California Forests and Rangelands: Proposed Indicators

Measure the contribution of niche products to the California economy in terms of total value, and direct and indirect employment. Currently, there is insufficient data to fully quantify this indicator and it is a known data gap. We can identify data sources that do exist for specific niche products.

Measure progress 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). Eligible sources relevant to forest and rangelands include biomass, geothermal, solar, wind, and small hydroelectric.

Evaluate moisture stress to forest vegetation from drought conditions. CWD is a measure of water availability: Potential Evapotranspiration minus Actual Evapotranspiration (PET – AET) and is an indicator of prolonged drought. As CWD increases there is less moisture available for forest vegetation and a corresponding drying of forest fuel condition. CWD is used to represent moisture stress from prolonged drought conditions.

Evaluate moisture stress to vegetation from prolonged drought conditions. CWD is calculated as potential evapotranspiration minus actual evapotranspiration. It can be derived as one of the outputs from the Basin Characteristics Model (BCM).

To show the current fire frequencies of CWHR vegetation types in relation to their pre-European historic fire regimes. Fire suppression and other management practices have been altering natural fire regimes for nearly a century, which in turn has changed vegetation structure and habitat quality, and in some cases has reduced biodiversity. The USDA USFS Fire Return Interval Departure analysis (FRID), based on vegetation type, can be used as a common metric for measuring the extent to which current fire regimes have departed from pre-Euro-American fire regimes.

To show CWHR vegetation types that are more exposed to development, and may be threatened with loss of habitat. There are a variety of land management types that offer different levels of protection, such as public reserves, wilderness, private easements, etc. The vegetation types can be summarized by these different management types and their ownership.

Evaluate urban areas that have higher percent of days over 90 degrees that can contribute to urban heat islands. Tree canopies in urban settings provide shade and reduce air temperatures considerably. The number of days over 90 degrees is one way of measuring potentially harmful heat in urban settings that can lead to unhealthy air quality and a host of health ailments in sensitive groups.

To monitor genotypic variations in species populations. Populations with greater genetic variation tend to be able to adapt to changing circumstances and sudden environmental changes than populations with limited genetic diversity. Genetic variation may be measured by gene sequencing or morphological variation. This may be a data gap because of the intense resources that it takes to measure genetic variability, although some studies are being conducted on specific species, such as salmonids and Douglas-fir.

Determine how ranchers and managers are diversifying their income sources to maintain their ownerships and lifestyles. Activities such as fee hunting, conservation easements to protect areas of high conservation value and other forms of recreation have increased on rangeland properties. Increasingly, livestock are being used to manage fuels in conservation reserves and parks with a financial return to the herd manager. The potential for these and other untapped sources of income for ranchers has a bearing on whether or not the land can remain in current uses.

State and federal landowner assistance programs provide incentives for landowners to manage their timberland properties. The principal assistance programs affecting forest landowners are the California Forest Improvement Program, Vegetation Management Program and NRCS Environmental Quality Incentives program. Funding levels and project priorities vary among these programs. New assistance programs may emerge in the next few years that can provide benefits to forest landowners.

This indicator tells us about the labor force and the quality of local employment opportunities.

The amount of employment generated by the recreation, outdoor education, and tourism industries. Recreation, outdoor education, and tourism supply jobs. The point of this indicator is to understand the contribution to maintenance and enhancement of long term multiple social and economic benefits to meet the needs of society.

Track the genetic diversity of dominant tree species across their ranges by tree seed zones. Population decline from loss of habitat and distribution may lead to loss of genetic variability which can ultimately lead to extinction. Other ways to protect genetic diversity may include relocating individuals to protected areas, predator or pest control measures and seed banks. Genetic diversity can favor persistence and increase adaptive potential.

To document the areal extent of forest and rangeland CWHR types to show the overall status of statewide ecosystem biodiversity, and to track any trends in the vegetation types – gains and losses. The CWHR system uses life history and geographic range information to link nearly 700 California vertebrate species to their native habitats based on general vegetation types. The information is spatial and can be summarized by acres.

To track vegetation on forest and rangelands by successional stage. Age classes are indicators of vegetation structure and of ecosystem dynamics, such as recent disturbances, seed recruitment, plant growth rates, etc. Forest age class can be tracked through Forest Inventory and Analysis (FIA) data, as well as GIS information on recent large stand-replacing wildfires. Age classes of non-forest vegetation types, such as chaparral, may be harder to track.

Document current status and trends in federal (BLM, USFS) rangeland policies and allotment use by private ranchers (for livestock grazing). Grazing allotments on federal lands have historically been a significant resource available to ranchers. With this indicator, the importance of allotments to rangeland use sustainability will be assessed. Anecdotal evidence indicates that some grazing allotments are being secured by non-grazing interests to reduce grazing pressures.

Evaluate the broad ecosystem-level impacts of disruption of pre-European fire regimes associated with fire suppression, land-use change, and long-term ecosystem dynamics. FRID measures the current era (1906 to present) fire frequency patterns against reference conditions that occurred during the pre-European Settlement period. It reflects modern-era difference in fire frequency and potential ecological instability that this divergence might cause. FRID can exist both as a positive (more fire than reference conditions) and negative (less fire than reference conditions) values, and carries some inference regarding ecosystem stability and dynamics of vegetation under current fire management policy.

Shows areas that, under current regulations, are open to new development. Many areas of the state held in private ownership are under some sort of restrictions on development, due to for example the Williamson Act, Timber Production Zoning, or conservation easements. Areas of forest and rangelands not under such constraints are more vulnerable to development. In particular, areas of forest and rangelands recently or currently being withdrawn from Williamson Act or other protections can indicate places where new developments are more likely to occur.

Area and volume of forest pest damaged trees above the 1% mortality threshold. This evaluates current extent and damage from forest pests.

Estimate Area and volume of forestland at risk of experiencing greater than 1% mortality in the next 15 years. This evaluates risks to forestland from future forest pest outbreaks.