The California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection (CAL FIRE) announced the Department has awarded over $63 million in grants for 16 landscape-scale, regionally-based projects aimed at promoting healthy and resilient forests that protect and enhance forest carbon sequestration.
Placer Land Trust received an award of $1,300,700 to acquire the Butler Property, a 192-acre forest property in Foresthill spanning the North Fork and Middle Fork American River Canyons. A conservation easement will then be granted to CAL FIRE. The property is adjacent to Auburn State Recreation Area (ASRA), federal lands, and a past, PLT-assisted conservation project with the same landowner. This is one of just three projects across the state awarded for land acquisition and protection through the Forest Legacy program.
In addition to protection by conservation easement, the project plan calls for proposed public trails and a new trailhead with parking; a proposed memorial forest, with an innovative forest revenue model; high-quality, diverse, mature forests, including large madrone groves; a wildlife corridor; and managed forest that could serve as a fire break between subdivisions in high-risk areas.
CAL FIRE’s Forest Health program restores California’s forestlands through a suite of active management approaches including long-term protection by conservation easement; selective thinning of overly dense forests; use of prescribed fire for ecological restoration and to reduce hazardous fuel loads; and reforestation of forests.
“These landscape-level Forest Health projects complement the immediate actions to prevent and mitigate wildfires that CAL FIRE proposed in its recent 45-Day Report to Governor Gavin Newsom,” said Angie Lottes, CAL FIRE’s Assistant Deputy Director for Climate and Energy. “Together, our investments will help make our forests more resilient, reducing the risk of wildlife and the resulting loss of carbon, while also improving ecosystem health.”
The CAL FIRE Forest Health program is part of California Climate Investments (CCI), a statewide program that puts billions of Cap-and-Trade dollars to work reducing GHG emissions, strengthening the economy, and improving public health and the environment- particularly in disadvantaged communities.