Forest Service funding 3 more wildfire projects in California national forests. Here’s where

Three California projects that will thin forests and prescribe burns to reduce the impact of wildfires on communities will launch with millions of dollars from Washington, the U.S. Department of Agriculture said Tuesday.

The federal-local projects target areas in the Sequoia, Eldorado and Tahoe National Forests where forest restoration efforts will aim to shield neighboring communities from wildfire harms.

U.S. Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack said Tuesday the Biden administration was spending another $100 million on reducing wildfire risks across the country as part of the Forest Service’s Wildfire Crisis Strategy. The U.S. Forest Service is housed in the Department of Agriculture.

The 21 projects announced on Tuesday cover areas in 18 national forests across 14 states as part of the Collaborative Wildfire Risk Reduction Program.

The program works in conjunction with local communities, groups and Indigenous tribes to treat areas in national forests and grasslands that are determined to have high wildfire risks for nearby communities. The goal is to reduce hazardous fuels, or excess materials that can increase a wildfire’s severity.

Tuesday’s announcement indicated $5 million would be spent on each of the following in California:

▪ A project in the Sequoia National Forest will aim to reduce wildfire risks to the Breckenridge and Pine Flat communities. The project will use forest thinning and prescribed fire, according to the Forest Service, and viable wood byproducts will go to a biomass facility or sawmill.

▪ A project in the Georgetown Divide area of the Eldorado National Forest will use mastication, or mulching of forest vegetation, and prescribed fire to improve forest health in a region that’s at risk for drought, disease, wildfires and insect damage. It will also create breaks in hazardous fuels, including a high-powered electric transmission line, near infrastructure in Volcanoville and Georgetown.

▪ A project in the Tahoe National Forest will thin vegetation to reduce hazardous fuels, create defensible space around six communities and implement safe entry and exit routes on 6.3 miles of road. The area has dense vegetation, steep slopes and high rates of dying trees, according to the Forest Service.

The Tahoe National Forest project will work with at least seven local partners and connects to a previously announced one in the North Yuba Landscape.

In addition to the forest restoration work, the projects will support surveys, workforce development and public engagement efforts, according to the Forest Service.

More than 906,000 acres have burned so far this year across California, according to Cal Fire, with the Park Fire in Butte and Tehama counties having burned almost 430,000 acres as of Monday. The Park Fire is 99% contained, according to Cal Fire.

The funds announced Tuesday target areas that are not in the 21 high-priority landscapes that the administration has directed funds to in previous years.

That plan aims to treat more than 1.5 million acres across 21 landscapes identified by the Forest Service as high risk in the Western U.S., according to the agency, including seven in California.

“The distinction between this and the priority landscapes is that they were outside of the 21 priority landscapes, and therefore we’re expanding the initiative and the effort,” Vilsack said.

In January 2022, the administration launched a 10-year Wildfire Crisis Strategy that involves collaborating with local entities to improve forest health and reduce risk of fires to communities and natural resources.

The overall strategy draws funds from the Inflation Reduction Act and Bipartisan Infrastructure Law, two major spending packages passed while President Joe Biden has been in office. The laws allocated $3.2 billion to these efforts.

“Frankly, the Forest Service, as good as it is, simply doesn’t have the resources on its own to be able to do all that needs to be done,” Vilsack said Tuesday. “So it is really important in order for us to leverage those resources to expand the capacity to get things done by partnering,” he said, including working with Indigenous tribes, communities, nonprofit groups, private landowners and other agencies.

Forest Service Chief Randy Moore claimed results were already evident from the strategy in the 21 priority landscapes.

“If I look at between 2021 and 2023, wildfire risk to housing, watersheds and critical infrastructure was reduced by 8 to 12% across these 21 strategic landscapes,” he said. “Now, each year, we’re seeing a lot of success stories about how fires interact with these treatments.”