Wildfire & Forest Resilience Treatment Tracking and Mapping
Wildfire & Forest Resilience Treatment Tracking and Mapping
At the March 30 Task Force meeting, the Task Force’s Monitoring, Reporting and Assessment Work Group gave an update on their efforts to build an interagency treatment tracker. The group is assembling federal, state, local, private data on planned, active, and completed projects statewide, including those on forests, grasslands, shrublands, and covering approximately 60 different activities (type of work completed). The goals include tracking progress toward state/federal acreage targets; facilitating regional planning and monitoring; and assessing benefits/costs beyond “acres treated.” The Task Force anticipates having a publicly available treatment tracking map and dashboard by summer 2023.
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Planscape now lives on the Task Force website
Planscape Now Lives on the Task Force Website
A collaborative effort between CA Natural Resources Agency, USFS, UC Berkeley, Spatial Informatics Group and Google.org, Planscape is a decision support tool that empowers regional planners to prioritize resilience treatments across the landscape and inform the funding process. Planscape partners provided a demonstration of the tool at the March 30 Task Force meeting. This version of the tool is available for beta testing, with the region-specific scenarios released this summer through fall.
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California's Year in Fire
California's Year in Fire
One of the highlights from the March 30 Task Force meeting was a preview of the Annual Wildfire Data Explorer which depicts California’s Year in Fire. A project of the Climate and Wildfire Institute, UC Berkeley’s Center for Law, Energy & the Environment and the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation, California’s Year in Fire is a framework that works to more comprehensively account for annual wildfire impacts on social and ecological systems. This project will help decision makers better understand how wildfire impacts are trending and identify areas where we need additional investment. Next step in this project is to finalize the documentation for public review, with the results eventually housed on a public-facing website, updated annually. Sign up for updates.
CAL FIRE Updates Fire Hazard Severity Zone Map
CAL FIRE Updates Fire Hazard Severity Zone Map
Will Host 57 Public Hearings For Comment Throughout California
After years of planning and collaboration with fire scientists, firefighters, stakeholders and local community partners, the new map reflects changes in fire hazard in unincorporated, rural areas, as experienced in California over the past five years.
CAL FIRE’s fire scientists and wildfire mitigation experts developed the map using a science-based and field-tested model that assigns a hazard score based on the factors that influence fire likelihood and fire behavior. Many factors are considered, such as fire history, existing and potential fuel (natural vegetation), predicted flame length, blowing embers, terrain, and typical fire weather for an area. These zones fall into the following classifications – moderate, high, and very high.
Overall the map shows increased fire hazard, reflecting California’s increase in wildfire occurrence and severity because of many factors, including a changing climate.
CAL FIRE is inviting public comment on the map until February 3, 2023.
Governor Reflects on a Year of Progress and Resilience
Governor Reflects on a Year of Progress and Resilience
In November, Governor Newsom and state and local officials announced an end to peak wildfire season in California. CAL FIRE Director, Joe Tyler, highlighted favorable weather conditions, strategic investments in firefighting equipment, aerial resources, and fuels reduction and forest management projects, coupled with the hard work of firefighters and the diligence of of local communities resulted in an 85% reduction in acres burned and a 78% reduction in structures destroyed from 2021.
Synthesis Report: Wildfire Crisis Strategy Roundtable
Synthesis Report: Wildfire Crisis Strategy Roundtable
In spring of 2022, the National Forest Foundation (NFF), together with the USFS, hosted a series of virtual ten roundtables for employees and partners of the agency to gather input on the USFS’s Confronting the Wildfire Crisis Strategy and associated Implementation Plan. NFF has published a report synthesizing key themes and opportunities for action that emerged from the roundtables.
The NFF will host a webinar on Monday, November 14, 2-3:30 p.m. EST, to share more information about the report, discuss next steps, and provide an opportunity for Q&A with Forest Service leadership.
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National Forest Foundation Roundtables
The 2021 Caldor Fire: One Year Later Video Series
The 2021 Caldor Fire: One Year Later Video Series
October 21, 2022, marks exactly one year since the Caldor Fire was completely contained.
Over the last year and with months of research and collaboration, the Eldorado National Forest released a four-part series examining the Caldor Fire. This series reviews the suppression efforts that took place, the fire behavior challenging firefighters, the road to rehabilitation and restoration, and what is being done now to lower the future risk of fire to communities.
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Episode 1: Initial response and experiences of firefighters who not only worked but also lived in the area
Episode 2: How fire behavior and fuel conditions made for a challenging fire fight
Episode 3: What restoration and rehabilitation work has occurred and its importance
Episode 4: What is being done to reduce extreme wildfire behavior
Eastern Sierra Recreation Update
Eastern Sierra Climate Communities Resilience Project aims to reduce wildfire danger and improve forest health and resilience around the Town of Mammoth Lakes
Good things are happening in the Eastern Sierra thanks to collaborative efforts between state, federal, and local partners. These efforts will not only help build resiliency of Mammoth Lakes and the forests, but sustain the recreation economy that Mammoth provides in the Eastern Sierra.
Mammoth Lakes “Donut” Project: The Eastern Sierra Climate and Communities Resilience Project, known locally as the “Mammoth Donut,” is wrapping up its two-year preplanning phase and implementation will soon begin under this multi-year wildfire and forest resiliency project. Spanning 56,000 acres of Inyo National Forest across six different watersheds and managed by the Whitebark Institute, the planning for this landscape-scale project included input from a wide range of partners and was enabled by funding from the Sierra Nevada Conservancy, and the Regional Fire and Forest Capacity Program. The Inyo National Forest is now inviting public input on this project.
Mammoth Lakes Basin Trails Ribbon Cutting: On October 5th, Inyo National Forest and the Town of Mammoth Lakes officially opened several new trails in the Mammoth Lakes Basin. These new trails are a result of the community engagement effort from the Lakes Basin Special Study, an effort that began in 2012 led by the Mammoth Lakes Trails and Public Access Foundation (MLTPA), MLTPA, with grant funding from SNC.
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MLTPA: Lakes Basin Special Study
Mammoth Lakes Trail System: RibbonCutting Celebration for New LakesBasin Trails
SNC’s Mammoth Lakes Donut Project
OPR Releases Wildfire Technical Advisory and WUI Planning Guide
OPR Releases new resources: Fire Hazard Planning Technical Advisory and WUI Planning Guide
In an important step forward on two key requirements in the Task Force Action plan, the Governor’s Office of Planning and Research (OPR) today published new resources to support local agencies and communities as they plan for wildfire at the community scale.
The first is OPR’s updated Fire Hazard Planning Technical Advisory (TA) which helps cities and counties address and reduce wildfire risk in their general plans. They also released the Wildland-Urban Interface (WUI) Planning Guide. This publication complements the TA by providing specific examples and best practice case studies to communities to reference as they plan and implement wildfire solutions.
OPR is an important Task Force partner, and these valuable publications will contribute to the Task Force’s goal of strengthening the protection of communities across California.
To learn more, read the OPR announcement and sign up for an informational webinar on September 14th, 2022.
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OPR Wildfire Planning Resources
Informational Webinar: OPR’s Wildfire Guidance & Resources
Cal OES Awards $25 Million to Local Organizations to Protect Vulnerable Communities
Cal OES Awards $25 Million to Local Organizations to Protect Vulnerable Communities from Disasters
In this second wave of funding, the California Department of Emergency Services awarded grants to 93 community partners to ensure the state’s most vulnerable are ready when disaster strikes. These grants prioritize communities that are considered both socially vulnerable and at a high risk of being impacted by wildfire, flood, earthquake, drought or heatwave.