The Mattole and Salmon Creek Forest Health and Wildfire Resilience Project will treat 1,022 acres of forest and grasslands near Petrolia and Salmon Creek, resulting in landscape-level enhancements to forest health while critically reducing wildfire risk and contributing to the safety of local residents. This project is a collaboration between state and local agencies, non-profits, and private landowners. The team of collaborators working on the project include CAL FIRE, HCRCD, Mattole Restoration Council, Humboldt Redwood Company, Trees Foundation, Mattole Salmon Group, Chapman Ranch, The Valley View Ranch, Cisco Benemenn, the 7B Ranch, the 3030 Ranch, and California State Parks.
Funding will be used for:
- Completing over 600 acres of forest thinning on Apple Tree Ridge and adjacent ridgelines on Humboldt Redwood Company property. Small diameter timber will be thinned on over 200 acres and sold to the mill for biomass utilization with proceeds offsetting project costs. The project also includes removal of encroaching trees from historical grasslands and oak woodlands, and installing trees with a helicopter in McGinnis Creek for in-stream salmonid habitat. In addition, the project will include invasive plant removal, native plant installation, and over 120 acres of prescribed fire in grasslands and forests.
- Completing a 200-acre shaded fuel break on the Chapman Ranch in the footprint of an emergency unshaded fuel break created during the 2003 Canoe Fire by CAL FIRE. The Canoe Fire burned more than 13,000 acres in California State Parks and encroached onto the Chapman Ranch, threatening the community of Salmon Creek.
- Completing surveys needed for State Parks to meet environmental compliance requirements to implement a future fuel break on the southern portion of their property that borders Chapman Ranch and the Salmon Creek watershed. As a project match, State Parks staff will assist in coordinating the necessary surveys and will also implement Phase 1 of their Watershed Resilience Project, also referred to as Panther Gap, which includes 150 acres of restorative forest and ridgetop thinning occurring largely in Middle Creek (middle Mattole River watershed).
- Community planning and project development in southern Humboldt County to foster local workforce capacity to implement forest health projects and support continued community engagement in strategic project development, ensuring that the impacts achieved under this grant will continue to expand across the southern Humboldt landscape into the future.
The Mattole and Salmon Creek Forest Health and Wildfire Resilience Project is part of California Climate Investments, a statewide program that puts billions of Cap-and-Trade Program dollars to work reducing GHG emissions, strengthening the economy, and improving public health and the environment–particularly in disadvantaged communities. The Cap-and-Trade Program also creates a financial incentive for industries to invest in clean technologies and develop innovative ways to reduce pollution. California Climate Investments projects include affordable housing, renewable energy, public transportation, zero-emission vehicles, environmental restoration, more sustainable agriculture, recycling, and much more. At least 35 percent of these investments are located within and benefiting residents of disadvantaged communities, low-income communities, and low-income households across California. For more information, visit the California Climate Investments website at: www.caclimateinvestments.ca.gov.
