Press Release: State Coastal Conservancy Awards $10.8 Million for Wildfire Resilience in this Fire Season

(Oakland, CA) – Today, the Board of the State Coastal Conservancy authorized funding totaling over $10.8 for 33 projects throughout the coast of California to increase the resilience of coastal forests and open space to wildfires.

“These projects will help prepare coastal habitats for catastrophic wildfires by creating fire breaks, clearing debris, removing hazardous trees along fire roads, and other measures intended to slow the spread of wildfire, protect communities, and help forests recover from fire more quickly.” Said Sam Schuchat, Executive Officer of the State Coastal Conservancy. “California has suffered a string of devastating fire seasons; we are one of many state and local agencies working to help us better anticipate, mitigate, and recover from wildfire in the future. Thanks to early action funding appropriated by the Legislature and Governor in April, we’re going to get these projects underway before the worst of this year’s fire season.”

Today’s grants are part of the Conservancy’s Wildfire Resilience Program, which supports local partners to develop and implement projects that improve forest health and reduce the risk of catastrophic fire in areas where people are living near wildlands. The Wildfire Resilience Program also aims to build organizational capacity at the local and regional level to implement forest health and fire risk reduction projects that help prevent isolated fires from becoming wildfires.

More on the Conservancy’s Wildfire Resilience Program can be found here: https://scc.ca.gov/wildfire-resilience-program/

The projects approved at today’s meeting were:

  1. A grant of $7,650 to the National Audubon Society to create and maintain defensible space around buildings within Audubon Starr Ranch Sanctuary, located in unincorporated Orange County.

 

  1. A grant of $23,588 to the Land Trust for Santa Barbara County to implement prescribed herbivory to reduce fuel loads and create a buffer to prevent wildfire spread in the southern portion of Arroyo Hondo Preservein Santa Barbara County.
  2. A grant of $35,000 to the Hoopa Valley Tribe to implement shaded fuel brakes or defensible space projects to protect the homes of approximately 75 vulnerable residents on the Hoopa Valley Tribal Reservation, Humboldt County.
  3. A grant of $45,000 to the City of Carmel-by-the-Sea to remove hazardous fire fuels in City’s Mission Trail Nature Preserve, Monterey County.
  4. A grant of $47,721 to the Santa Clara Valley Habitat Agency for eucalyptus removal and weed abatement in a high fire hazard severity zone at Davidson Ranch Reserve, in Santa Clara County.
  5. A grant of $75,000 to the Trinity County Resource Conservation District to implement fuel reduction projects on Bureau of Land Management property in the community of Lewiston, Trinity County.
  6. A grant of $100,000 to the City of Santa Cruz to undertake vegetation management to reduce fire risk at two open space areas at Arroyo Seco Canyon and DeLaveaga Park.
  7. A grant of $115,000 to the Cazadero Community Services District to acquire a Brush Chipper, skid steer bucket loader and supplies for use in vegetation management activities, and to undertake such activities, to decrease the risk of wildfire in the vicinity of Cazadero, Sonoma County.
  8. A grant of $120,000 to the Carpinteria-SummerlandFire Protection District for a multi-pronged wildfire hazard fuels reduction project in the Carpinteria-Summerland area of Santa Barbara County.
  9. A grant of $130,000 to the City of Pacifica and $67,500 to the City of Brisbane for the North County Fire Authority to implement two wildfire fuel reduction projects in the wildland urban interface in northern San Mateo County, including vegetation management along public roadways in City of Brisbane and a community chipper program in the City of Pacifica.
  10. A grant of $144,000 to the City of Mill Valley to reduce fuels build up, create defensible space along the Blithedale Ridge Fire Road and perform fire-related public outreach in the vicinity of the Blithedale Summit Open Space Preserve,Mill Valley, Marin County.
  11. A grant of $150,000 to Sonoma Land Trust to conduct wildfire risk reduction activities on the Little Black Mountain Preserve, Laufenberg Ranch, Pole Mountain Preserve, and Live Oaks Ranchproperties in Sonoma County.
  12. A grant of $150,000 to LandPaths to conduct approximately 60 acres of fuels reduction and burn area restoration on the Bohemia Ecological Preserve, Riddell Preserve, Rancho Mark West Preserve, and Ocean Song Preserve properties in Sonoma County.
  13. A grant of $194,400 to Woodside Fire Protection Districtfor fuel reduction management practices and invasive plant removal in San Mateo County, and adoption of findings under the California Environmental Quality Act.
  14. A grant of $197,621 to Mendocino County to implement the Mendocino County Fuels Reduction Capacity Building Projectin Mendocino County.
  15. A grant of $200,000 to San Lorenzo Valley Water Districtfor vegetation management to reduce fire risk to critical infrastructure on land owned and operated by the District in Santa Cruz County.
  16. A grant of $209,800 to The Wildlands Conservancy to undertake fuels reduction and vegetation management on the Jenner Headlands Preserve, Sonoma County.
  17. A grant of $250,000 to the Pala Band of Mission Indians to implement a hazardous fuels reduction project within a wildland urban interface on the Pala Band of Mission Indians’ Reservationin San Diego County.
  18. A grant of $290,600 to the East Bay Regional Park District to expand on-going fuel treatments and fuel breaks and conduct biological surveys on East Bay Regional Park lands, specifically in two recommended treatment areas: Tilden Regional Park – TI002a and Wildcat Canyon Regional Park – WC005.

 

  1. A grant of $277,166 to the Sonoma County Water Agency to conduct wildfire resilience activities at Spring Lake Regional Park, Sonoma County.

 

  1. A grant of $345,650 to Sonoma County Regional Parks to conduct wildfire resilience activities consisting of shaded fuel breaks at Shiloh Ranch Regional Park and prescribed grazing at Taylor Mountain Regional Parkand Open Space Preserve, Sonoma County.

 

  1. A grant of $575,000 to the Sonoma County Agricultural Preservation and Open Space District to conduct wildfire resilience activities at Saddle Mountain Open Space Preserve, Sonoma County, and adoption of findings under the California Environmental Quality Act.
  2. A grant of $1,078,684 to the Napa County Resource Conservation District for wildfire resilience activities at Linda Falls Preserve, Pacific Union College Demonstration and Experimental Forest, Suscol Intertribal Council’s Suskol House Land, and Moore Creek Park, Napa County, and adoption of findings under the California Environmental Quality Act.
  3. A grant of $299,253 to the Dry Creek Rancheria Band of Pomo Indiansto reduce fire-fuels created by the 2019 Kincade Fire and restore approximately 57 acres of the Rancheria in Sonoma County, and adoption of findings pursuant to the California Environmental Quality Act.
  4. A grant of $414,000 to the City of Healdsburg for its Fire Department to conduct wildfire fuel management and control line treatments on three open space preserves (Healdsburg Ridge, Callahan and Fitch Mountain) adjacent to the City of Healdsburg in Sonoma County, and adoption of findings under the California Environmental Quality Act.
  5. A grant of $1,000,000 to Save the Redwoods League to conduct forest restoration treatments to improve forest health and wildfire resiliency in the Greater Prairie Creek Watershed within Redwood National and State Parks, and adoption of findings under the California Environmental Quality Act.

 

  1. A grant of $1,000,000 to the Marin Municipal Water District to implement vegetation management projects identified in the Biodiversity, Fire, and Fuels Integrated Plan (BFFIP) in the Mount Tamalpais Watershed, and to reduce ladder fuels in the Marin County Parks Blithedale Summit Preserve, and adoption of findings under the California Environmental Quality Act.
  2. A grant of $396,000 to Santa Barbara County for a community defensible space project in the San Antonio Creekarea of Santa Barbara County.
  3. A grant of $400,000 to Midpeninsula Regional Open Space District to reduce wildland vegetation fuels, remove fire prone invasive species, and expand shaded fuel break areas through their Wildland Fire Resiliency Program in up to 11 preserves in San Mateo County, and adoption of findings under the California Environmental Quality Act.
  4. A grant of $1,000,000 to San Mateo Resource Conservation District to establish a shaded fuel break and remove hazardous trees along fire roads within Quarry Parkin El Granada, San Mateo County, and adoption of findings under the California Environmental Quality Act.

 

  1. A grant of $317,071 to the Iipay Nation of Santa Ysabelto reduce fire fuels in undeveloped woodlands and open spaces and create defensible space around buildings, water systems, and roadways on Iipay Nation trust lands.
  2. A grant of $661,367 to the Urban Corps of San Diego to conduct fuel modification for wildfire resilience in open space in the City of Chula Vista and in seven San Diego County preserves; and adoption of findings under the California Environmental Quality Act.
  3. A grant of $581,500 to North East Trees for the Flat Top Park Fire Resilienceproject in the City of Los Angeles.

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