Millions provided to reduce wildfire risk: Largest agreement to date between USFS and NFF to benefit North Yuba Landscape

Apr. 5—The U.S. Forest Service announced on Wednesday that Tahoe National Forest is providing the National Forest Foundation with $117 million to implement forest management work in the North Yuba Landscape that will help to prevent or lessen extreme wildfire events.

"In 2022, North Yuba Landscape was one of 10 initial high-risk landscapes nationally selected for investment as part of the Forest Service's Wildfire Crisis Strategy," forest service officials said. "The landscape is one of the most at-risk watersheds to large-scale, catastrophic fire in the United States and includes the 275,000-acre North Yuba Landscape Resilience Project, a multi-phase vegetation and fuels management project to be implemented over 15 to 20 years."

With the additional funding, the National Forest Foundation is expected to treat more than 21,000 acres of forest and produce more than 55 million board feet of timber from thinning treatments.

Due to an overabundance of trees in many of California's forests and extreme weather events considered to be a result of climate change, wildfires have ravaged the state, costing not only billions of dollars in damages, but also the lives of its residents.

Over the years, several state agencies and groups have worked to reduce the risk of catastrophic wildfires, including Yuba Water Agency. Through programs such as the Yuba Foothills Healthy Forest Project, the thinning of these forests have helped reduce the amount of fuel these large blazes rely on.

"These fuels reduction efforts will significantly lower wildfire risk and change fire behavior to protect communities, escape routes and utility infrastructure while also improving forest health to protect important habitats and enhance resilience to climate change," U.S. Forest Service officials said.

However, due to the costs and logistics of removing large amounts of trees in very rural areas, the work of thinning the state's forests enough to help lessen the severity of wildfires has presented a challenge to leaders.

"Tahoe National Forest is excited to expand our already outstanding partnership with the National Forest Foundation with the largest agreement between our organizations in history. Our partnership with the National Forest Foundation continues to help increase the pace and scale of work desperately needed on the ground in the North Yuba Landscape," Tahoe National Forest Supervisor Eli Ilano said in a statement. "Through significant new federal investment, coupled with the significant resources raised by the National Forest Foundation and all the organizations in the North Yuba Forest Partnership, we are ramping up work on the landscape to further support and protect local communities and ecosystems that rely on the overall resilience of the Yuba River watershed."

Yuba Water Agency Watershed Manager JoAnna Lessard said Wednesday that the agency is continuing to help with these types of projects.

"Yuba Water Agency is excited that the North Yuba Forest Partnership continues to attract federal funding to reduce the risk of catastrophic wildfire and increase forest resilience in the Yuba River watershed," Lessard said in an email. "This significant new funding is a direct result of the partnership's collaborative efforts and demonstrates our ability to get this vital work done at an unprecedented scale. Yuba Water is currently working with our partners to support planning and implementation to ensure this funding is put to work on the ground as soon as possible."

Lessard said there is a "desperate need" for this work to be done in the Yuba River watershed. While the watershed hasn't experienced the type of catastrophic wildfires seen in other areas of the state, many of the same conditions and characteristics as neighboring watersheds that have been devastated by wildfire do exist, she said.

Partnerships

According to the U.S. Forest Service, the North Yuba Landscape Resilience Project area stretches from New Bullards Bar Reservoir in Yuba County east up to the Sierra Crest along Highway 49. The watershed it seeks to protect supports "substantial forest habitat, high biodiversity and is an important source of water to downstream users," officials said.

In its work on the North Yuba Landscape, officials said Tahoe National Forest has partnered with eight organizations who are "passionate about the health and the resilience of the North Yuba River watershed." This effort helped to establish the North Yuba Forest Partnership. Since 2018, the partnership, which includes the National Forest Foundation, has been working to collaboratively plan, analyze, finance and implement forest restoration across the watershed, officials said.

"Over the last several years, the National Forest Foundation and U.S. Forest Service have successfully partnered to improve the health and resilience of thousands of acres of the Tahoe National Forest. With this new large-scale agreement, we are eager to build upon our proven model and accomplish even more meaningful on-the-ground results," National Forest Foundation President and CEO Mary Mitsos said in a statement. "Forests in California and throughout the West are in need of treatment activities beyond what any one entity can do on its own. Working through innovative partnerships, like we have on the Tahoe National Forest, we are excited to bring new tools and resources to tackle the challenge together."

Along with the $117 million investment made to the National Forest Foundation, officials said Tahoe National Forest could receive up to $36 million more in federal funding this year for additional project work.

"The forest received $6.8 million of federal funds in 2022 to direct toward the North Yuba Landscape, with significant non-federal funding from the North Yuba Forest Partnership since 2018. Federal funding sources stem from a variety of legislative actions including the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law and Inflation Reduction Act," officials said. "The execution of the North Yuba Landscape Resilience Project will support nearly 2,000 jobs each year of project implementation in the logging, wood products and ecological restoration industries primarily in Sierra and Yuba counties and neighboring communities."

Lessard said as part of Yuba Water's effort to continue important forest work, the agency has been in communication with Yuba College.

"Yuba Water also worked with Yuba College to develop three new certificate programs to support anticipated local and regional workforce needs related to forest resilience," Lessard said. "This includes a Field Technician-Watershed Management Certificate, a Soil Conservation Technician Certificate and a Geographic Information Systems (GIS) Certificate. The certificates will be offered starting this August. Each certificate can generally be earned in about a year."