The Sonoma County Forest Conservation Working Group is a team with forestry and conservation expertise working together to provide education and resources to forest landowners with the goal of protecting and sustaining healthy forests, woodlands, and watersheds in Sonoma County. Members represent forest landowners, local and regional land trusts, watershed councils, and state and local agencies.
Arthur Dawson, baselineconsult.com
Sandy Sharp, www.bodeganet.com/landtrust/
Jill Butler, http://ceres.ca.gov/foreststeward/
Judy Rosales, http://coastridgecommunityforest-org.webs.com
Caerleon Safford, firesafesonoma.org
Ray Krauss, www.markwestwatershed.org
Fred Euphrat, Ph.D., RPF, www.euphrat.org
Brittany Heck, www.goldridgercd.org
Dee Swanhuyser, www.greenbelt.org
Kathleen Morgan, http://grwc.info
Kasey Wade, www.santarosa.edu
Kim Batchelder, www.sonomaopenspace.org
Amy Chesnut, www.sonomalandtrust.org
Earle Cummings, www.sonomarcd.org
Steven Swain, http://cemarin.ucanr.edu
OUR MISSION: Protecting Forests Across Landscapes and Through Generations
OUR GOALS: To perpetuate sustainable, healthy, and diverse forests, woodlands and watersheds across the Sonoma County landscape, and to be a catalyst, source of information, and point of contact for forestland owners.
STRATEGIES: Provide forest landowners with access to information, expert consultants, and funding opportunities. These will address topics including forest and watershed health, land management plans, funding sources, conservation easements, estate and financial planning, fire safety, income-generation, carbon sequestration, inventories, and environmental services.
OUTREACH AUDIENCE: Private landowners of coniferous forests and/or oak woodlands. These landowners control over 513,000 acres, constituting 50.5% of Sonoma County.
THE LANDSCAPE: There are approximately 513,388 acres of coniferous forests and oak woodlands in Sonoma County. Most of the oak woodland and over 68 percent (132,236 acres) of the coniferous forestland is controlled by private non-industrial landowners. These unique forests and woodlands are found in few other places in the world, and provide a suite of economic and non-economic benefits to the citizens of Sonoma County, including fish and wildlife habitat, clean air and water, recreational opportunities, and scenic attributes. A number of factors, including population growth, regulatory requirements, and changes in the local and global economy are creating pressure to convert forests and woodlands to other uses.
WHO WE ARE: We are a group with forestry and conservation expertise working to provide information and resources to forest landowners with the goal of protecting, sustaining and increasing the health of forests, woodlands, and watersheds in Sonoma County. Members represent local and regional land trusts, watershed councils, and state and local agencies.
This paper describes the creation, function, and accomplishments of the Sonoma County Forest Conservation Work Group. It was presented by Dr. Fred Euphrat at the Coastal Redwood Symposium at UC Santa Cruz in 2011. Click here to read the article …
Protecting forests across landscapes and through generations…