County touts USFS $8.67M grant
Tuolumne County has received a U.S. Forest Service grant worth $8.67 million to help fund fuels reduction and forest restoration in the Stanislaus National Forest, which covers 42 percent of the land in Tuolumne County, Liz Peterson, a senior analyst with the county administrator’s office, said Wednesday.
The $8.67 million USFS grant adds to $11.2 million already acquired by the county from grants and direct funding for reducing fuels and other restoration work in the Stanislaus National Forest, Peterson said, in a joint announcement from the county and Forest Service.
The infusion of federal funding means the county, in partnership with the Forest Service and a collaborative group known as Yosemite Stanislaus Solutions, can ramp up efforts to increase pace and scale of landscape restoration in the fire prone, overgrown Stanislaus National Forest, which is currently in the midst of severe drought, according to U.S. Drought Monitor scientists.
The combined funding total of nearly $20 million will be used to implement priority fuels
“It is becoming even more evident that we need to do something different to change the trajectory of our National Forests and communities located within the Wildland Urban Interface. Developing effective partnerships with those who have common interests is critical to ensuring the resiliency of our National Forests.”
— Jason Kuiken, Stanislaus National Forest supervisor
reduction treatments around the communities of Cedar Ridge and Cold Springs, county and federal forest staff said. The money will also be spent on archeological and botanical surveys, property line survey and posting, road maintenance and reconstruction — preimplementation activities to support future restoration treatments in the Stanislaus National Forest.
“These projects and activities are part of a greater effort between the Stanislaus National Forest, Tuolumne County, YSS and other partners working together in shared stewardship,” county and forest staff said.
In 2017, custodians of the Stanislaus National Forest and the county Board of Supervisors entered into a Master Stewardship Agreement “for the primary purpose of retaining and restoring ecological resilience of National Forest lands to achieve sustainable ecosystems that provide a broad range of services to humans and other organisms.”
Projects developed for the stewardship agreement are intended to protect, enhance and restore forest and watershed health and to bring economic opportunities to the Highway 108 corridor and the rest of the county.
The stewardship agreement provides opportunities for individuals, groups, nonprofits and businesses to seek funding and expand partnerships to step up the pace and scale of forest restoration activities in the Stanislaus National Forest.
According to the Forest Service and Tuolumne County, the Cedar Ridge and Cold Springs fuel reduction projects will complement a Strawberry Unified Prescribed Burn plan, near the communities of Cold Springs and Strawberry.
Prescribed burn preparation around Strawberry was funded through a California Climate Investment grant awarded to the county on behalf of YSS. Grant references to the project date at least to February 2019.
Jason Kuiken, the Stanislaus National Forest supervisor, said the 2020 fire season is officially not over yet.
“It is becoming even more evident that we need to do something different to change the trajectory of our National Forests and communities located within the Wildland Urban Interface,” Kuiken said. “Developing effective partnerships with those who have common interests is critical to ensuring the resiliency of our National Forests.”
Sherri Brennan, the county Board of Supervisors chairwoman, said partnerships with the Forest Service, YSS and others are crucial to leveraging resources.
Funding is “needed to maintain the forest’s ability to provide valuable ecosystem services such as water for drinking, agriculture and power generation, forest products to support local economies, as well as opportunities for recreation and tourism,” Brennan said. “By coming together and leveraging funding, expertise and other resources from a variety of stakeholders, we hope to demonstrate that we can make a real difference in increasing the resiliency and sustainability of our National Forests and our communities that rely upon them.”