PS 21-43
Ecosystem Services: Sierra Nevada Bio-Regional Assessment
The original forest plans developed in the 1980s through early 1990s on the Sierra Nevada Forests mainly focused on social interests of the time, and new computer modeling that, in a mechanical way, found “optimal” solutions. The 2012 Planning Rule, with its substantial focus on collaboration and adaptive planning, is the next step in improving management of the national forests. There is an opportunity to blend and leverage the different strengths that come from collaboration at multiple scales. Adaptive planning helps find a balance between planning, doing, and learning that more effectively and efficiently uses taxpayer funds to manage for sustainability of the resources and opportunities provided by national forests. This process of developing a Bio-Regional Assessment, followed by forest assessments and plan revisions on the three “early adopter” national forests represents the evolution of improved management that will benefit not just the Sierra Nevada, but the nation as a whole.
Results/Conclusions
To get a sense of the extent wildfire threatens the many important ecosystem services provided by our forests in the bio-region, the landscapes that provide these services were examined as to their risk for uncharacteristic fire that would be detrimental to these services. It is clear that a high percentage of ecosystem services are under a threat from uncharacteristic fire (Metcalfe et al. 2013). Specifically, preliminary results suggest that the following services are at risk:
99% of the important timber-producing land;
90% of the important carbon sequestration land;
74% of the land with the most valuable assets for protecting water quality;
87% of the land with the most valuable assets for supporting water supply;
89% of the Forest Service recreation facilities;
91% of the locations in the bio-region that provide habitat for important ethno-botanical species for cultural heritage uses;
62% of the land important to providing terrestrial biodiversity;
86% of the land important to providing aquatic biodiversity;
83% of the land with high potential for providing solar energy, 46% of the land with high potential for wind energy and 97% of the land with high potential for geothermal energy;
45% of existing hydroelectric facilities and 23% of the acres in existing electricity transmission corridors were at risk from uncharacteristic fire.
For each theme, there are conditions and trends where drivers and stressors have influence and cause stability, deterioration or improvement across systems. The intent was to highlight these trends.