Genesee Valley Watershed Improvement Project (SNC 1082)

Genesee Valley Watershed Improvement Project (SNC 1082)

The Sierra Nevada Conservancy (SNC) would provide $506,714 to the Plumas Audubon Society (PAS) for the Genesee Valley Watershed Improvement project (project). This project is a collaborative effort between the Plumas Audubon Society (PAS), the Feather River Resource Conservation District (FRRCD) and U.S. Forest Service aimed at reducing the risk of high-severity wildfire as well as taking steps toward restoring watershed and forest health through hand-thinning, hand piling, pile burning and broadcast burning of approximately 879 acres of forested National Forest and adjacent private land. The purpose of the project is to reduce fuel loading within the project area to the point that fuels would bum at low to moderate severity during future wildfires. This reduction of fuel loads would help to reduce the threat of future wildfires from burning at high severity, therefore potentially protecting residents adjacent to the project area, protecting the watershed from degradation, and improving habitat values including late seral forest. Reintroducing fire to the landscape through controlled broadcast burning will also ensure that these areas are protected from high-severity wildfire for longer periods of time post-implementation and creates the opportunity to manage fuel loads with regular fire return intervals into the future. This project is a continuation of a 33,000-acre stewardship strategy which encompasses Genesee and Franks Valleys, the Wheeler Peak Unit of Mud Lake Research Natural Area, and adjacent areas. See NOD for full details.

Plumas