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Sonoma Valley Wildlands Collaborative

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Sonoma Valley Wildlands Collaborative Sonoma Mountain Ranch Preservation Foundation Sonoma Valley Wildlands Collaborative Who are we? We manage 18,000 acres of protected Sonoma Valley lands. We are a group of six conservation organizations and land management agencies that began working together in the wake of the Nuns Fire of October 2017. Collaborative members have agreed to coordinate fire and vegetation management with each other and with CAL FIRE in the Sonoma Valley region in order to increase the effectiveness of this management at a landscape scale. Members of the Collaborative are Audubon Canyon Ranch, California State Parks, Sonoma County Ag + Open Space District, Sonoma County Regional Parks, Sonoma Land Trust and Sonoma Mountain Ranch Digital Globe. Map: A Nelson, Sonoma Land Trust Data sources: Sonoma County, Preservation Foundation. Together the members own and manage about 18,000 acres in the upper Sonoma Valley region. Why are we working together? We must make our lands more resilient. A regional approach makes sense because fire and climate change know no property boundaries or jurisdictional lines. The fire history of the Sonoma Valley region demonstrates that high intensity wildfires have occurred routinely and will happen again—there is no “no fire” scenario. To be most effective in reducing impacts from wildfire and climate change, we must work together to make our lands more resilient and our communities safer. Lands of the Sonoma Valley Wildlands Collaborative How is the Collaborative working to help communities? We are reducing excess fuels, improving emergency access, and supporting healthier forests. We are working closely with CAL FIRE to develop a long-term strategy on a landscape scale. Strategies we are using include ecologically appropriate thinning in forests and woodlands, installing shaded fuel breaks, clearing along roadways to improve access for emergency personnel and evacuees, and improving forest health and resilience through controlled burning. In addition to improving ecosystem health and reducing fire risk, these efforts will help to forge a common understanding of the Sonoma Valley landscape among land managers and fire agencies, especially of the wildlands that surround the communities of Oakmont, Kenwood, Glen Ellen, Bennet Valley, A controlled burn in an oak savannah Eldridge, El Verano, Fetters Hot Springs, Agua Caliente, and Sonoma. Why do we manage vegetation? It improves ecosystem health and modulates the eect of future wildfires. Appropriate management of wildland vegetation is key to maintaining the ecological diversity and resiliency of our landscapes. Our native vegetation evolved with and is adapted to fire. Fire is a natural process photos: The Wildlands Conservancy that helps to support biodiversity and, combined with other targeted vegetation management, may help ecosystems adapt in the face of climate change. By removing excessive understory and fostering the Example of a shaded fuel break, growth of larger, healthier and fire-resistant trees, vegetation management before and after activities can help maximize carbon sequestration on natural lands. In addition to supporting these ecosystem values, vegetation management can help provide safe access for emergency personnel, keep evacuation routes open, and modulate the severity of future wildfires. Why use controlled burning? It improves habitat, maintains water quality and reduces hazardous fuels. The use of controlled burning restores fire to its historic role in wildland ecosystems, reduces hazardous fuels and may enhance public and firefighter safety. Controlled burning improves soil health and habitat for plants and animals, and helps to maintain water quality. Local communi- ties can benefit in other ways too. When relatively small areas are photos, clockwise from top: Jared Jacobs, Bethany Hannah, Childress burned under optimal conditions far less smoke is emitted than would occur during a major wildfire and the potential for post-fire erosion is reduced. Controlled burning was used for millennia by Native Americans to manage lands for optimal habitat and reduced wildfire risk, and these lands are adapted to and in many cases require periodic fire to remain healthy. Fire management professionals, scientists and land managers concur on the benefits of controlled burning and the State of California Controlled burning improves habitat supports significant increases in its use in the coming years. The Sonoma Valley Wildlands Collaborative The Sonoma Valley Wildlands Collaborative strives to coordinate management of our protected natural lands in order to maintain and improve ecosystem health, increase resilience to wildfires and climate change, and reduce future impacts of wildfire to communities in the Sonoma Valley and surrounding lands. For more information: [email protected] The Collaborative is part of California Climate Investments, a statewide initiative that puts billions of Cap-and-Trade dollars to work reducing greenhouse gas 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 made in disadvantaged communities and low-income communities and households. Rev. 2/7/20 Rev..
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