UC Berkeley's forestry program celebrates 100 years

Abstract

Editorial UC Berkeley’s forestry program celebrates 100 years I Will Suckow n 2014, UC Berkeley celebrated the centennial of its forestry major. As with many other events in the university’s history, the creation of the forestry program began with a push from student activists. In 1912, a group of agriculture undergraduates started a forestry club that has endured to the present. They pressed UC administrators and state leg- islators to establish a major in the subject, and in 1914 the Berkeley campus welcomed the first cohort of students to its new forestry program. Since then, the forestry issues addressed by UC teaching, research and extension programs have changed, but the tradition of serving society and the environment has continued unabated. This issue of California Agriculture provides an opportunity to reflect on the past 100 years J. Keith Gilless of forestry in California and the important Dean, College of Natural partnership between our campus teaching Resources, UC Berkeley program and the statewide UC Agriculture and Natural Resources (UC ANR) research and ex- tension programs. All of the forestry faculty in UC Berkeley’s College of Natural Resources have appoint- ments in either the Agricultural Experiment Station or UC Cooperative Extension (UCCE). With UC forestry experts addressing They often work closely with the state- issues such as carbon sequestration, wide network of UCCE endangered species, catastrophic forestry and natural wildfire, invasive species and resource advisors based in county of- managing forests to enhance water fices and the UC ANR yield, we are confident that our research and extension centers. partnerships with the people of this The articles in this state will remain relevant long into issue show the range the future. of research being con- ducted by the extended 4 CALIFORNIA AGRICULTURE • VOLUME 69 , NUMBER 1 UC forestry community. Two articles highlight work from our educational partners in the California State University system. As we embark on the next century of forestry education in California, it has never been more important that UC Berkeley, Humboldt State and Cal Poly San Luis Obispo — which host the state’s three accredited forestry educational programs — work together to educate a new generation of forest- ers. They will need a solid foundation to meet the high standards of California’s licensing requirements and work successfully under the close public scrutiny of forest management demanded by the California Forest Practice Act. Two UCCE advisors, Michael De Lasaux in Plumas and Sierra counties and Glenn Nader in Sutter, Yuba and Butte counties, authored an article about exciting grassroots extension partnerships with California’s fire safe councils. The article on the Sierra Nevada Adaptive Management Program (SNAMP) by UC Berkeley Professor Lynn Huntsinger, UCCE Central Sierra Forestry Advisor Susan Kocher and UC Berkeley researcher Adriana Sulak illustrates UC ANR’s effectiveness in bringing cutting-edge science to key forestry issues — fire management, wildlife habitat and water quality — faced by people across the state. The Center for Forestry (ucanr.edu/sites/cff) coor- dinates much of the forestry research and extension work at UC Berkeley and also manages four forest properties. The article by the center’s property man- ager, UC Berkeley Professor Robert York, describes a project in the crown jewel of California’s research forests, Blodgett Forest Research Station in El Dorado County. Blodgett and our other properties are es- sential for outreach activities, helping to ensure that research is adapted and understood by the wide vari- ety of stakeholders in California’s forestland. We are excited for the future of our research forests, and have recently finalized plans to assume title to lands previ- ously managed by Pacific Gas and Electric Co. that will bring our research forest footprint to 10,000 acres. On September 19, 2014, more than 350 of our alumni, faculty, staff and friends gathered at the UC Berkeley Faculty Club to celebrate 100 years of forestry in California and recognize a century of ac- complishments. Now we look forward, embracing the challenges of ensuring sustained uses of California’s 40 million acres of forests and woodlands. With UC forestry experts addressing issues such as carbon se- questration, endangered species, catastrophic wildfire, invasive species and managing forests to enhance wa- ter yield, we are confident that our partnerships with the people of this state will remain relevant long into the future. c