Lake County Wildfire Resilience Project - Phase 1
Funding Source: CAL FIRE Forest Health Grant Program; California Climate Investments (CCI)
Project Description Summary |
Project will restore health and fire resilience to Lake County devastated by four 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.
Funded through CAL FIRE's Forest Health Program, California Climate Investment (CCI) funds will be used to “significantly increase fuels reduction, increase controlled fire reintroduction and treatment of degraded forests, on a landscape scale, developed and led by a regionally-based collaborative effort”. The Clear Lake Environmental Research Center (CLERC) is completing a county-wide project to tackle the landscape scale problem by collaborating with multiple partners.
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Budget: $4.7M
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Project Background |
CLERC is proposing to use a mix of fuels reduction, prescribed fire, pest management, reforestation, biomass utilization and planning components to achieve the objectives that have been developed to further the goals of the CA Forest Carbon Plan, the CA 2030 Natural and Working Lands Climate Change Implementation Plan and the CA Global Warming Solutions Act of 2006 (AB 32). The goal of the Forest Carbon Plan is to “transfer carbon stocks from many small, closely-spaced, fire-vulnerable trees into a smaller number of resilient larger trees by thinning and prescribed fire”. The goal of the Natural and Working Lands Plan is to “double the rate of State-funded forest management and restoration”. Suggested practices include “prescribed fire, mechanical thinning, and understory fuel reduction on overstocked, unhealthy forestland; reforestation to prevent conversion of forest ecosystems to shrub or grassland; and biomass utilization for renewable energy production”. These Plans are a result of AB 32 which directly requires carbon quantification of publicly funded projects with CCI funds, so that AB 32’s long-term objective, to have forests be carbon sinks, is met. The CLERC project implements these goals and objective and provides GHG emission numbers to back-up the narrative. The project establishes a method to bring Lake County’s forestland, 85% of the landmass, to a more resilient and reliable long-term carbon sink, rather than a GHG and black carbon emission source from catastrophic wildfires due to forest ill health. CLERC’s phased approach will deliver enduring and sustainable GHG benefits as it reaches all Lake County communities with the message that doing nothing on your land is not a choice. CLERC starts every landowner conversation with “do you have a Forest Management Plan?” to instill in the landowner their responsibility to maintain a fire resilient forest.
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Want to be involved in future projects? |
CLERC is building a network of partners to help implement this project and others in the future. Please contact us if you'd like to help out.
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