Program Overview
The Forestry and Watershed program envisions healthy Sierra Nevada foothill and forest conditions with active management that employs people, supports recreation, is ownership-based, and relies on effective private and government partnerships.
The program enlists private landowners within and adjoining the Sierra National Forest and the Sequoia National Forest. As a voluntary participant, landowners are provided resources to better understand, protect, and enhance their forested resources. For private landowners, the Program has three components: Fire Risk Evaluations, FireWise Communities, and Contractual Work.
The Eastern Fresno County Firesafe and Stewardship Fuels Reduction Program was established through a grant from the California Fire Safe Council, initiated in Feb. 2019.
Fire Risk Evaluations
The Eastern Fresno County Firesafe & Fuels Reduction team offers Fire Risk Evaluations (FRE’s) to private landowners at no cost. The FRE highlights management practice opportunities for forested lands. The objective is for landowners to better understand their forested landscape. It includes recommendations on home hardening, defensible space, and forest stewardship. Not only will a FRE help prepare a landowner against wildfire, it will identify forest improvement opportunities and provide resources to implement forest management practices.
Program Resources
Forest Management
Forest Stewardship – California Extension Service/UC Berkley
Alert Wildfire: cameras that monitor wildfire
Invasive Plants
Noxious Weeds – SRCD resource. Please request a copy by emailing office@sierrarcd.com
California Invasive Plant Council
News
Community Workdays
Overview
The Sierra Resource Conservation District (SRCD) partners with multiple organizations to host various community workdays for you to get involved in! Community workdays involve wildfire debris clean-up, fuel reduction, fire prevention, storm readiness, vegetation/woody debris management, and tree planting.
Significance
The Sierra Resource Conservation District and its partners work to aid private landowners and their properties. They inform others about the need and actions necessary for proper stewardship and land management. The goal is to conserve California’s natural resources for future generations. Occasionally community workdays include public lands, such as the Pineridge Elementary School community workday event, for disaster recovery. The priority is to assist the elderly, disadvantaged, and people with disabilities, but the Sierra Resource Conservation District is available and willing to provide a free evaluation for any property requesting assistance or a second opinion. Including survivors of the Creek Fire looking to rebuild and landowners who are looking to prepare for wildfire and who are at risk. As long as SRCD’s forestry team is invited out and welcomed, they are happy to be of great assistance and serve the community. Community workdays are essential because they provide the framework for impact from a single landowner to benefit everyone, including the land, community, and environment.
Impact Statements
“The forestry team & volunteers, who worked on a portion of our property that was devastated by the Creek Fire, made a HUGE difference to us! We could have never recovered without them! My husband has two forms of cancer and I have a lifelong disability. Ian, Chelsea Hutchens, and the Ameri and Conservation Corps gave us hope and a future. They saw, they cleaned up, and they conquered by felling, clearing & chipping many pounds of dry dead material. This team rocks and there are no words to express how grateful we are and how much we are indebted to them!”
– Jeannie & Wayne Coe, HWY 168 Landowners
“Many thanks to the Sierra Resource Conservation District who coordinated a community effort to remove fuels and debris surrounding Cedarbrook and Mill Creek. Their efforts in conjunction with the Oak to Timberline Fire Safe Council have helped protect us from wildfire. Individual property fire risk assessments were provided ahead of time, and a crew of 30+ volunteers from Americorps, Team Rubicon, Dunlap Band of Mono Indians, and others did a fantastic job of cleaning up years of undergrowth. They were hard working and effective. The landscape now looks like it did 30 years ago–beautiful! We will be forever grateful for their efforts. Thank you!”
– Donna McBrien, President of the Cedarbrook Cabin Owner’s Association
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