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.
RESOURCES
Task Force Advisory Panel Seeks Input on Northern California Regional Profile
Task Force Advisory Panel Seeks Input on Northern California Regional Profile
In advance of the October 5 Regional Meeting, the Science Advisory Panel is developing the Northern California Regional Profile, a publicly available resource that will summarize the socio-ecological context of the region’s resilience to wildfire. The Panel is requesting those who live, work, or own property in Northern California to participate in a survey to understand regional perspectives on improving ecosystem health and community resilience to wildfire. The survey is open until Tuesday, August 1, 2023.
USFS and CAL FIRE Conserve Private Forestland in California
Significant New Investments in Forest Conservation
Conservation of working landscapes is essential in the biodiversity and climate goals of the California Wildfire & Forest Resilience Action Plan and supports the State’s goal of conserving at least 30 percent of California’s land and coastal waters by 2030. These important investments by the state and federal Forest Legacy Programs support these goals:
Federal Awards: On June 29, the U.S. Forest Service(USFS) announced 25,110 acres of working forests in California will be conserved between two conservation easements in California thanks to $13 million from the Federal Forest Legacy Program. Nationwide, the USFS invested $188 million to conserve more than 245,000 acres. The Trinity Timberlands project will protect 12,090 acres within Shasta-Trinity and Six Rivers National Forests and the 13,020-acre Brushy Mountain project will conserve three miles of the federally designated Wild and Scenic Eel River.
State Grant Solicitation: CAL FIRE’s Forest Legacy Program will fund up to $20 million to protect forest land threatened with conversion to non-forest uses. Under this competitive grant program, CAL FIRE will purchase or accept donations of conservation easements or fee title of productive forest lands to encourage their long-term conservation. The pre-application period closes July 16, 2023.
New State and Federal Investments in Wood Innovations Products
New State and Federal Investments Being Made in Wood Innovations Products
USFS Invests $43 Million in Wood Innovations Projects: The U.S. Forest Service supports innovation in the wood products economy, expansion of wood energy markets, and promotes wood as a sustainable building material. California will receive nearly $3.5 Million to invest in 12 Wood Innovations grants as part of a nationwide $54 million investment. The funded projects will expand modern wood use — as construction material in commercial buildings, as an energy source, and as manufacturing and processing for wood products used in framing homes and more.
CAL FIRE Invests $16 Million in Biomass Energy, Wood Products and Workforce: CAL FIRE’s Wood Products and Bioenergy Program awarded $16 million through 14 grants to non-profits, small business and manufacturing facilities. Grants will allow the subsidized transport or low-value forest biomass, job training opportunities, forestry outreach, and the development or expansion of small forest operations and milling businesses.