Six Rivers National Forest Receives Funding to Protect Communities From Wildfires

Press release from Six Rivers National Forest:

The Six Rivers National Forest has received just over $203,000 as part of the US Department of Agriculture’s $12 million investment this year to mitigate wildfire risk, improve water quality and restore healthy forest ecosystems.

The Rural Community Fire Protection and Forest Management Project (Rural Community Project) planned for the Six Rivers and Shasta-Trinity national forests is just one of 13 new three-year projects, including three in California. Since 2014, USDA has invested $213 million in 69 Joint Chiefs’ Landscape Restoration Partnership (Joint Chiefs’) projects, which focus on areas where public forests and grasslands intersect with privately owned lands.

The Rural Community Project builds on prior year efforts to safeguard water resources by creating fuelbreaks along linear landscapes to facilitate evacuation, firefighter access, and fire management. Partners plan to thin forests adjacent to communities and fuelbreaks to develop mature and complex forest habitat, and reduce wildfire risks.

Partners for this Six Rivers and Shasta-Trinity national forest project include the Trinity County Collaborative Group, Trinity County Board of Supervisors, Watershed Research and Training Center, Trinity County Resource Conservation District, Trinity County Fire Safe Council and Weaverville Volunteer Fire Department.

According to Dan Dill, district ranger for the Six Rivers’ Mad River Ranger District, “These funds allow us to continue to build shaded fuelbreaks along escape routes and county highways across national forest lands in Trinity County, and provide valuable commodities and jobs to the local workforce.”

The Joint Chiefs’ partnership enables the Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS) and the Forest Service to leverage technical and financial assistance collaboratively with landowners across the country to help reduce wildfire threats, protect water quality and supply, and improve wildlife habitat for at-risk species. During the new three-year projects, landowners will work with local USDA experts and partners to apply targeted forestry management practices on their land, such as thinning, hazardous fuel treatments, fire breaks and other systems, to meet unique forestry challenges in their area.

Beginning in 2016, the Six Rivers received three-year Joint Chiefs’ funding totaling $728,000 for the Trinity County Community Protection Project. This project resulted in the 1st 48 Shaded Fuelbreak in and around the town of Ruth; fuels reduction in the following project areas: Mad Ridge Fuelbreak, Kelsey Peak, Little Doe; and the beginnings of a miles-long shaded fuelbreak near Zenia, called Akrewoods.

For more information about the project on the Six Rivers National Forest, contact Dan Dill, Mad River District Ranger, at [email protected] or (707) 574-6844. For information about the Joint Chiefs’ Landscape Restoration Partnership, full project descriptions and information on completed projects, visit go.usa.gov/xEsyY.