An effort to restore part of the Eel River watershed in Mendocino County is just one of the many projects awarded more than $142 million from the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection, the agency reported this week.
The agency announced in a press release, that "$142.6 million has been awarded for statewide investments in projects intended to enhance carbon storage while restoring the health and resilience of existing and recently burned forests throughout California."
A total of "27 grants were awarded to local and regional partners implementing projects on state, local, tribal, federal, and private lands. Fuels reduction and prescribed fire treatments funded under these grants are aimed at reducing excess vegetation and returning forest and oak woodlands to more fire, drought, and pest-resilient conditions."
The agency further explains that several of the projects awarded funding "include work within landscapes severely burned in recent wildfires," including those focused on "post-fire reforestation and regeneration activities on the landscape of 11 catastrophic fires in California, including the Caldor, CZU Lightning Complex, Dixie, North Complex and Rim fires."
The agency also notes that "two-thirds of the awarded projects benefit disadvantaged or low-income communities, (and that) many of Cal Fire's Forest Health grants were made available through California Climate Investments, a statewide program that puts billions of Cap-and-Trade dollars toward achieving the state's climate change goals while also strengthening the economy and improving public health and the environment, particularly in disadvantaged communities. This summer, Cal Fire expects to award additional grants of up to $115 million for Wildfire Prevention and up to $19 million for Tribal Wildfire Resilience."
The projects in Mendocino and neighboring counties include:
- Eel River Recovery Project Tenmile Creek Watershed Forest Health Project Mendocino $5,908,568:
Implement forest health treatments on 818 acres of non-industrial private and tribal forestland in the
Tenmile Creek watershed near Laytonville. Objectives include reducing fuel loading, oak woodland restoration, enhancing soil moisture and fertility, restoring native grasses and plants, restoring hydrologic function and job creation. Thinning, and prescribed fire will promote ecosystem health and carbon storage while protecting rural communities - Clear Lake Environmental Research Center North Shore Restoration Fuels Reduction Lake $7 million:
The North Shore Restoration Project in the Mendocino National Forest will protect seven adjacent communities on the shore of Clear Lake from another wildfire. The 2018 Ranch Fire destroyed 288,000 acres of the forest, and 1,000 acres have been prioritized for reforestation to reverse the ecological, economic, environmental, aesthetic and social impacts resulting from the fire. Treatments including fuels reduction, site prep, planting and release will restore forest ecosystem services. - Mid Klamath Watershed Council Western Klamath Fire Resilience and Forest Health Project
Del Norte, Siskiyou, Humboldt $7 million:
This project implements the Western Klamath Restoration Partnership's innovative plan to restore fire processes in the Klamath Mountains. Proposed treatment acres: 500 acres mechanical thin, 2,060
acres manual fuels reduction, 1070 acres hand pile burn, 1620 acres prescribed burn prep, 1,720 acres
prescribed burning, 80 acres pest management, 20 days of community chipping, 100 acres roadside
chipping, and 50 acres grass seeding in the WUI of Happy Camp, Somes Bar, Sawyers Bar, Cecilville,
Forks of Salmon, Orleans, Weitchpec, and Pecwan.
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