Watershed Restoration Using Ecological

American River Conservancy (ARC): American River Headwaters Restoration Project (ARHRP) and French Meadows Collaborative Watershed Restoration French Meadows Partnership The 28,000-acre French Meadows Restoration Project is using a collaborative, Fire Suppressed –Unmanaged Ecologically Managed Forest all-lands approach to restore forest health Forest

and resilience and reduce the risk of high- severity in the headwaters of the Middle Fork of the American River, a critical municipal watershed located on the Tahoe National Forest in California’s Sierra Nevada.

Figure 1. Before –Unhealthy and fire suppressed, Figure 3. Before the removal of mid-story, pre- stand conditions at the ARHRP. 76% understory and selective harvest of merchantable closure and 1,333 per acre. timber. Quadratic Trees Per Acre Basal ARHRP Mean % Crown (All Diameter Area Per Diameter Closure Classes) Acre

Pre-Harvest Stand Condition 76% 1333 397 7.3 The Partnership: is made up of the U.S. Forest Service, American River Post-Harvest Stand Condtion 43% 157 289 18.3 Conservancy, Placer County Water Agency, The Nature Conservancy, Sierra Nevada Change in stand Conditions ↓ 33% ↓ 1176 ↓ 108 ↑11 Conservancy, Placer County and The Sierra Nevada Research Institute at UC Merced. Collaborative Management: The diverse partnership utilizes the individual strength Figure 6. Unmanaged Figure 5. Ecological Thinning of with decades of fire of each partner to increase the project’s Figure 2. After - Ecologically managed post - Figure 4. After the removal of mid-story and the understory and mid-story CONCLUSIONS suppression and lack of pace and scale. thinning stand conditions at the ARHRP. 43% understory vegetation with the selective harvest of vegetation can reduce fuel load management are dense in Diverse Fundraising: The partners raised canopy closure and 157 Trees per acre. merchantable trees to achieve optimal spacing so prescribed fire can be safely vegetation and have excessive between individual stems and create openings in reintroduced. Moderate to low funds from federal, state, local, and private fuel loads. These forest the canopy. This significantly reduces the fuel severity fire is a natural sources. The partnership could access a Megafires and the Solution typically burn with high load, fire intensity and the vertical transfer of fire process that wider range of funds than each entity In recent years California has seen a significant severity and have ground to from surface to canopy fuels. This is often the maintains healthy forests. © alone. increase in large and catastrophic fires, now being canopy fire that kill most trees, prelude to reintroducing prescribed fire and natural Erica Simek Sloniker and TNC Innovative Project implementation: referred to as megafires. Many factors contribute to fire return. even the largest fire resistant Thinning will be conducted under a master this issue including history of fire suppression, trees. © Erica Simek Sloniker excessive fuel load, past and and TNC stewardship agreement between Placer climate change. County and USFS. Ecological thinning, prescribed fire Watershed Research: The Sierra Nevada Ecological Forestry focuses on forest health and and managed wildfire can reduce the risk Research Institute is leading research to targets smaller diameter trees and vegetation, with of high severity devastating megafires, quantify the linkCONTACT between forest health , some selective/partial harvest of merchantable timber protecting human life and watershed health. thinning activities and water supply while leaving the healthiest and dominant trees in the Ecological thinning also provides jobs using benefits. stand. Thinning is then followed by prescribed fire. the same tools as traditional but with We urge policy makers to maintain and allocate funds an emphasis on forest health as opposed to Autumn Gronborg for ecological thinning efforts and prescribed fire. profit-based forest management of the past. American River Conservancy Proactive management of our forests can mitigate the [email protected] devastating effects of megafires on human life, health Phone: (530) 621-1224 and property. www.arconservancy.org