Opportunities to Incorporate the Ecological Values of Forests During Land Use Change

Agenda

Morning Session

8:00 Registration

8:45 Welcome - Joseph Pergola, Director - Hillsborough Co. Extension

8:50 Regional Sustainability—Why Is It Important to Conserve the Ecological Function of Forests?
Robert Northrop, Extension Forester
University of Florida IFAS – Hillsborough Co. Extension
http://training.ifas.ufl.edu/UrbanForest09_Northrop_Sustain/index.html

The conversion of forest land to other land uses has many undesirable ecological, social, and economic consequences. Urban land use change can lead to the modification of forest structure, function and dynamics which alters the availability of ecosystem services within, surrounding, and even at great distances from urban areas.

9:15 Building Spatial Tools to Reduce Conflicts Between Conservation and Adjacent Land Uses
Tricia Martin, Peninsular Florida Director
The Nature Conservancy
http://training.ifas.ufl.edu/UrbanForest09_Martin_Tool/index.html

Land use decisions are being made that greatly impact our ability to protect and manage the landscape. Encroachment is a universal threat to landscape integrity and inevitably leads to the erosion of our ability to protect species and provide ecosystem services. The Nature Conservancy is working with a suite of partners to develop innovative scientific assessment tools to quantify anticipated development impacts and provide visualization techniques to communicate threats effectively.

10:00 BREAK

10:15 Examples of Innovation from the Southeastern U.S.
Bill Hubbard, Ph.D., Southern Regional Extension Forester
University of Georgia
http://training.ifas.ufl.edu/UrbanForest09_Hubbard_Innovations/index.html

10:45 Long-term Planning and Watershed Health in the Southern Cumberland Plateau Region of Tennessee
Ken Smith, Ph.D.
University of the South
http://training.ifas.ufl.edu/UrbanForest09_Smith_Planning/index.html

In the southern Cumberland Plateau region of Tennessee, hardwood forest to pine conversion, timberland divestment, land speculation, rock harvesting, drought, and a lack of vision regarding water supply and use have forced local and state policy makers to seriously focus on long-term planning and watershed health. I will explore these topics as well as the Floridian connection to these issues in my presentation.

11:15 Tools for Protecting the Ecological Function of Forests in a Rapidly Urbanizing Environment
Jeff Horan, Director Watershed Services
Maryland Dept. of Natural Resources
http://training.ifas.ufl.edu/UrbanForest09_Horan_Maryland/index.html

The State of Maryland has created a framework for forest conservation that uses state wide modeling and assessment tools like Green Infrastructure (GI), the Strategic Forest Lands Assessment (SFLA) to identify Priority Conservation Areas (PCA’s) for targeting land acquisition. Complementing fee simple acquisition are legal and statutory mechanisms such as the Forest Conservation Act and the Chesapeake Bay Critical Area Protection Act are employed to protect natural systems within county and municipal comprehensive planning and land use change processes.

12:00 LUNCH

Afternoon Session

1:00 Mapping and Quantifying Washington’s Changing Forest Land Base
Luke Rogers, Scientist/Engineer
University of Washington
http://training.ifas.ufl.edu/UrbanForest09_Rogers_Washington/index.html

Washington’s forestlands are being lost to urban and exurban uses at an alarming rate. Population pressure, forestry regulations, land use planning, industry restructuring and an aging nonindustrial forestland owner demographic all play a role in the loss of working forestlands. In this talk we’ll start by exploring Washington’s forest land base and how its changing. We’ll examine the economics of forestlands and look at how industry trends and family dynamics can impact land conversion. We’ll discuss Washington’s land use planning laws and conclude with some exploration of innovative new programs that government, conservation organizations and industry are considering and implementing.

2:00 Breakout Session
Setting An Agenda for Action - Identifying opportunities and constraints to forest conservation during land
use change within Florida today.
Terry Johnson, AICP
Florida Center for Community Design and Research
University of South Florida

2:45 BREAK

3:00 Breakout Groups Report Back

3:30 Panelist Response
http://training.ifas.ufl.edu/UrbanForest09_Panel_Discussion/index.html

4:00 Moving Forward: Establishing a Baseline In the Tampa Bay Watershed
Michael G. Andreu, Ph.D.
University of Florida
http://training.ifas.ufl.edu/UrbanForest09_Andreu_TreeInventory/index.html

When attempting to incorporate science with politics it is necessary to establish a baseline set of data that all parties agree provides an unbiased point of view. In particular when planning for land use change, one needs to quantify the value of the forests in the region as they vary by land use. This allows planners to better understand the functions and value of the services that the forests provide and scientist to monitor the impacts of development and change over time. We have started this process in the Tampa Bay Watershed region with an inventory of the forest within the City of Tampa and the surrounding watersheds. To date, this data is being used to aid the development of long term planning policies within the City of Tampa. Through the establishment of a factual baseline about the forests within the entire Tampa Bay Watershed, we hope to inform planners so that they can create a set of tools to plan for the sustainable development in our region.

Support for this program comes from Urban and Community Forestry grant funds received through the US Forest Service and from the University of Florida IFAS Extension.

Support and sponsorship has also come from the Florida Division of Forestry and the Florida Chapter—Sun Coast of the American Planning Association.