Fire and Forestry Program

Fire & Forestry Program

In recent years, California has experienced an increase in large, catastrophic wildfires resulting in the destruction of millions of acres of forest and tens of thousands of homes. Lake County has been particularly impacted by this phenomenon. Since 2015, nearly three quarters of the land in Lake County has been burned by wildfire.

Map Source: County of Lake, CA

The Clear Lake Environmental Research Center (CLERC) is coordinating projects throughout Lake County to help combat the impacts of wildfire, promote positive regeneration of burned areas, and preserve the forest and woodlands that have not been destroyed by fire. Along with partners, CLERC is working towards creating a more fire resilient landscape.

Fire Prevention Grant

In March 2020, CLERC was awarded a $3M grant from CAL FIRE through the Fire Prevention Grant Program for the Lake County Hazardous Fuel Reduction Project Phase 1.

Learn More

In order to develop and maintain sustainable ecosystems and healthy forests in Lake County, CLERC is is focused on:

Network of Partners

CLERC is building a network of landowners, technical experts, and resource management professionals to facilitate and help achieve our community's fire resiliency goals. The network includes both individuals and agencies involved in land management and fire resiliency in Lake County. Interested in joining the network? Please contact us!

Community-Wide Funding Applications

CLERC is preparing a series of community-wide grant funding applications for a variety of fire resiliency projects including fuel reduction, reforestation, prescribed fire, planning, workforce development, and community involvement. The intent of these community-wide applications is to greatly increase the size and scope of the individual funding requests by including components from multiple community partners under a single grant application. This increases the amount of funding coming into Lake County for projects in addition to making grant funding available to individuals that may otherwise lack capacity to obtain grant funding on their own.

Regional Forest and Fire Capacity Program

CLERC is engaged in the Regional Forest and Fire Capacity (RFFC) Program to further advance landscape-scale forest management in Lake County. Since July 2019, CLERC has been working with the Watershed Research and Training Center (WRTC) to build capacity for increased landscape-scale forest health projects in Lake County.

Regional Priority Planning

CLERC is developing a Regional Prioritization Plan that identifies and prioritizes projects at the landscape level to address forest health and wildfire risks within Lake County. CLERC's goal for this plan is to develop a framework for streamlining future community-wide projects and funding proposals through better monitoring and prioritization.

Biomass Utilization

CLERC is working with partners to utilize local biomass resources as a way to fund forest management activities. Biomass utilization includes energy, heat, and other products. UC ANR has excellent information about biomass utilization.

Immediate and Long-Term Impacts

The photos below show the impacts of recent wildfire to the Wolf Creek Watershed near the community of Spring Valley in Clearlake Oaks, CA. The photos were taken on August 27, 2018, just weeks after the Pawnee Fire and Ranch Fire burned the entire watershed with high intensity leaving little vegetation.

Looking across the Big Canyon Watershed towards the recently-cleared Boggs State Demonstration Forest, this area burned with high intensity during the Valley Fire in 2015. The photo was taken in August 2019, four years after the fire.