Regional Forest and Fire Capacity Program

Regional Forest and Fire Capacity (RFFC) Program

The Regional Forest and Fire Capacity program seeks to increase regional capacity to prioritize, develop, and implement projects that improve forest health and fire resilience, facilitate greenhouse gas emissions reductions, and increase carbon sequestration in forests throughout California. 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. Utilizing California Climate Investments (CCI) funding through the California Department of Natural Resources, CLERC is building a network of partners, preparing community-wide funding applications, facilitating biomass utilization, and laying the groundwork for future projects on a regional scale. The long-term goal is to increase the amount of land within Lake County being actively managed for forest health and wildfire resilience. In addition to funding, the WRTC has been providing CLERC with technical expertise in a variety of areas including biomass utilization, prescribed fire implementation, and organizational development.

Program Background

The RFFC Program is a California Natural Resources Agency program administered by the Department of Conservation.

In the spring of 2019 block grants were distributed by the state to regional recipients to support planning and implementation of landscape-level forest health projects. Additionally, a statewide block grant to facilitate cross-regional support and to provide assistance to areas not included in an RFFC region was awarded to the WRTC.

Since Lake County is not included in any of the RFFC program regions, CLERC's involvement in the program is critical to the inclusion of Lake County in future state funding and programs regarding forest and fire management.

Appendix A from the Regional Forest and Fire Capacity (RFFC) Program Grant Guidelines. The majority of Lake County is not covered by an RFFC region.

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!

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.

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 Priority Planning

CLERC aims to develop a Regional Prioritization Plan that identifies and prioritizes projects at the landscape level to address forest health and wildfire risks within Lake County, California. The intent is for this plan to be submitted in tandem with the plans to be developed by other Regional Forest and Fire Capacity (RFFC) grant awardees by May 2022.

Program Partners

This work was funded in whole or in part by a Regional Forest and Fire Capacity grant awarded from the California Natural Resources Agency through a subcontract with the Watershed Research and Training Center. During the performance of this grant agreement, all subcontractors shall not unlawfully discriminate, harass, or allow harassment against any employee or applicant for employment because of race, color, ancestry, national origin, religion, creed, age (over 40), mental disability, physical disability, sex, gender (including pregnancy, childbirth, breastfeeding, or related medical conditions), sexual orientation, gender identity, gender expression, medical condition, genetic information, marital status, and military or veteran status.