FORKS — Forestry technology expert David Diaz will share his experience and outlook on using cutting-edge mapping and forest modeling for landowners at Evening Talks at the Olympic National Resources Center at 7 tonight.
The free program will take place in the Hemlock Forest Room of the ONRC, 1455 S. Forks Ave.
Refreshments will be served, and a potluck of favorite desserts is encouraged.
Diaz is the director of forestry technology and analytics at Ecotrust. The Portland, Ore.-based organization works to foster prosperous communities along the West Coast.
In 2014, Ecotrust launched a free web application, “Forest Planner,” to enable landowners in Oregon and Washington to visualize and compare tradeoffs of different forest management approaches customized to their property, including carbon sequestration, timber production and economics, and fire hazards.
Diaz will offer a demonstration of this technology and describe how it is being applied to support more than 600 landowners across Oregon and Washington to develop stewardship plans, get rewarded for the environmental benefits their land provides and choose their own path to conscientious land management.
According to a news release, Diaz approaches Ecotrust’s mission to inspire fresh thinking that creates economic opportunity, social equity and environmental well-being by applying forest-ecosystem data science and user-friendly decision support systems.
He has spent nearly eight years on environmental markets and policy, with extensive experience in carbon markets, accounting and certification standards.
He has been particularly focused on making these programs more accessible to small forestland owners.
He holds a Master of Science in soil science from Oregon State University and a Bachelor of Arts in environmental history from Harvard College. Diaz is currently enrolled as a doctoral student in forestry at the University of Washington.
For more information, contact Frank Hanson at 360-374-4556 or fsh2@uw.edu.
