CLERC Awarded $4.7M from CAL FIRE for Lake County Wildfire Resilience Project - Phase 1

Forest lands impacted by the Valley Fire adjacent to Boggs State Demonstration Forest.

​In August 2021, CAL FIRE announced that it was awarding $4.7M to CLERC and a group of partners to complete the Lake County Wildfire Resilience Project - Phase 1. The project was originally slated for award in mid-2020, but was delayed by the covid-19 pandemic. With this funding, CLERC, along with partners, will restore health and fire resilience to Lake County devastated by years of wildfires, prolonged drought, pest damage and death of conifers, and absence of natural fires leading to unprecedented levels of fuel. With local, state, federal, tribal, and private partners this project will use fuels reduction, prescribed fire, pest management, reforestation, and biomass utilization, to maximize carbon sequestration and minimize the loss of carbon from mega fires.  

"Boots on the Ground" Forest Restoration

The project includes:​

• 669 acres of fuel reduction on private lands, mostly in areas impacted by the 2015 Valley Fire and the 2018 Mendocino Complex FIre,
• 112 acres of pest management on unburned private lands,
• 700 acres of thinning and fuel reduction in the Mendocino National Forest in the hills above Lucerne, CA,
• 154 acres of reforestation in areas impacted by wildfire,
• 28 acres of prescribed fire.
• 86% of the project is located in the Clear Lake Watershed

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Forest burned during the Valley Fire in 2015.

Regional Prioritization Plan

​The project also includes funding to continue development of the Lake County Regional Prioritization Plan that has been under development by CLERC since early 2020. The prioritization plan’s goal is to streamline the process for selecting projects to include in community-wide funding applications. CLERC will be participating in the AmeriCorps CivicSpark Program, which was instrumental in getting the project off the ground utilizing funding from CLERC’s Fire Prevention Grant.

Climate Adaptation Model

​Phase1 of the Wildfire Resilience Project will also include development of a climate adaptation model for the Mendocino National Forest.  CLERC will be working with Dr. Steven Greco of the UC Davis Landscape Architecture and Environmental Design Program to help develop a model to anticipate the impacts of climate change in the national forest, which was greatly impacted by the Mendocino Complex Fire in 2018. CLERC hopes to utilize the model in the development of future landscape-scale forest restoration projects.

Forest on Cobb Mountain in need of thinning to promote forest health and improve wildfire resiliency.

UAV Program

​With this funding, CLERC is launching a UAV (Unmanned Aerial Vehicle) monitoring program to better track, monitor, and measure the impacts from our fire and forestry projects. Recent advances in aerial image processing have greatly expanded the types and amount of information that can be gathered during a drone flight, including creation of 3D models and point cloud datasets. The additional data gathered on current projects will allow CLERC to plan better projects in the future.

​Project Partners:

• United States Forest Service - Mendocino National Forest, Upper Lake Ranger District
• UC Davis Landscape Architecture and Environmental Design Program
• CAL FIRE
• Lake County Community Risk Reduction Authority (RRA)
• Lake County Resource Conservation District (RCD)
• Dozens of private forest landowners

Interested in getting involved in future projects?

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