California is experiencing increased wildfire risk and frequency due to climate change. The State’s forested lands and the communities near them are highly vulnerable to wildfires. The California State Lands Commission manages approximately 458,843 acres of school lands for the benefit of the California State Teacher’s Retirement System (CalSTRS). Approximately 55,000 acres of these school lands are forested, although the exact forested acreage is undetermined. In alignment with the State’s prioritization to manage forested lands to improve wildfire resiliency and forest health, the Commission has invested in building staff capacity and funding to assess the Commission’s forested parcels and initiate responsible forest management strategies.
As part of this effort, staff have developed the School Lands Forest Information System (SLFIS), a web-based tool that uses publicly available data to provide information about forest attributes of school lands parcels to better inform forest management decisions. The development of this tool represents Phase 1 of a larger process to build a forest inventory and establish desired future conditions for forested school lands. The SLFIS provides a platform to collect, store, and query information about school lands parcels and enables staff to conduct an initial assessment of forest composition, health, and wildlife habitat; identify areas for rehabilitation, fuels treatment, and timber production; and prioritize parcels for site visits to collect data about field conditions and characteristics.
This report highlights five important ways the SLFIS can be applied to inform staff’s forest management decisions:
- Property-wide assessments
- Evaluating sets of parcels or management units
- Identifying potential agency partnerships
- Assessing priority areas for fuel reduction
- Developing a neighbor contact database
The School Lands Forest Information System Phase 1 Report and Recommendations