RESTORING THE EARTH THROUGH LOCAL EDUCATION
Restoration Forestry means working with nature to restore the world’s forests to their former grandeur and function. The forests are the world’s humidifiers, lungs, oxygen producers, soil producers, biomass producers and carbon cyclers. Forests are the basis for much of life on earth. Restoration forestry assists nature to heal degraded forests and bring them back to a state of biological productivity, biodiversity, ecological stability and resilience.
One way Restoration Forestry encourages forest health and resiliency is by protecting the trees most suited to local conditions. Scattered along the wildland urban interface (WUI) of Ashland, there are large, strong, old-growth Ponderosa Pine, White and Black Oak, Mountain Mahogany, Douglas-fir, Madrone, and even Manzanita. These legacy trees pre-date European settlement, and not only hold the hillsides and ravines together, but also maintain the historic memory of understory fires lit by native peoples to sustain their resources, such as acorns gathered by the Takelma and Shasta bands who lived near Ashland Creek. Encroachment by small Douglas-fir and dense brush has significantly diminished the Oak Woodlands and Pine/Oak ecosystems that cover much of the interface. Thinning of these more opportunistic species restores the biologically-rich components of the diverse landscapes that surround us.
Restoration Forestry also reduces fuel loads and crown fire risks around homes and neighborhoods. Large trees are always retained, and many of the smaller trees and shrubs that are 2 to 8 inches in diameter are thinned. This technique fosters the survival of fire resilient dominant trees, by reducing competition for moisture, nutrients, and sunlight, and by decreasing adjacent, ladder fuels that bring fire from the ground, through brush, small trees, and into the canopies of taller trees. A diversity of plant species and age classes is also retained, along with chaparral patches that are used by wildlife.
Lomakatsi’s Full Circle Schools Restoration Ecology Program provides teachers and their students direct hands-on experiences linked with local environmental restoration projects. This innovative program includes in-class presentations, field trips to restoration sites, study and care of native plants grown in local shadehouse nurseries and Adopt-A-Site field trips where students are actively involved in all steps of the restoration process.
Lomakatsi Restoration Project is a non profit organization, which develops and implements pro-active community based ecological restoration projects throughout the Cascade-Klamath-Siskiyou eco-region of southwestern Oregon and northwestern California.