Media Contact: Isaac Silverman, (530) 906-2624

isaac.silverman@sierranevada.ca.gov

March 8, 2024

Sierra Nevada Conservancy awards $27.5 million to forest resilience & community protection projects in Sierra-Cascade

To help improve areas impacted by past wildfires and increase forest health and resilience, the Tule River Indian Tribe will utilize a $1.7 million grant from the Sierra Nevada Conservancy to reduce hazardous fuels in two iconic giant sequoia groves in Tulare County. Photography: Tule River Indian Tribe.

(Sacramento, Calif.) — The Sierra Nevada Conservancy (SNC) Governing Board awarded a little over $27.5 million to 16 different projects to help with the planning and implementation of forest-health efforts that promote recovery and resilience throughout the Sierra-Cascade.

“The state appropriated funds to the SNC last year to address wildfire- and forest-resilience priorities throughout the Sierra-Cascade and it is amazing to know that less than one year later most of those funds have now been awarded to the incredible partners and projects that continue to keep our communities safe and our forested landscapes more resilient to disturbances such as wildfire, drought, disease and insects,” said Angela Avery, executive officer for the SNC. “I can’t thank our partners, staff members, and our Board enough for making this happen so effectively and efficiently.”

View the complete list of projects funded by the SNC board at the March meeting.

Critical wildfire and forest resilience project implementation continues

Of the 16 projects awarded at the Board meeting, eight of them went to the implementation of shovel-ready projects in Amador, Placer, Plumas, Shasta, Siskiyou, and Tulare counties. The largest award went to the Upper Mokelumne River Watershed Authority in Amador County to conduct critical fuel-reduction treatments on nearly 1,600 acres within the Mokelumne River watershed. This project is part of the 25,671-acre, landscape effort to improve and protect forest stands and wildlife habitat. Additionally, nearly $3.7 million went to the Shasta-Trinity National Forest to help ensure public safety and create fire resilience in Siskiyou County by reducing fuels on 1,157 acres.

Iconic giant sequoias in two well-known groves, Alder Creek and Freeman Creek, will get extra protection as Save the Redwoods League and partners will utilize $2.25 million to reduce hazardous fuel loading on 900 acres in Tulare County. The Tule River Indian Tribe received roughly $1.7 million to reduce the risk of damaging wildfires through fuel-reduction treatments on tribal land. Community protection and habitat enhancement are key goals behind the $1.7 million awarded to the Mule Deer Foundation to reduce fuels and apply prescribed burning on 950 acres in Plumas County.

View the complete list of projects funded, including the wood energy facility being constructed in the Northstar area outside Truckee, Ca.

SNC funds critical plans for wildfire and forest resilience across Sierra-Cascade

While the Board approved funds to begin implementation of several meaningful, landscape-scale efforts throughout the Sierra-Cascade, it helped refill the wildfire and forest resilience project pipeline by also awarding eight projects that span 14 Sierra-Cascade counties: Alpine, Amador, Calaveras, El Dorado, Fresno, Lassen, Modoc, Placer, Nevada, Shasta, Sierra, Siskiyou, Tehama, and Tuolumne.

The largest award went to the Fall River Resource Conservation District, which will use $3.58 million to complete a cross-jurisdictional data assessment and planning to enhance forest and watershed conditions that will reduce wildfire risk across 6.4 million acres within Siskiyou, Shasta, Modoc, Lassen and Tehama counties. In the southern Sierra high country, the National Forest Foundation will use $2.9 million to draft a proposed action for NEPA analysis on roughly 44,000 acres to enhance forest health and reduce wildfire risk in Fresno County near Shaver Lake.

In Sierra Nevada foothills, the Tuolumne Band of Me-Wuk Indians will prepare a comprehensive land-management plan on Tuolumne Rancheria lands with a grant of $920,000. Sixty miles as the crow flies to the north, the Placer County Water Agency will complete NEPA and CEQA on a 6,200-acre forest-health project near Long Canyon Creek in an effort to protect water quality, habitat for sensitive species, natural and cultural resources, and nearby communities adjacent the Middle Fork of the American River.

View the complete list of projects funded by the SNC Board at the March meeting.

The SNC is a California state agency that initiates, encourages, and supports efforts that improve the environmental, economic, and social well-being of the Sierra Nevada and California’s Cascades, its communities, and the people of California. Learn more about SNC.