Blog

A Great Spring Prescribed Fire Season!

Friday, 29 May 2009 00:00

We are pleased to report that under our contract for prescribed fire services, the Nature Conservancy MD/DC chapter have had a record year for prescribed fire this season!

We provided fire planning, burn boss, and ignition and holding services, and prescribed fire equipment on a total of 240 acres of prescribed fire across three different TNC preserves.  We burned these acres over the course of seven burn days from April9-May21 . 

We were thrilled this year to be working with Sam Linblom, the Nature Conservancies regional fire manager.  Sam provided plan review and oversight and his experience and expertise has really helped the MD/DC chapters fire program flourish.  In addition, the Nature Conservancy MD/DC chapter hired a hardworking 3 man Seasonal crew to help prepare the firelines and crew the burns.  Also new for this season was TNC's collaboration with the USFWS Blackwater Refuge fire program.

Blackwater supplied personnel and equipment for five of the burns.  Their staffs expertise and and equipment helped to keep the burns efficient and safe.

The crew uses Sustainable Solutions' Polaris Ranger to lay down a foam line to burn off of

The success of this years spring season highlights the value of collaboration between the private sector, non profits, and state and federal  agencies to insure that more beneficial prescribed fire gets back onto the landscape. Read more about the season and watch a short video on the MD/DC chapters website.

California on Fire (Again)

Saturday, 09 May 2009 01:09

California is in flames again.  The western fire season started early again on Feb.5 with the Fort fire, which burned 1500 acres.  However, things really started heating up on May5th with the Jesusita Fire in Santa Barbara county.  This fire ultimately burned over a whopping 8733 acres, destroyed 80 homes, 79 outbuildings and 1 commercial property. 

It took over 1300 personnel to help contain the blaze, at a total cost of $20 million. Ultimately, despite the heroic efforts of the fire crews, the only thing that stopped the blaze (and saved the city of Santa Barbara) was cooling temperatures and moderating winds off the ocean.  This google map show the area impacted by the fire along with details.

 

Following the Jesusita fire, an addtional 3 fires burned a total of 690 acres from May 22nd to 27th.  In addition, according to the CalFire website, the Tualre fire has already burned over 300 acres and is only 30% contained.

A Presentation on Markets at Virginia Ecosystem Service Conference

Monday, 16 March 2009 00:00

I presented our Bay Bank and LandServer work on March 13th at the first annual Virginia Ecosystem Services conference, held in beautiful Charlottesville VA. 

The conference was hosted by the Virginia Department of Forestry, the Virginia department of Environmental Quality, and Virginia Cooperative Extension.

The well run event was well attended by a mix of landowners, technical service providers, ecosystem service market participants, and state and federal agencies.

Kudos to Buck Kline of VA DOF and Neil Clark of VA Cooperative Extension on putting together a great event. 

The focus of the presentation was to introduce LandServer and the Bay Bank and explain the critical value of Ecosystem Market Infrastructure (EMI).  EMI insures that these exciting new markets are accessible (to buyers, sellers, and investors), transparent, robust, credible, and secure.

I concluded the presentation with the analogy that compares regional ecosystem service markets to your local Farmers Market: 

"These local markets make it easy for buyers and sellers to meet, thus lowering transaction costs.  Farm markets are transparent.  You can see the goods and know exactly where they came from.  Farm markets increase commodity exposure and market access. Prior to the farmers market, local farmers had very few outlets for their goods.  Farm markets also help to opportunity to bundle products.  You can get both bell peppers and cilantro in the same place. 

"Farm Markets also help to set product standards (local, organic, free range, grass fed) for the market.  Finally, and most importantly, markets help to Drive Demand.  You didn't realize that you wanted a 5th generation, organic, heirloom tomato until you went to the Market and saw how good it looked."

LandServer and the Bay Bank help to address this critical lack of a centralized ecosystem market infrastructure for the Chesapeake region.  When Bay Bank goes live in late 2009, private landowners will be able to market their carbon, habitat, and forest conservation credits as easily as a farmer with a 5th generation, organic heirloom tomato. 

Extreme Down Under

Wednesday, 25 February 2009 20:00

Australia is a continent known for its extremes. Extremely poisonous snakes and spiders, extremely large saltwater crocodiles, the extreme nature of the early inhabitants of the colony (convicts).

Extremely Poisonous

Death Adder (Acanthophis antarticus)

Historically the weather of Australia has also been extreme. The blistering hot heat of the Outback is an extreme contrast to the rainy season that historically has washed over the coastal areas. While Australia's natural ecosystems, and the people that inhabit them, are used to the extreme nature of their country, February 2009 defied all previous measures relative to the extreme nature of the Australia landscape.

I arrived in Sydney on Feb 1 for three weeks to continue work on the Moranco project. When I arrived, the southern portion of the country was gripped by a record setting heat wave. Weeks of temperatures over 100 degrees F. At the same time, the north of the county had been deluged by record setting rains and cool temperatures. Both conditions blew out the previous 8 year averages, and both set new records. The harsh contrast was best captured by the map image below created by NASA. This map of Australia shows how the land surface temperature from January 25 to February 1 compared to the average mid-summer temperatures the continent experienced between 2000-2008. Places where temperatures were warmer than average are red, places experiencing near-normal temperatures are white, and places where temperatures were cooler than average are blue. The data was collected by the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) on NASA’s Terra satellite.

MLK Day of Service

Tuesday, 20 January 2009 16:49

This year I  returned to the Pope Branch regional park for the third year in a row to help with trash removal and English Ivy Mitigation. 

This annual cleanup is sponsored by the Pope Branch Park Restoration Alliance, a collaboration between Groundwork Anacostia River, the Earth Conservation Corps, Casey Trees, the Sierra Club, DC Department of Parks and Recreation, and the newly  created DC Department of the Environment.

This year we crossed over Minnesota ave to begin cleaning further up into the park.  Click here to see the area of the park we worked in.  

 The volunteer turnout was great.  By 10am we had at least 50 people working up and down the park picking up trash.

Pope Branch,like most of D.C's stream corridoor parks, suffers from edge effect. The narrow nature of these parks allow invasive species to not only enter the park, but thrive in the sunlight streaming in from the edges. 

As a result, Pope Branch, along with the vast majority of D.Cs parks, is infested with English Ivy.  While seemingly benign growing in a English garden or trimmed into a topiary, English Ivy is wreaking havoc on our parks and natural systems. 

Escaped from adjacent landowners or its seeds spread by birds, English Ivy enters into the park and runs wild.  Covering the forest floor it forms vast  "Ivy Barrens" that choke out native species.  Whats worst, the ivy climbs up trees and slowly envelops the crown, smothering the tree and eventually killing it.   Loss of tree canopy has a major impact on D.C's riparian forests and it one of the leading causes of climate change globally. 

 

The SLR is now LandServer!

Tuesday, 13 January 2009 11:19

 

 

The innovative web based assessment and reporting tool, formally know as the Spatial Land Registry, is now know as LandServer.   The tool was re-named to better reflect its functionality to private landowners. 

LandServer will allow landowners to navigate to their property via an easy to use Google map interface, select their property, and generate a report that assesses the conservation value of the property.  The report will outline the general attributes of their property, including landcover, soils, streams, etc. In addition, the report will include the ecosystem services that the land is providing, the lands eligibility for enrolling in conservation programs, and any ecosystem service markets that the landowner could be eligible for. 

 We are working closely with our project partners, and the project developer, the Other Firm to develop this exciting mapping tool.

Look for Landserver in a beta version for Maryland and Delaware in early 2009. 

Oh Christmas Tree

Thursday, 18 December 2008 22:26

 

The Christmas Tree is one of the iconic symbols of the Holiday season.  While accepted today as the normal Christmas tradition, the story of the Tree is an ancient one.

History indicates that the tradition of the tree started in Germany in the 16th century, most likely an offshoot of pagan celebrations of the Winter Solstice, which is December 21st.  The tree was slow to grow in popularity and was limited mainly Germany.   The first trees introduced into Britain by German immigrants did not immediately take off, and the early trees introduced into America by the Hessian soldiers were not recorded in any particular quantity. The Pennsylvanian German settlements had community trees as early as 1747. However, the tradition really came into the mainstream when a woodcutting of the royal family standing around a Christmas tree was published in the Illustrated London News of December 1848, and was copied in the United States at Christmas 1850.  

 Looking at the woodcut, one can make an interesting observation.  The tree in the woodcut is actually placed on top of a table.  This tells the story of the trees past, and how it came to shape the future of the Christmas tree as an industry.

Historically in Germany, the "tree" was obtained by cutting off the top of a large tree.  The arboricultural equivalent of decapitation, this practice prevented the source tree from further growth.  As a result, in some areas statutes were made to prevent people having more than one tree.  

Because of this unsustainable past, and the large commercialization of the tree as an image of the season, almost all Christmas trees are commercially grown on tree farms where they are cut after about ten years of growth and new trees are planted each year.

 

According to the National Christmas Tree Association, there were over 31 million trees purchased in 2007, with a combined retail value of $1.3 billion dollar.  In addition to the commercial value, these tree farms help conserving rural working landscapes, and provide valuable ecosystem services, including carbon sequestration, wildlife habitat, and providing natural water filteration to the watersheds the tree farms  are located in.  In the U.S alone,  there are over 21,000 Christmas Tree Farms that cover 446,996 acres of land. 

The life cycle of a Christmas tree from the seed to a tree takes, depending on species and treatment in cultivation, between 8 and 12 years. First, the seed is extracted from cones harvested from older trees. These seeds are then usually grown in nurseries and then sold to Christmas tree farms at an age of 3-4 years.

 

Once nice benefit to being located in Washington D.C is witnessing the annual lighting of the National Christmas Tree.  This living 41' 9" Colorado Blue Spruce was planted in the Elipse, just south of the White House. The national tree tree is as a message of peace to the nation and the world.  In what becomes the "Christmas Pathway of Peace," the National Christmas Tree and 56 smaller trees--one for each state, five territories and the District of Columbia--serve as the focal point on the Elipse during the holiday season.

 

 

Its easy to see how the use of a tree came to be one symbol of  joy during the holiday season.  Renewable and refreshing, nothing seems quite as peaceful as a tree, draped in lights, twinkling against the darkness of night. 

Sustainable Solutions wants to wish all of our clients, colleagues, friends, and family, a Merry Christmas, Happy Holidays, and all the best for the New year.

 

 

A Conference on Ecosystem Services

Sunday, 07 December 2008 13:17

 

 

Sustainable Solutions will be at the 2008 ACES conference the week of December 8th.  The focus for the 2008 conferences is: Using Science for Decision Making in Dynamic Systems.

ACES 2008 will bring together government, non-governmental organization, academia, tribal, and private sector leaders to advance the use of ecosystem services and related science in conservation, restoration, resource management, and development decisions.  The conference will highlight concepts and applications relating to four primary themes:

• Mapping and spatial relationships
• Values and measurement
• Dynamic systems and drivers of change
• Institutional structures and decision making

Sustainable will be presenting  at the conference on Wednesday the 10th, in a concurrent session focused on the Chesapeake Bay and Mid Atlantic region.   The presentation will focus on the role of the Spatial Land Registry as a tool to facilitate ecosystem service market transactions.  The SLR will help private landowners determine what ecological services their land is providing, and how to realize those values through the Bay Bank.  

The diversity of the sponsors and attendees (government agencies, non profits, private companies, regulators) reflects the growing interest in ecosystem services from across multiple sectors.  It is this diversity of expertise and experiences, and the sharing of information, that will continue to build the case for conservation of natural resources by accurately valuing the services that ecosystems provide.  

As global resource demands continue to increase, the true valuation of ecosystems services promises to be the long term solution for  conserving and protecting the earths critical natural resource infrastructure.  Sustainable is thrilled to be presenting at the ACES conference; and to be part of a global network of individuals working hard to help achieve that solution.

More Prescribed Fire means less Wildfire!

Tuesday, 18 November 2008 18:47

The California fires are finally out. The summer of 2008 stands as the worst fire season on record for California, with over 800,000 acres burned. Which beat out the previous record, set in 2007. At one point in Northern California, there were over 2,700 individual fires burning. A record dry spring, combined with a July heat wave, combined with heavy fuels loads, contributed to this record breaking summer season.

However, the fire season did not end in August. In November, southern California burst into flames. While half the total acres were burned compared to the northern part of the State, over 43,000; the southern California fires burned more in the "Interface" and resulted in the destruction of over 400 houses, 500 mobile homes, forced the evacuation of thousands of people, and caused the closure of interstate 5.

The Wildland Urban Interface (WUI) refers to the zone where natural areas and urban areas intersect. One fire burning in the WUI in LA, the Sayre fire, caused the worst loss of homes by wildfire ever recorded in the city of Los Angeles. That's right, there was a major wildfire, withing the city of Los Angeles.

That sober fact defines the challenges that face us today in regards to managing fire. The hills of southern California are covered with a volatile mix of chaparral, live oak, grass and dead brush. This ecology has evolved over millenia to regularly burn. However, continued urban and suburban sprawl has pushed homes and businesses out into these fire prone areas. As a result, any fires, even the small ones, are contained as soon as they flare up. While the short term result may protect homes, the long term result has been a severely altered fire regime in these areas. The resulting buildup of fuel contributes to the large catastrophic fires that we see today. The map below is of the Santa Barbara area in southern California. It was developed by the LandFire mapping initiative. Purple are urban areas. Green are areas with normal fire conditions. The red areas are those with severely altered fire regimes. Where red and purple intersect are the WUI zones. It was these areas where the most recent fires raged and hundreds of homes were destroyed.

So the challenge then is, how to return the reds areas to green? One of the best tools that we have for restoring historic fire regimes is prescribed fire. Prescribed fires are those intentionally set, under exact fuel and weather conditions, using trained personnel and specialized equipment to keep the fire in the intended area. These fires are typically lower intensity than wildfires, often conducted in off season, and help to reduce the hazardous buildup of fuels. While prescribed fire in the WUI verses in rural areas involves considerably more risk, due to the homes, this risk is far lower than those posed by catastrophic wildfires. There are ways to lower these risk as well. The FireWise initiative teaches landowners how to mitigate the areas around there homes to lower the risk of wildfire, and improve the safety of their homes during prescribed fires.

The issue of managing fire in the WUI is not only unique to the West Coast. The map below, developed by the Maryland Forest Service, shows the WUI zones for Maryland.

The threats of catastrophic willfire will continue to grow across the country as conditions get hotter and drier, and sprawl continues to push out into the wildland areas. The challenge of dealing with increasingly worst wildfire fires seasons can only be met by fighting fire with fire. More prescribed fire means less wildfire. Period.

The Changing Seasons

Wednesday, 12 November 2008 17:46

One of the great things about working in the outdoors is being able to enjoy the change of the seasons. Fall always brings a welcome relief from the heat and humidity and the promise of a stunning show of color as forests prepare for winter.

A common misperception about natural systems is they remain in a static state. In reality, natural systems are in an almost constant state of change. Sometimes these changes are small like a tree falling in the woods. Sometimes the changes are large; just ask anyone impacted by the Southern California wildfires.

The point is change is a natural phenomenon. As participants in the natural system, our actions, when properly managed, can mimic the changes that occur in nature. For example, forests naturally thin themselves over time. In the hardwood forest, this natural thinning could take up to 80 years as trees compete for light, water, and nutrients. By carefully entering a forest stand and harvesting the suppressed trees, we can accelerate its overall growth and health. By embracing the change, we can grow a larger, healthier, stand of trees in the same 80 year period.

We heard a lot about change this fall. Regardless of your political affiliation, remember one thing: Change isn't political. Change is natural.