From the State Water Board:
Below are two related updates tied to the upcoming launch of a statewide, spatially-explicit analysis within forested watersheds throughout California, starting in the Headwaters region of northeastern California. A key objective is to improve interagency understanding of restoration and management need across California’s vast forested ecosystems, given climate change and other stressors. Building on existing data and analyses, we seek to expand capabilities to aggregate interagency data and build a holistic analysis to support multi-criteria investment decisions. Simultaneously, this work aims to establish an integrated monitoring system to track forest ecosystem change in response to management.
New Science Team Now Under Contract:
With funding from California Climate Investments via the Regional Forest and Fire Capacity Program, departments of CNRA and CalEPA have awarded a nearly $1 million contract to UC Agriculture and Natural Resources along with a team of scientists from UC Merced, UC Berkeley, UC Davis, University of New Mexico, and US Forest Service Pacific Southwest Research Station to support critical scientific and technical pieces of this work. The team will work closely with state, federal, and tribal agencies, and stakeholders.
For background on this effort in response to AB 1492 and AB 2551, here is the RFP (see Section V for Scope of Work) released over the summer with detail about the objectives and planned deliverables. Or if preferred, a 15 minute presentation given to the Board of Forestry in September sums up the work and explains the linkages across the legislation. Register and then skip to: 1 hour 54 min into the presentation for our presentation.
UC Merced Seeking Two Postdoctoral Scholars:
The Sierra Nevada Research Institute at the University of California, Merced invites applications for TWO Postdoctoral Research Scholars in Spatial Analysis and Priority Planning for advancing environmental monitoring and natural resources management in California. Click here for more on the positions and how to apply.
Please distribute to your network and those who may be suitably qualified to carry out this exciting work. Any questions about the positions should be directed to the P.I. listed in the job announcement.
