The Bureau of Land Management and its partners recently received more than $ 10 million in grants from the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection.

Grant funds will be used for natural fuel reduction projects that will reduce hazardous vegetation on public and private lands in northern California in Humboldt, Mendocino, Trinity and Butte counties.

“These funds will allow us to carry out projects that will reduce the risk of catastrophic forest fires and improve landscape health and fire resilience,” said Dereck Wilson, BLM’s Northern California District Director. “With these grants, we are continuing current projects and look forward to starting new work that will benefit our natural resources and communities in Northern California. We are grateful to our Cal Fire funding partners and local partners who will help us carry out this important work. “

The funding will be used in four project areas.

As part of the King Range Forest Health and Community Protection Project, BLM has received over $ 4.3 million for fuel reduction work on approximately 1,200 acres on managed public land. by the BLM in the King Range National Conservation Area in southern Humboldt County. The works will reduce the density of areas of evergreen and deciduous forests, improving forest health and providing better resilience to wildfires for King Range communities and power transmission infrastructure. Projects will include the use of manual crews, heavy equipment and prescribed burning. Some work is already underway along Prosper Ridge Road.

In the Northern Mendocino County Forest Health Collaborative, the BLM Arcata Field Office partnered with the Mendocino County Resource Conservation District, which led the effort to secure approximately $ 4.9 million for work on approximately 1,350 acres of land. managed by the Redwood Forests Foundation INC., and public lands managed by the BLM. Approximately 1,000 acres of this project are Crown land in the Red Mountain Management Area managed by BLM in northern Mendocino County. The work will include forest clearing and brush reduction. The shredding and burning of the piles will be included in the project work.

The local BLM Redding office will complete thinning and prescribed burning on more than 580 acres of Crown land in Trinity County, with $ 761,000 received under a Joint Forest Health Grant. The BLM partnered with the Trinity County Resource Conservation District, which led the grant application process, and the Shasta Trinity National Forest and Trinity Watershed Research Center.

The Redding field office also joined with several partners to apply for grants in Butte County and received approximately $ 456,000 for fuel reduction and fire resistance treatments on more than 480 acres. The Butte County Fire Safe Council runs a partnership that includes the Plumas National Forest, Butte County Resource Conservation District, Sierra Pacific Industries, and other private landowners.

The grants were made through the Cal Fire Forest Health Program, established to work with partners to improve forest health and reduce greenhouse gas emissions in the state’s forests. . The goal of the program is to conserve forests and improve forest health by increasing fuel reduction, reintroducing prescribed burning and treating degraded areas. The program aims to conserve threatened forests using landscape-level projects developed and led by regional efforts.