Gary Nakamura

Cooperative Extension Specialist
MS  Soil science    UC Davis, 1973
BS   Chemistry    Harvey Mudd College, Claremont, CA, 1971

UCCE Shasta County
Redding, California 96002
nakamura@berkeley.edu
office: 530-224-4902   lab: 530-224-4902   fax:  530-224-4904

Web site         Recent publications     

The Cooperative Extension Forestry program provides an array of education and applied research programs for family forest landowners, professional foresters and resource managers, forest practitioners, school teachers and students, and citizens interested in forest conservation and management.

I am interested in characterizing sustainable, working forest landscapes in California and determining who should be involved in that characterization and management decisions and implementation. While I have your attention, I will make the case that a sustainable forest landscape must be considered and defined at a number of geographic and temporal scales, given the dynamic nature of forests and the effects of human and natural disturbances.

The Forest Stewardship Program is an education and outreach program for the 150,000 family forest landowners in California, who own and manage 3.4 million acres of productive forestland, equal to that managed by forest product companies. Forest Stewardship workshops, courses, and field trips are offered. Contact the Forest Stewardship Helpline (800 738-TREE) for information on these and other forestry issues. The quarterly Forestland Steward newsletter is available online at http://ceres.ca.gov/foreststeward

Wildfire and Your Home workshops for homeowners living in the wildland-urban interface (WUI), provides information on fuels treatments, landscaping, and structure protection from wildfire.

Biomass thinning for fuel reduction and forest restoration field tours present information on how small diameter trees can be economically harvested to reduce fire hazard, improve forest health, and provide fuel to biomass fueled power plants.

The Forestry Institute for Teachers (FIT) brings K-12 grade teachers from throughout California to northern California forests to learn about forest ecology and management and to develop curriculum units for their students using environmental education materials such as Project Learning Tree and Project WILD.

Community-based forestry is an effort to find realistic and long-term sustainable solutions to resource conflicts and ecosystem management through stewardship and by implementing practices that combine local knowledge with the best science, sustainable ecologically, established in 1993 in response to President Clinton’s Northwest Forest Plan for the Northern Spotted Owl challenge to forest-dependent communities to participate in developing local, sustainable solutions to forestry issues.

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Biomass Thinning for Fuel Reduction - mechanically thinning small tree ladder fuels for biomass fueled power plants. http://groups.ucanr.org/forest/Biomass%5FReport/

Cone Fire Tests Fuel Reduction Treatment Effectiveness – effect of forest thinning to reduce fuels on fire behavior and severity in the 2002 Cone Fire. http://groups.ucanr.org/forest/Cone%5FFire%5FTests%5FFuel%5FReduction%5FTreatment%5FEffectiveness/

Southern California Forest Primer – basic information about conifer forests in southern California. http://groups.ucanr.org/forest/S%2D%5FCalifornia%5FForest%5FPrimer/

Forestry 101 – a primer on California forests, forest management, wood consumption and production, and other issues. http://groups.ucanr.org/forest/Forestry%5F101%5FCourse/