Three years after intense, widespread wildfires ravaged the area, Trinity County Resource Conservation District (RCD) began working with local and state partners to restore and protect habitat while repairing communities in California.

With assistance from Joint Chiefs’ Landscape Restoration Partnership (LRP) funding, the Trinity County Community Protection Project is using burn practices and other programs to continue building on decades-old work with the support of the Trinity County Collaborative Group.

“It’s allowed us to implement more projects than what we otherwise would have done,” Kelly Sheen, district manager for Trinity County Resource RCD, said. “Because of our role with the partners, it’s making a difference.”

The project aims to restore lands across property boundaries by taking a broad landscape approach regardless of ownership, reducing wildfire threats and enhancing habitat for at-risk species like the Coho salmon. The partnership allows collaboration to establish a system of shaded fuel breaks and strategic fuel treatments to decrease high-severity wildfires and benefit water and stream habitats and watersheds by protecting and improving water quality and supply.

The district and partners are in year two of the Joint Chiefs’ program in the South Fork Trinity River/Upper Mad River area, and according to NRCS District Conservationist Jenna Ganoung there has been much progress. “The partnership we have with the RCD and Forest Service through the Trinity Collaborative is critical in planning and conducting these projects,” Ganoung said. “The more strategically placed fuel management is, the less the potential for a large, catastrophic fire.”

According to Ganoung, about $160,000 has been dedicated to fire resiliency and health projects through the program through NRCS alone. Inventory is being conducted and plans are being made for additional projects.

Sheen said the RCD is continuing to work on plantation thinning. The two primary national forests of focus are Shasta Trinity and Six Rivers.

“Both are using funding to implement projects they wouldn’t normally be able to do,” Sheen said. “After treating some of the areas where we’ve had fire, it’s clearly kept the fire season less intense. It’s been more of an understory burn instead of catastrophic wildfires. It’s been much more manageable.”

The district is somewhat restricted in its on-the-ground involvement, he said, but has participated in about 65 acres of plantation thinning. According to Sheen, the district has been able to work closely with another partner, the Watershed Research and Training Center, on fuel reduction and other forestry projects associated with the LRP project.

One hope is the work will lead to additional efforts and funding to assist in restoring habitat while reducing fuel loading. Ganoung believes continued collaboration will help.

“Communication is key in getting successful and effective fuel management on the ground in order to provide protection to our community as well as protect wildlife habitat and other resources,” Ganoung said.

Other partners involved in the partnership project are Trinity County Board of Supervisors; Yurok Tribe; National Forest Foundation; The Nature Conservancy; Trinity County Fire Safe Council; Trinity Timberlands; and Sierra Pacific Industries.

Tags: landscape, restoration, partnership, joint, chiefs, trinity, California, county, district, Resource, conservation, LRP