The Lassen County Fire Safe Council, Inc. has been awarded two grants to help implement the Diamond Mountain Project on National Forest system lands in the Lassen National Forest. The Diamond Mountain Project was developed by the Eagle Lake Ranger District and the DMI, a collaborative group consisting of LCFSC, project lead, government agencies, industry members, and local residents.
In August of 2018, LCFSC was awarded $4,760,348 from the California Climate Investment/Forest Health Grant Program. These funds are being used to implement thinning and biomass utilization treatments on 4,511 acres within the project area. The key accomplishments of the project are the completion of the Environmental Analysis and the development of strategies to carry out the best course of actions for the project.
Through the EA, the relevant information that was gathered was used to create a layout and implementation plan. This phase of the project will begin this field season.
Additionally, in March 2019, LCFSC was awarded $882,087 from the Sierra Nevada Conservancy. This funding will offset costs for secondary treatments that include 800 acres of prescribed burning, 107 acres of fuels reduction, plantation thinning, and fencing at-risk aspen communities. Funding awards were made by the SNC Governing Board at the Quarterly Board Meeting on March 7, 2019, in Cameron Park, California.
The overly dense forests within the project area are a wildfire risk and reduce water availability. Project goals will be accomplished using a stewardship agreement to implement forest health and fuel treatments; riparian, meadow, and hardwood restoration; and improve ingress and egress for fire suppression activities.
“The effects of these combined treatments would increase landscape resiliency to wildfire, drought related mortality, and pest and disease outbreaks by creating heterogeneity across the landscape
and improving watershed function,” said Bobette Jones, Ecologist, LNF.
“Lassen County Fire Safe Council, Inc. is proud of all the hard work and effort that our DMI partners have put forward to acquire the funds for treatments on the National Forest lands,”
said Lloyd Keefer, Chair, LCFSC. “These treatments will complement the hundreds of thousands of dollars that LCFSC and the Honey Lake Valley RCD have acquired to restore the Diamond Mountain Watershed on adjacent private lands.”
“Building resilience in the Sierra Nevada is our primary focus, and the funding authorized by our board demonstrates the SNC’s commitment to increasing the pace and scale of restoration across the region,” said Angela Avery, Executive Officer, SNC. “We’re proud to be supporting these projects and the partners who will be implementing them on the ground.”
“The Diamond Mountain Project is a terrific example of great collaboration,” said Chris Christofferson, Acting Forest Supervisor, LNF. We recognize the need for more collaborative projects and we are looking forward to doing more of them!”
