Waste from forest thinning gets new purpose in Northern California » Yale Climate Connections

Transcript:

Thinning trees and dense brush from a forest can help reduce the risk of severe wildfire.

The brush and branches that are removed are often burned or chipped. But at an 80-acre ecological reserve in Northern California, they’re used for environmental restoration instead.

Brock Dolman of the Occidental Arts and Ecology Center says during extreme rain, water runs off the hillsides into seasonal channels, or gullies. Over time, the gullies erode and deepen.

Dolman: “And those gouges then, as they erode, deliver sediment and dirt to our streams, which turns them chocolate milky and is really bad for fish, it’s bad for water quality.”

So his team uses a practice called gully stuffing. They take woody brush from forest thinning projects and layer it into an eroding gully.

Dolman: “And make like a lasagna, where we start with the green boughs and the logs and the limbs and the boughs and the logs and the limbs.”

He says the added plant matter helps slow erosion and reduce the sediment flowing into streams below. And over time, it breaks down into spongy compost that absorbs water.

So as landowners and agencies work to protect forests from wildfires, Dolman says they have an opportunity to create healthier waterways, too.

Reporting credit: Sarah Kennedy / ChavoBart Digital Media