Evaluate distribution of green space per capita over urban landscapes. Communities and neighborhoods vary in their access to green space (parks and open space). This may be because of the amount of open space/parks available, or because of the ability to reach parks based on transit availability. Equitable distribution of green space is important in urban areas and to disadvantaged communities.

Quantifying reforestation and/or other silvicultural treatment needs provides insights on potential technical and financial assistance opportunities. Data are available for California timberland as a whole and separately for National Forests on reforestation needs. Data on forest area requiring treatments to reduce stocking may be provided in other chapters of the assessment and will be used to evaluate this indicator.

Measure the impact of carbon offset projects on management of California forestlands. There are two types of offset projects. First, under the California Cap-and-Trade Program, the Air Resources Board has the authority to approve forestry compliance offset projects. Project types include reforestation, improved forest management, and avoided conversion. Second, there are voluntary forestry offset projects that have been approved by voluntary agencies such as the Climate Action Reserve (Reserve), the American Carbon Registry (ACR), and the Verified Carbon Standard (VCS). The acreage in California being managed for carbon offset projects provides a measure of the impact of these programs on actual forest management in California, in terms of land managed to maintain or improve carbon storage, and to provide additional environmental benefits such as improved water quality and habitat.

Provides a measure of the risk to new dense Interface development (<1 house/2 acres) of wildfire penetration, based on its proximate Fire Hazard Severity Zone (FHSZ) class. In contrast to Intermix areas, Interface lands have more manicured, irrigated and highly modified vegetation, and it is often the structural fuels can contribute significantly to fire spread. Wildfires in this form of WUI fires are relatively rare, and typically only spread under very extreme fire weather conditions. But due the high density of assets such as homes, roads, and residential and commercial infrastructure, damage levels from burning can be very high even over small areas.

Projected new, more fire-resilient development that would replace existing historically high risk WUI. Current WUI that has both high adjacent fire threats, and characteristics that create high susceptibility to fire damage (e.g. vegetation density and structure, ignition-prone building materials, poor design and lower fire protection capacity) can have its risk level reduced by replacing the adjacent wildland fuels with high density Interface. The new Interface would provide both a spatial buffer to wildland fire threats, and would also be less fire-prone, due to current design standards and improved community planning requirements associated with new development.

The amount of private forest the USFS is directly protecting through their Forest Legacy program. Protected forests enhance the cultural, social, and spiritual appreciation of forests. Acres of land protected under the Forest Legacy program.

Acres of projected future Intermix by Fire Hazard Severity Zone (FHSZ) class. Intermix is defined as between 1 house/2 acres, and 1 house/20 acres (0.5 to 0.05 houses/acre). Landscapes with housing densities of less than 1 house per 2 acres ( 0.5 houses/acre) typically retain most of their natural vegetation fuels, and consequently are not as resilient to wildfires as denser urbanized areas. Although wildfires are fairly frequent in these types of environments, structural values (due to low housing density) are typically relatively low (as compared to urban areas).

Both ecological disruption of natural fire regimes and in situ conditions of high hazard systems create support for land management policy using active treatment to reduce fuel hazards. We will evaluate recent fuel treatment activities by type of treatment and fuel type to evaluate whether this policy is effectively addressing both ecological and social concerns of adverse impacts from wildfire

Quantify the amount of acres of rangeland, by county that receives favorable property tax treatment under the Williamson Act. Williamson Act contracts have a significant effect on the amount of property taxes a rancher pays. The property is assessed with livestock operations as the highest and best use. There is some evidence that the positive effects of Williamson Act contracts have diminished in the past several years.

Favorable third party and other assessments of forest managers are considered evidence that sustainable forestry is being practiced. There are three forest management certification programs that California forest landowners engage in. These all require that managers adhere to specified standards of forest sustainability. There are also mandatory and voluntary regulatory procedures by which landowners can demonstrate sustainable forest management.

Evaluate changing conditions in fire activity as they might relate to changes in fire hazard as a result of fuel dynamics, climate influences, and land-use patterns. This will be reported as acres burned by bioregion/fuel type by decade. Past analyses have indicated recent significant trends in increased amount of wildfire.

(see Wildfire indicators)

Evaluate departure in air temperature by ecosystem units as a measure of climate warming. This will allow comparison of differing degrees of climate warming across forest ecosystems. Air Temperature is a direct indicator of climate change and can have impacts on forest and ecosystem health. Use climate data from downscaled Global Climate Models (GCM) to assess warming trends among ecosystem units. Indicator will evaluate both historic conditions and project future conditions.

Local and regional controversy over forest management is reflected in appeals or protests against Timber Harvest Plans or on National Forests, appeals and lawsuits on NEPA documents filed for forestry projects. Generic protest letters regarding Timber Harvest Plans are not considered to be an accurate representation of controversy. Other measures such as number of legal actions filed may be superior. For National Forests, appeals filed and subsequent legal actions are suitable measures of controversy.

Characterize the general management approach of timberland owners and quantify the extent to which that approach is applied. There are six landowner groups in California each of which has a different approach to timberland management. These include forest industry, forest industry suppliers, custodial owners, land trusts and conservation organizations, tribes and public agencies. Each of these groups varies in its adoption of sustainable forestry practices.

Trends in ownership or partnerships involving conservation organizations and ranchers document change favoring sustainable resource management. This indicator measures the number of conservation easements and number of acres protected under conservation easement, ownership by conservation organizations conducting ranching operations as well as other partnerships between producers and conservation organizations.

Depicts areas/districts (counties, NCCPs) where ordinances and plans require that developers purchase and set aside acreage of undeveloped lands for permanent conservation on par with that which they are developing. Though difficult to specify where they will occur spatially, a number of areas in the state require that for each acre developed, an acre of similar vegetation type in the same region (and often of oak woodland) be purchased by the developer and set aside for conservation.

Evaluate stream health and indirect watershed health. An index of biotic integrity (IBI) combines several metrics from stream monitoring data to evaluate overall stream health. The IBI index score has been shown to be correlated with different levels of human disturbance. Where data exists it can be evaluated against IBI scores for forested areas with unimpaired streams that serve as reference conditions.

Measure contribution of forest biomass towards attainment of policy goals for use of renewable energy sources. California's Renewables Portfolio Standard (RPS) requires investor-owned utilities, electric service providers, and community choice aggregators to increase procurement from eligible renewable energy resources to 33% of total procurement by 2020 (CPUC). Forest biomass is one of many eligible sources.

Measures the contribution of forest-based biomass towards attainment of policy goals set by the California Low-Carbon Fuel Standard. California’s Low-Carbon Fuel Standard, established by AB32 (2006) and Executive Order S-01-07 (2007), sets a goal of a 10% reduction in carbon intensity of transportation fuels by 2020. Biofuels produced from wood biomass are one potential source to achieve the target.