OWC members are all private forest
landowners who own and manage family forest farms. The average size of
their land is between 45-50 acres. Some members, like Neil, are very
active and help the coop voluntarily, while some others are not as
active but like to show their support for the OWC’s ideals. Read more...Long-Term Ecological Research: H.J. Andrews Experimental Forest
Fellows went on a 2-day science extension adventure to attend HJA Day
at Oregon State University's (OSU) H.J. Andrews Experimental Forest,
where we met many ecosystem scientists and postgraduates, as well as
nature artists and historians. HJA Day is an annual field gathering to
share information about research, outreach, education, management, and
arts and humanities, and is hosted by the H.J. Andrews Experimental
Forest’s Long-Term Ecological Research (LTER) program This year’s event
marked the 71st anniversary of the 1948 establishment
of the H.J. Andrews Experimental Forest. The H.J. Andrews Experimental
Forest is a world-renowned center for research, natural resource
management, and the humanities. It has been a charter member of the
National Science Foundation's LTER Program
since 1980, focusing on the study of ecosystems over the long term and
to allow those long-term measurements and observations to inspire
ecosystem questions. Read more...Tribal Land Management: Confederated Tribes of the Umatilla Indian Reservation
We were welcomed at the Nixyaawii Governance Center in Pendleton. At the
Center, one could notice the intentional effort and dedication put in
place to create an atmosphere of culture, from the display of beautiful
handmade traditional crafts that represent the rich culture of the CTUIR
to the exceptionally warm reception that we received. Instantly, an
aura of appreciation of Native culture and traditional values filled the
air. Another reflection of their warm hospitality was the gifting of
beautiful tribal accessories to all the International Fellows.
The CTUIR includes three Native American tribes - the Cayuse, Umatilla, and Walla-Walla - who all share the reservation. Originally, the reservation covered 6.4 million acres of land, which was ceded to the US government in 1855. This amount of land represents the minimum area needed for CTUIR ceremonial and subsistence needs. Currently, the CTUIR have about 172,000 acres of land within their reservation boundary, which constitutes just 3% of the ceded land. Read more...Small is Beautiful: Zena Forest Products
Zena Forest Products is a
German-American family-owned business located in the Eola Hills of the
Willamette Valley, Oregon. The Deumling family has managed Zena Forest, a
1,300-acre parcel of FSC-certified
forestland, since 1987 with a focus on maintaining a healthy and
diverse ecosystem. This forested land comprises the largest contiguous
block of forest in the Willamette Valley and includes large areas of
endangered Oak Savannah and Oak Woodland. Read more...Beers and Payment for Ecosystem Services? Wine not?
My colleagues from the World Forest Institute’s International Fellowship
Program and I visited Bear Creek Watershed, an important water
treatment plant that, during the summer, supplies around 4 million
gallons of drinking water a day to the approximately 15,000 people of
the city of Astoria.
Faced with an area of about 3,800 acres of forest with native species (Western Hemlock, Douglas-fir, and Cedar) and the need to unlock funds, local policy-makers made the decision to avoid intensive timber harvest, as this method could threaten local water quality. Instead, in 2014, they came up with an innovative financing mechanism, a Carbon Project. Read more...Love Wins - Changing the Conservation Narrative One Yard at a Time
The World Forestry Center received an August visitor indeed as we welcomed the staff of the West Multnomah Soil and Water Conservation District led by a very good friend of the International Fellows, Jim Cathcart. The Fellows were honored with the presence of the “faces behind the scene” of one of the leading conservation agencies in Multnomah County. It was a delight to listen to each member of the agency introduce themselves and their role in moving their conservation agenda forward. It was also exciting to learn about the “Dust Bowl” disaster of the early 1930s which compelled the US Congress to make a decision intended to solve the problem of soil degradation. A model soil conservation law was passed that brought about the creation of conservation districts in every state. Read more...
Mount Saint Helens: Weyerhaeuser Company
Weyerhaeuser Company is one of the world's largest private owners of timberlands,
owning or controlling nearly 12.4 million acres of timberlands in the
U.S. and managing an additional 14 million acres of timberlands under
long-term licenses in Canada. In 1904, after years of successful
Mississippi River-based lumber and mill operations, Frederick Weyerhaeuser moved west and founded the Weyerhaeuser Timber Company. The Homestead Act
contributed significantly to the successful story of the Weyerhaeuser
Company. Frederick Weyerhauser was able to secure many land properties
from forest landowners, which had earlier been procured from the
government as part of its contribution to economic development in the
Pacific Northwest. In 1929, the company built what was then the largest
sawmill in the world in Longview, Washington. Read more...From Fancy to Functional Wood Products
In the morning, our first stop was a visit to Tropical Salvage,
a store dedicated to selling furniture hand-crafted in Indonesia using
hardwoods salvaged from rivers, volcanic lahars, and land conversion.
Tropical Salvage prides themselves on having never cut down a single
tree to create their products. The company has created local jobs in
Indonesia and directly employs 45 people in Jepara in north-central
Java. Furthermore, part of the sales revenue is used to buy small areas
of land to plant and conserve tropical forest. Tropical Salvage’s
target market is consumers concerned about good values in the supply
chain and focused on Fair Trade and sustainability. They also look
towards consumers who appreciate the natural beauty present in timber,
as each piece of furniture is unique. Many people in Portland are
attracted to buy this variety of custom-made products using local
design. The story of not exploiting new areas of forest whilst
contributing to protecting biodiversity and improving the welfare of
people in Indonesia give the furniture store a positive message for the
consumer. Read more...
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