Amador County – The Northern California Society of American Foresters plans its 2011 Summer Field Meeting for August 5-6 in Jackson.

The organization announced the plans in its latest newsletter, saying “we will gather in beautiful Amador County, in the heart of the Mother Lode.” The meeting’s focus will be “Biomass: From Forests to Energy,” and a committee developed “an informative and enjoyable program to pique everyone’s interest and increase knowledge about the opportunities and challenges for foresters, landowners and agencies.”

Organizers said the “meeting will include a winery dinner and evening speaker to set the stage for the Saturday field tour, fuel site visits within the Mokelumne River watershed, lunch at a hunting preserve on the shores of Lake Camanche, and a tour of the Buena Vista Biomass Power plant in Ione.”

The newsletter said it is an “opportunity to learn, network and visit with foresters and others interested in this important developing issue.”

Recent postings said the Aug. 5-6 NorCal Society of American Foresters summer meeting “kicks off with wine tasting and dinner at Avio Vineyards (in Sutter Creek) with guest speaker James D. Boyd, Vice Chair, of the California Energy Commission.”

The postings said registration will be Friday night in the Jackson City lot behind Mel & Faye’s Diner, where attendees will get opening remarks and can organize carpools.

“Saturday’s field tour will visit past and current forest thinning operations designed to create fuel breaks for adjacent subdivisions.” The group will travel up Highway 88 to the Pioneer area for field stops to see work on “fire hazard reduction & wood utilization; fuels management & thinning for biomass.”

They will also “discuss the economics and environmental implications of fuel treatment options and end uses, including biomass for energy production, and address the challenges of working in the wildland-urban interface and the Mokelumne River drainage.”

Field meeting attendees will take lunch at the private Camanche Hills Hunting Preserve, “where managers will describe land management challenges” in the Moke watershed, which “supplies water to Bay Area residents while providing diverse recreation opportunities for local residents and visitors.”

They will also “explore the relationship between hazardous fuel treatment and fire safety in the upper watershed and water resource management down river.” They will also consider the difficulties and “social and economic benefits of building an energy facility in California.” The field meeting will end at the “Buena Vista Biomass Power plant, an 18-megawatt generation facility that is being repowered as a long-term sustainable biomass energy generation facility.”

Story by Jim Reece This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.