Social and Ecological Resilience Across the Landscape Phase 1 - SNC 1374
Summary
SCH Number
2022060110
Public Agency
Sierra Nevada Conservancy
Document Title
Social and Ecological Resilience Across the Landscape Phase 1 - SNC 1374
Document Type
NOE - Notice of Exemption
Received
Posted
6/6/2022
Document Description
The Social and Ecological Resilience Across the Landscape (SERAL) project will be implemented in three phases; this project constitutes the first of those three. Under this phase, fuel management features will be constructed to provide a strategic defense tool to control fire that may ignite within the SERAL footprint. Fuel management features include strategically located fuel breaks, prepared roadsides, and defensible space to reduce the likelihood of fire moving from the ground into overhead tree canopy; provide increased access, safety zones, and efficient movement of fire management resources within the treatment area; provide improved opportunity for fire retardant to penetrate the forest canopy; and establish realistic sized management units for future phases of forest health work. The project includes mechanical fuel reduction treatments needed to construct and maintain a portion of the proposed fuelbreak network located within the highest priority potential wildland fire operational delineations (PODs). The mechanical fuel reduction treatments are limited to mastication, biomass removal, machine piling for burning, or hand thinning located in the areas of the fuelbreak network within or along the borders of priority PODs. SERAL forest health program goals include to restore forest health and disaster resilience to California’s forests, protect upper watersheds where California’s water supply originates, promote long-term storage of carbon in forest trees and soils and minimize the loss of forest carbon from unnaturally large high severity wildfires.
Contact Information
Name
Shannon Ciotti
Agency Name
Sierra Nevada Conservancy
Job Title
Grants & Reimbursements Manager
Contact Types
Lead/Public Agency
Phone
Location
Coordinates
Cities
Cold Springs and Pinecrest
Counties
Tuolumne
Regions
Northern California
Notice of Exemption
Exempt Status
Statutory Exemption
Type, Section or Code
State code number: Public Resources Code Section 4799.05(d)(1)
Reasons for Exemption
CEQA does not apply to prescribed fire, thinning, or fuel reduction projects undertaken on federal lands to reduce the risk of high-severity wildfire that have been reviewed under NEPA if the primary role of a state or local agency is providing funding or staffing for those projects. The Sierra Nevada Conservancy would provide funding to conduct fuel reduction activities on a minimum of 1,300 acres of the 6,153-acre project area on federal lands within the Stanislaus National Forest. The actions to be undertaken by this project were reviewed in their entirety pursuant to NEPA through an Environmental Impact Statement. The Record of Decision for the project was signed by the Stanislaus National Forest on March 28th, 2022.
County Clerk
Tuolumne
Attachments
Notice of Exemption
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