The Sierra Nevada Conservancy (SNC) Governing Board recently approved over $2 million in grants for projects that will reduce wildfire risk and restore forest and watershed health in the Sierra Nevada region. Funding for these projects comes from Proposition 1, The Water Quality, Supply, and Infrastructure Improvement Act of 2014. This is the fourth set of awards made under the SNC’s Proposition 1 grant program.
“Sierra watersheds continue to face many challenges,” says Jim Branham, Executive Officer for the Sierra Nevada Conservancy. “These projects can help protect our watersheds from large, damaging wildfires, insects, and disease, and make them more resilient to a changing climate.”
The projects approved for funding include:
• Calaveras County – Pumpkin Hollow Restoration Project, $500,000
This grant to the Upper Mokelumne River Watershed Authority will complete aspen, forest, and meadow restoration, and the construction of a shaded fuel break on 971 acres. The project area is a part of the Hemlock Landscape Restoration Project and the even larger Cornerstone Collaborative Forest Landscape Restoration project. The restoration treatments are designed to improve watershed conditions within the headwaters of the Mokelumne and Stanislaus Rivers.
• Nevada County – Webber Lake Little Truckee River Headwaters Timber Management Plan, $70,000
This grant to the Truckee Donner Land Trust will complete a Nonindustrial Timber Management Plan (NTMP) that will guide long-term management of overstocked and diseased forest conditions on 3,000 acres of lake, meadow, and forest habitat in the headwaters of the Little Truckee River.
• Plumas County – Bucks Lake Project, $464,025
This grant to the Plumas County Fire Safe Council will thin overgrown forest conditions on 342.5 acres located in the Plumas National Forest in order to protect the North Fork Feather Watershed from large, damaging wildfires. This project will complete the last phase of the 1,511 acre Bucks Lake Hazardous Fuels Reduction Project, and will contribute to a large scale effort by the Plumas National Forest to increase resiliency to high-intensity wildfires.
• Butte County – Butte Forest Thin – Doe Mill Ridge Watershed Project, $494,697
This grant to the Sacramento River Watershed Program will use forest thinning and low intensity prescribed fire to reduce the risk of catastrophic fire, control invasive species, restore habitat, and demonstrate the linkages between management of upstream areas and the impacts on downstream water availability and quality. The project is located on 227.5 acres of public land managed by the BLM between Little Chico Creek and Butte Creek within the Sacramento River watershed.
• Tuolumne County – Beaver Creek Watershed Improvement Project, $500,000
This grant to the Save the Redwoods League will treat 336 acres adjacent to the Calaveras Big Trees State Park (CBTSP) to protect Beaver Creek, which drains to the North Fork Stanislaus River and eventually to New Melones Lake. The treatment includes thinning overgrown forests, and the creation of two fuel breaks that will link open fields and buffer the South Grove of the CBTSP.
From YubaNet.com: https://yubanet.com/regional/sierra-nevada-conservancy-awards-2-million-for-forest-health-and-watershed-restoration-projects/