Hayfork Adaptive Management Area Research and Monitoring

Last updated: November 16, 1999

Project Title: Grassy Flats Ecosystem Management Project

Project objectives: The Grassy Flats project area is 10 miles northwest of the community of Hayfork in Trinity County. The stewardship project's objectives are to improve forest health within the Grassy Flats sub-watershed using a multi-year, multi-task contract. This project will contribute to the establishment of a fire-resistant forest capable of producing a variety of forest products.
Activities:

commercial and biomass thinning on 272 acres
plantation maintenance on 305 acres
road maintenance on 14.7 miles of road
road decommissioning on 4.32 miles of road
shaded fuel break construction on 211 acres

Learning objectives: to utilize a multi-year, multi-task contracting arrangement to meet our resource objectives. A very important component of this project is to promote a "stewardship" approach to a service acquisition and resource sale while offering a longer-term economic opportunity to the contractors.
Approach: We have bundled a timber sale contract with a service contract (a single Request for Proposal bid package). The expected benefits of this approach are:

creates an administrative link between commercial product sale contracts and service contracts;
determines our ability to provide a full-range of forest products at an economic scale while ecosystem functions are maintained or enhanced;
defines and refines multi-task, option year, results-based contracts enabling contractors and the agency to plan for and accomplish resource work using these types of administrative processes;
advances knowledge of the economic possibilities for a full-range of ecosystem byproducts to communities and contractors;
delineates the range of connected ecosystem management activities that can/should be bundled in one implementation package.

Key contact: Andrei Rykoff - Hayfork AMA Coordinator; acting District Ranger

Title: Birds: Riparian Areas & Grazing

Purpose: Studying land birds in a large area including the Hayfork AMA. Study includes assessing the value of riparian areas, effects of grazing in riparian areas and the influence of different vegetation types and seral stages on diversity and distributions.
Status: began in 1996; ACTIVE/CONTINUING
Location: Hayfork Adaptive Management Area
Principal Contact: C.J. Ralph, Redwood Sciences Lab, USDA Forest Service

Title: Community Participation -- GIS

Purpose: testing the notion that community participation would be increased by using GIS as the catalyst. The project consolidates natural resources data including GIS for the Hayfork AMA and makes the data available to the public through workshops, GIS training, and free library and computer facility access.
Location: Hayfork Adaptive Management Area
Status: started in 1995 and on-going; appears successful

Principal Contact: Watershed Research and Training Center, Hayfork, CA

Title: Special Forest Products

Purpose: An assessment of SFP harvesting and it's impact in the Hayfork AMA. Project includes, assessment of types and quantities of products harvested and harvest methods, GIS prototype for inventory and monitoring, coordination with other State, Federal and NGO efforts to standardize inventory and monitoring, identify species of concern, design and initiate experimental research on species of concern, and disseminate information on sustainable harvesting.
Status: ACTIVE/CONTINUING
Location: Hayfork Adaptive Management Area
Principal Contact: Yvonne Everett, Humboldt State College and Watershed Research and Training Center, Hayfork, CA

Title: Stand Simulation Model

Purpose: Developing a stand simulation model which addresses concerns generated by ecosystem management not addressed by current simulation models. For example, the model addresses the effects of harvest-treatments, including green tree retention, on early stand development and can model biomass over time in all components of the stand.
Location: Hayfork Adaptive Management Area
Status: ACTIVE, PRESENTLY BEING COMPLETED
Principal Contact: Martin Ritchie and Uzoh, USDA Forest Service Silviculture Lab, Redding, CA