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Forest research and outreach compiles forestry voices in new story map project
For the past four years, Kim Ingram has been listening closely to the private forest landowners who participate in her Forest Stewardship Workshop series. During the workshops, landowners share their experiences clearing thickets of vegetation, replanting post-wildfire and tackling invasive species, and their concerns of who will take care of their forest when they're gone.
To alleviate their stress, Ingram–Forest Stewardship Education coordinator with University of California Agriculture and Natural Resources–turns to natural resource professionals from CAL FIRE, local Resource Conservation Districts, and the U.S Forest Service who can share knowledge and resources with participants. Recently, Ingram developed a story map that aims to provide landowners with a platform they can use to share their experiences and ways that they have been empowered to manage their land.
"It's not uncommon for small forest landowners to feel overwhelmed with their forest management responsibilities and uncertain over what steps to take first," said Ingram. "Through the Forest Stewardship Workshops and this story map project, we hope to show that there is an entire community of forest landowners in the same situation, learning from each other and moving forward towards their management goals."
The Forest Stewardship Story Map team used ArcGIS StoryMaps to design the project, with 15 participants providing interviews and visual content. StoryMaps provides a user-friendly interface where website visitors can either click on a county to view specific interviews or scroll to view the stories.
The forestry team plans to interview at least one landowner and natural resource professional in every forested county in California so private forest landowners have a local contact or can become inspired by a project in their area.
Theresa Ciafardoni, a forest landowner in Nevada County, said that the UC ANR Forest Stewardship Workshop helped her manage postfire restoration and long-term land use planning.
"It opened up so many options and possibilities," said Ciafardoni. "All the individuals who presented in the Forest Stewardship Workshop were open to phone calls for specific questions and provided invaluable technical assistance."
Involving landowners and forestry professionals with this project was an early decision made by Ingram, who believed it was important that the map held appeal beyond hosting stories. Now, the project functions as a networking tool for landowners seeking professional assistance, too.
Past Forest Stewardship Workshop presenters shared their contact information and the motivations behind their forest management work so that landowners could find assistance in their area. The professionals currently hosted on the map include Resource Conservation District managers, UC ANR forestry advisors and private contractors.
"The most motivated landowners are invested not only economically, but their heart is into it," said Ryan Tompkins, UC Cooperative Extension forestry advisor for Plumas, Sierra and Lassen counties. "The natural world is full of uncertainty, but they're committed to continuing education and learning about how to be a good land steward. This takes a certain level of humility recognizing that our tenure as a steward on the land is a very short period of a forest's lifetime."
Looking ahead, the team envisions the map as a working document that will eventually include interviews with indigenous tribal members who focus on traditional ecological knowledge projects, interviews and information from the UC ANR Postfire Forest Resilience Program, and a feature that will filter stories by topic (e.g. reforestation or prescribed burning).
"This isn't a project that could be completed by one person," explained Grace Dean, Forest Stewardship communications specialist. "The same way that Kim and other presenters explain forest management as a collaborative process holds true for this project."
The Forest Stewardship Workshop series gives participants the ability to start as beginners and build upon their knowledge and experiences. In the same vein, this story map provides the Forest Stewardship team a solid base of real stories to add on to over time. The hope is that it will grow into a multifaceted tool reaching new forest landowners, eventually enveloping their stories within the small forest landowner community.
To view the Forest Stewardship Story Map, visit: https://storymaps.arcgis.com/stories/bd062108d9894da7920d7aef06fe2c2c.
Bohart Museum: Learn about California's State Insect on UC Davis Picnic Day
Quick, what's the California state insect? You may know that the California grizzly bear (Ursus californicus) is the official state animal. You may know that the California quail (Lophortyx californica) is the official state bird. You may know that the California red-legged frog (Rana draytonii)...
This is the female California dogface butterfly, photographed by Greg Kareofelas, a Bohart Museum of Entomology asociate.
This is a California dogface butterfly eclosing from its chrysalis. (Reared and photographed by Greg Kareofelas)
This is the cover of the children's book, "The Story of the Dogface Butterfly," written by Fran Keller, now a professor at Folsom Lake College. Images are by Keller and Greg Kareofelas, and illustrations by Laine Bauer.
The Bohart Museum's popular live "petting zoo" also will be featured at the UC Davis Picnic Day. Here youngsters hold Madagascar hissing cockroaches. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)
Monarchs also will be featured at the Bohart Museum of Entomology's open house on UC Davis Picnic Day. Jeff Smith curates the lepidoptera collection. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)
Love Makes the World--and the Bugs--Go 'Round
Consider the lovestruck praying mantis. If you've ever watched a mating pair of mantids and seen the male lose his head, or seen other insect mating rituals, then you ought to read entomologist Emily Bick's review of the play, An Entomologist's Love Story, which showing at the San Francisco...
A mating pair of Stagmomantis limbata in Vacaville, Calif. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)
This male praying mantis, Stagmomantis limbata, has just lost his head. This one kept moving for eight hours before he expired. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)
UC Davis entomologist Emily Bick with her program at "An Entomologist's Love Story." (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)
Our Story Begins with Eight Monarch Caterpillars in the Dead of Winter
This is a story about how eight monarch butterflies escaped the freezing temperatures of Vacaville, Calif., and hitchhiked to sunny Santa Cruz, thanks to Good Samaritans (Good Monarcharians?) Rita LeRoy and Walter Rockholt of Vallejo. It all started in mid-to-late November when 12 caterpillars...
Rita LeRoy of Vallejo holds a Vacaville monarch before releasing it at Lighthouse Field State Park. (Photo by Walter Rockholt)
Monarchs overwintering in the Lighthouse Field State Park, Santa Cruz. (Photo by Rita LeRoy)
Monarchs fluttering in the warm breeze at Lighthouse Field State Park, Santa Cruz. (Photo by Rita LeRoy)
Multiple monarchs nectaring on Eucalyptus blossoms at the overwintering site in Santa Cruz. (Photo by Rita LeRoy)
A True Success Story
Meet Cindy Preto. The new UC Davis Department of Entomology and Nematology's graduate student is an incredible success story who hurdled the obstacles heaved in her path and lets nothing—absolutely nothing--block her education, enthusiasm, research or goals. The first thing you notice...
UC Davis graduate student Cindy Preto is studying vineyard leafhoppers. (Photo by Liam Swords)
Cindy Preto, shown here in a UC Davis vineyard, is the first in her family to graduate from college. She's now a master's student, studying with Frank Zalom. (Photo by Liam Swords)
Sticky traps in the vineyard. (Photo by Cindy Preto)
