Brief Summary of Minutes of Annual Meeting

Updates " Eric Norland, the National Program Leader from DC gave an update on RREA funding. The FY 2005 budget was up slightly from FY 2004 and FY 2006 was down slightly (from 4.04 M in 2004 to 4.19 m in 2006). For FY 2007, the Senate recommendation has a sizeable increase but the House and Presidents recommendations are up only slightly. Will be worked out in Conference Committee. No one knows for sure about next Farm Bill but some emerging themes are bio-energy, ecosystem services, and sustaining family forests. It appears Hatch Act funds will increase slightly and McIntire-Stennis should stay the same or go up slightly. National Research Initiative Competitive grants should go up at least 5 % (more if Presidents budget adopted). " Peter Kolb from Montana State University gave an update on the ongoing WCC1003 project creating web-based learning center for Forestry Extension programs in the Western US where folks could go to obtain information. Ultimately, it could be used to help forest landowners create forest management plans. He expects to need more detailed information from the individual states. In particular he could use data about NIPFs  number, acreages, etc.  as well as info about different forest types in each state. New Ideas " Darren McAvoy, Utah State University, gave a talk on creating virtual web tours on web sites using Breeze macromedia software. Essentially this is a method of having online workshops, which are particularly useful in areas where large distances make it difficult for folks to attend in person. Does not replace in-person meetings, but potentially increases audience. Seems like an emerging tool that could be very useful for conveying a wide range of information. Darren also described a method of having people use cell phones to call and get information along various stops describing forests. " Bill Hubbard, a regional Extension Forest Specialist stationed in Georgia and serving the South, described how his program is designed to reduce duplication and foster collaboration through regional programming. Was discussion of possibly using same model in the West? " Jim Johnson, Virginia Tech (and soon to be with OSU) gave a presentation on international opportunities for extension personnel. This presentation focused on IUFRO involvement. " Bob Wheeler, Climate Change Seminar Host, University of Alaska-Fairbanks - The majority of the technical sessions during the next day and a half addressed some aspect of climate change in Alaska in the last 3-4 decades, including fire, increasing temperatures, insect attacks, thawing of the permafrost, melting of ice in arctic regions, and several other subjects.

Accomplishments and Impacts (1) Collaboration with USDA-FS on Technology Transfer As a continuation of the initial discussions between, USDA-FS Experiment Stations (RM, PNW, PSW) on technology transfer collaboration. Several USFS personnel attended this WCC meeting and discussed how this might come about. Are certainly some barriers in terms of the different cultures of each organization, but do seem to be opportunities and a start has been made. Suggested that may be most effective if folks worked around particular issues (SOD in California comes to mind) rather than worrying about MOUs etc. See the attached documents relating to this discussion. The subgroup is composed of Steve Ambrose (RM), Hao Tran, (PSW), Cindy Miner (PNW), Bob Sturtevant (CO), Mike Kuhns (UT), and Don Hanley (WA). " As a follow up to the meeting, the subgroup listed above met in Salt Lake City and worked on a draft MOU to be signed by our WCC Administrative Advisor (Scott Reed, OSU) on behalf of Extension and by the FS-RM, PNW, and PSW Station Directors. It is anticipated that this MOU will be signed in early 2007. (2) Climate Change Technical Sessions - with opportunities to work together in the west to address problems If we ever had any doubt before about global warming, we dont anymore as all evidence points to dramatic (actually frightening) changes that have occurred and are continuing to occur. As was mentioned numerous times, the Arctic is a bit like the canary in the coal mine as global change models predict the greatest changes in temperatures, for instance, at higher latitudes and that has certainly been borne out by the data in Alaska. Below are some of the things related to climate changes that were discussed at the meeting: " FIRE  2004 was the worst fire season on record in Alaska and 2005 was the third worst. Combined, over 11 million acres burned in these two years. The primary cause was the extremely hot summer temperatures and low humidity. " INSECTS and DISEASE - There have been greatly accelerated insect attacks in last decade or so. Four and a half million acres of spruce has been destroyed by bark beetles, primarily on and near the Kenai Peninsula. In addition, 250,000 acres of spruce have been destroyed by spruce budworms. In addition, an estimated 80 % of all of the larch has been killed, as well as approximately 500,000 acres of yellow cedar (the most valuable commercial species in Alaska). Birch leaf miners have also become a serious problem. These outbreaks all seem to be related to the climate change, though the specific reasons are different. I believe the bark beetle for cedar, on the other hand, damage seems related to a loss of frost hardiness of roots. \ " TEMPERATURE CHANGES  Takeaway message was that since about 1970 there have been drastic weather changes. Of course, there are always weather fluctuations from year-to-year, but overlain on this variability are unmistakable trends in average daily temperatures, average daily maximum temp, average daily minimum temp, and length of the frost-free period. All these support the fact that Alaskas weather has changed substantially. " PERMAFROST DEGRADATION  Most of the boreal landscape has permafrost beneath it. This impenetrable ice layer is the main reason why the conifer species present black spruce, white spruce on better sites, and larch  grow so slowly. However, there has been a marked increase in the melting of the permafrost, which can cause the water to leak out the bottom, which in turn causes the soil to drop and create large sunken areas. As these widen, the trees fall in. It is estimated that approximately 7% of the arctic landscape has degraded, but it is feared that 50-60% could degrade. One speaker said that if there was a 3 degree C reduction in temperature, the current 60% of the landscape in permafrost could be reduced to 5%. This would obviously have dramatic ecological consequences. In addition to permafrost reduction, there have been instances where ice-bridges previously used for ground transportation in winter have had to be replaced by structural bridges since no longer freezes hard enough. In addition, many, many lakes have dried up. " INVASIVE SPECIES  For a variety of reasons (remoteness of Alaska, climate, few people), invasive species not as great an issue in Alaska as in the lower 48. However, are many invasive species that have recently come in and there is fear that with climate change, they could rapidly become established. So are trying to aggressively determine occurrences and eliminate before problem becomes more acute.

Publications: None to date - but ideas have surfaced to address climate change and its relationship to western forests