Derek Churchill

University of Washington

Biography

Derek Churchill is both a forester and scientist who focuses on applying ecological knowledge to on-the-ground forest management challenges across the Pacific Northwest. He has run a forestry consulting company for 10 years that specializes in ecological forestry on public and private land. He has done a wide variety of projects on National Forests throughout Washington, Oregon, and California, and has worked extensively with forest collaboratives. He also has longstanding relationships and ongoing projects with the Nature Conservancy, Conservation NW, the Klamath Tribe, King County, and the PEW Charitable Trusts. He currently has a part time post-doc at the School of Environmental and Forest Sciences – University of Washington, where he is focusing on using LiDAR to guide multiscale resilience management in the Sierra Nevada and Colville NF. He also teaches forest management classes at UW. He lives on Vashon Island where he works with the Vashon Forest Stewards; a community forestry group that manages forest operations for small private, non-industrial forest landowners

Presentation Topic

Forest Restoration in the Tablet & Smart Phone era: Marking and Realtime Monitoring using the ICO APP

Presentation Description

Incorporating spatial variability into forest restoration prescriptions has resulted in implementation challenges; primarily quantifying, marking, and monitoring desired levels of variability in treatments. These challenges are magnified with Designation by Prescription contracts. In addition, compliance monitoring of treatments typically occurs after units have been cut and so creates a lag time that slows collaborative learning and adaptive management. We present an Andriod APP that allows marking crews or operators to track and map progress towards prescription targets for both density and pattern in real time. The APP provides implementers, managers, and stakeholders immediate and transparent feedback on treatments, which facilitates more efficient implementation, monitoring, and adaptive adjustments. The APP is designed for ICO (Individuals, clumps, and openings) prescriptions, but can be adapted for basal area or other prescription approaches. It can also be used by stakeholders or others for multiparty monitoring.

Registration Opens

10:00 AM

Light Lunch

11:00 AM

Key Note Speaker

12:00 PM

Panel: The Economics of Forest Restoration

Topics: Making Forest Restoration Economical, Contractor Logging Costs & Opportunities for Cost-savings, The Economics of Dry Forest Stewardship Projects, and Using the Land Fin Tool

Panel: From Inception to Implementation, Planning for Success

Topics: Planning at the Landscape Scale, Making Use of Good Neighbor Authority, Authorities to Maximize Restoration, and Packaging Federal Resources for All-lands Restoration

Panel: Cutting Edge Technologies for Sale Layout and Implementation (Part 1)

Topics: Virtual Boundaries and Discernable Boundaries, Integration of Unmanned Aerial Vehicles in daily forest operations: from cruising to regeneration survey, Using Avenza PDF Maps in Concert with Cut-To-Length Harvesting Systems, and Planning Ground-based Harvest Operations to Limit Soil Impacts

Reception and Featured Speaker

5:30 PM

Breakfast

7:00 AM

Featured Speaker

Panel: Forest Treatments for Riparian Health

Topics: Hydrology Concerns for Treatments in Riparian Areas, Riparian Thinning Using Cut-to-Length, and Riparian Thinning: An Example from the Deschutes National Forest

Panel: Managing Good Fire at the Right Place and Right Time (Part 1)

Topics: Managed Fire: A tool or a Hazard? An in-depth discussion with the Lakeview Forest Stewardship Group.

Panel: Managing Good Fire at the Right Place and Right Time (Part 2)

Topics: Prescribed Fire at Scale and Contracting Prescribed Fire

Panel: Bridges and Water Crossings: Challenges and Opportunities

Topics: Roads, Crossings and Culverts, Low-cost approaches to Low-Volume Roads and Water Crossings, Prioritizing Roads, Crossings & Culverts with NetMap.

Lunch: A View from All Sides: Perspectives on Implementation Efficiencies, Challenges, & Opportunities

Summary Statements from Forest Service Staff, Collaborative Member and Industry Representative discussed over Lunch

11:45 AM

Adjourn

Have a safe trip home!

1:00 PM

Breakfast

7:00 AM

Featured Speaker: Do Collaboratives Matter in Litigation?

with Susan Jane Brown

Panel: New Opportunities for Conventional Harvesting Systems and Biomass Utilization

Topics: Cut-to-Length vs Whole Tree Logging Systems, Biomass Utilization: Harvesting and Markets, and Managing Slash: Needs, Challenges, Opportunities

Panel: Steep Terrain Harvesting Systems

Topics: Skyline Logging: New Approaches to Traditional Systems, Steep Slope Logging, and Tethered Assist

Lunch

with optional practical application activity

12:30 PM

Facilitated Conversations on the morning’s topics

Continue the discussion: The key elements of making forest restoration work economically viable

Panel: A Grounded Approach: Soil Considerations for Harvesting

Topics: Soil Matters: Improving Forest Landscape Planning and Management for Diverse Objectives with Soils Information and Expertise, Soil Resources Management for Logging in Steep Slopes, Interaction of Steep Slope Equipment with Soil Resources

Panel: Cutting Edge Technologies for Sale Layout and Implementation (Part 2)

Topics: Tablet applications for Implementing Silvicultural Prescriptions, Forest Restoration in the Tablet & Smart Phone era: Marking and Realtime Monitoring using the ICO APP, and Non-contact tree measurement for forest harvesting machines

Panel: Designation Methods: Lessons Learned

Topics: Alternative Contracting Methods and Implementation Strategies for Commercial Harvest, DxP and DxD

Facilitated Conversation on Afternoon Topics

or optional practical application activity

Dinner on your own

Enjoy one of the many area dining options at your leisure.

6:00 PM