USFS Announces Landscape Scale Investments to Restore Forests in California
USFS Announces Landscape Scale Investments to Restore Forests in California
On August 29, the USFS announced a $16.2 million nationwide investment to restore forests across tribal, state and private lands. As part of this investment, over $1.1 million is allocated between four California tribal projects conducted by the Hoopa Valley Tribe, Pechanga Band of Indians, Redwood Valley Rancheria Little River Band of Pomo Indians, and the Yurok Tribe. Additionally, $105,000 from state project funding is allocated to restore native forests in the Elkhorn Slough Watershed.
Lisa Lien-Mager Appointed CNRA Deputy Secretary for Forest and Wildfire Resilience
Lisa Lien-Mager Appointed CNRA Deputy Secretary for Forest and Wildfire Resilience
On September 5, Lisa Lien-Mager was sworn in as CNRA’s new Deputy Secretary for Forest and Wildfire Resilience. This position oversees a wide swath of programs, all intended to promote forest health for wildfire and community resilience. Prior to her appointment, Lien-Mager served as CNRA’s Senior Advisor for Strategic Communications since 2021 and as Deputy Secretary for Communications since 2017. Tony Andersen, formally the Deputy Director for Strategic Communications at CAL FIRE, will succeed Lien-Mager as CNRA’s new Deputy Secretary of Communications.
CAL FIRE and BLM Join Forces to Work Across Jurisdictions on Forest and Fuels Management Projects
CAL FIRE and BLM Join Forces to Work Across Jurisdictions on Forest and Fuels Management Projects
Through a nationwide initiative known as the Good Neighbor Authority, CAL FIRE and the BLM have entered a statewide agreement and contract worth approximately $4.5 million, made available to CAL FIRE as part of the agreement. The primary objective of this contract is to mitigate the potential devastation caused by wildfires specifically on BLM lands. By joining forces, the agencies can pair similar goals of separate projects on adjacent or nearby lands and further reduce the risks associated with wildfires while improving overall ecosystem health.
USFS Uses Machine Learning to Promote Meadow Restoration
USFS Uses Machine Learning to Promote Meadow Restoration
Pacific Southwest Research Station U.S. Forest Service ecologists have developed new machine learning algorithms to identify potential locations of lost meadows where forests now encroach. Meadows in California’s Sierra Nevada mountains historically covered nearly three times the area they do today. New maps of lost meadows provide a large-scale perspective to help us think differently about the historical importance of meadows and the positive impact their restoration could have on streamflow and wildfire management.
CAL Fire Awards $113 Million in Wildfire Prevention Grants
CAL Fire Awards $113 Million in Wildfire Prevention Grants
On July 27, CAL FIRE announced a $113 million investment that will help prepare communities for wildfire season, including projects that help homeowners create defensible spaces around homes, reduce overgrown vegetation, and improve evacuation routes for rural communities and more. The funding, made possible by the $52 billion California Climate Commitment budget, will support 96 wildfire prevention projects across the state – with more than 8 in 10 grants directed towards vulnerable or underserved communities.
CAL FIRE Invests $47M in School Greening
CAL FIRE Invests $47M in School Greening
More shade is on the way! On July 13, Governor Newsom announced CAL FIRE’s $47 million investment to help schools convert pavement to green spaces and plant trees and other vegetation. This first round of CAL FIRE’s $117 million Green Schoolyard Grant program will support 6 implementation projects and 9 planning projects on 100 schoolyards statewide. The program is part of the Governor’s Extreme Heat Action Plan, which is backed by the $52.3 billion California Climate Commitment budget. This program supports the goal of to expanding urban canopy, as laid out in the Task Force Action Plan.
BLM Signs Environmental Assessment to Streamline Fuels Reduction Projects
BLM Signs Environmental Assessment to Streamline Fuels Reduction Projects
Taking an aggressive approach to reduce wildfire risk in California and northwest Nevada, the Bureau of Land Management signed the Statewide Wildland-Urban Interface Fuels Treatment Programmatic Environmental Assessment.
Several years in the making, the Assessment will streamline planning processes allowing fuels reduction projects to move forward quickly when funding is available. This tool will be accessible to other organizations that want to coordinate fuels treatments adjacent to BLM lands, such as fire safe councils and private landowners. It’s estimated the Assessment will allow an additional 20,000 acres of public land to be treated each year, bringing the Task Force closer to reaching target milestones in the Fire-Adapted Communities Key Action areas.
On August 8, 2023 BLM officials signed a Decision Record signing to signify the beginning of the Assessments’s implementation.
The fuels reduction project that this Assessment will help streamline aims to reduce the intensity, severity, and the spread of wildfire on public lands by reducing overgrowth, creating fuel breaks and thinning forest density. As a result, communities in and around BLM lands will experience reduced likelihood of loss of life, property, and community infrastructure from wildfires.
ALERTCalifornia: Using AI to Stay Ahead of Wildfires and Other Disasters
ALERTCalifornia: Using AI to Stay Ahead of Wildfires and Other Disasters
With the shared goal of improving firefighting capabilities and response times, CAL FIRE and UCSD’s ALERTCalifornia has launched an innovative Artificial Intelligence (AI) implementation trial. In keeping with the Task Force’s commitment to cross agency partnership and community protection, this collaborative public safety program aims to provide the tools to prepare for, respond to and recover from wildfires and other natural hazards. ALERTCalifornia has deployed a 24-hour surveillance network of 1,032 high-definition, pan-tilt-zoom cameras for efficient monitoring of active wildfires and other disasters. The pilot program enlists AI to identify abnormalities in the camera feeds and promptly notify emergency command centers.
ALERTCalifornia’s field teams continue to erect new cameras to enhance coverage across the state as California endures more frequent natural disasters. Since the start of 2023, new cameras have been installed in Los Angeles, Santa Barbara and Madera counties.
“The program will spawn invaluable research and mitigation plans that will increase the state’s resiliency towards the new extreme fire risk,” said Neal Driscoll, director of ALERTCalifornia and geoscientist at UC San Diego Scripps Institution of Oceanography.
Northern California Regional Meeting Event
Welcome ToThe Northern California
Regional Meeting
Event schedule
8:30 – 10:00 a.m. Resource Fair
10 a.m. – 12:15 p.m. Morning Session
12:15 – 1:30 p.m. Lunch
1:30 – 3:15 p.m. Afternoon Session
3:30 – 4:30 p.m. Small Group Discussion
4:30 – 6:00 p.m. Reception
agenda
8:30 AM Resource Fair & Check-In
10:00 AM 1. Welcome
10:30 AM 2. Opening Remarks
10:50 AM 3. Director’s Report
• Central Coast Accomplishments & Updates
11:05 AM 4. The Central Coast MosaicRegional Resource Kits
12:30 PM Lunch – Resource Fair Open
1:30 P.M 5. From Local Collaboration to Regional Action
• Organizing for Impact and Adapting to Changing Conditions
• Navigating Complex Regulatory Requirements
2:50 PM Group Activity
3:05 PM 6. Moving Towards a Regional Investment Strategy
3:50 PM 7. Keynote Presentation
• Senator John Laird, CA 17th District
4:15 PM Closing Remarks
4:30 PM Complimentary Reception
June Progress on the Ground
June Progress On The Ground
USFS Concow Resilience Project: Replanting trees is not as simple as it seems. The US Forest Service (USFS) and partners are restoring areas impacted by devastating wildfires in recent years, including the 2018 Camp Fire, and mitigating risks of future catastrophic wildfires with the Concow Resilience Project. The project re-establishes widely spaced oak and pine woodlands to more closely resemble how the land looked prior to European settlement.
USFS Teams up with Shasta College to Provide a Hands-on Learning about Forest Health: Shasta College’s Heavy Equipment Construction and Heavy Equipment Logging students have invested 120 hours this summer in the completion of a fuels reduction project at the Hirz Campground on Shasta Lake with implementation oversight provided by the USFS. Funding for the project was provided by the Shasta Resource Advisory Committee and funding for the Heavy Equipment Logging Operations Program is from California Climate Investments and administered by the CAL FIRE Forest Health Program.
River Pines Community Fuel Break: In the wake of the nearby 2021 Caldor Fire, local residents in Amador County are working with the Amador Fire Safe Council to put CAL FIRE Vegetation Management Program grant money to work to create a fuel break around their community.
The Vegetation Management Program (VMP) is a cost-sharing program that focuses on the use of prescribed fire, and some mechanical means, for addressing wildland fire fuel hazards and other resource management issues on State Responsibility Area (SRA) lands.
Landowners may choose to apply for participation in the Vegetation Management Program. If approved, CAL FIRE assumes the liability for conducting the prescribed burn.