Lake Tahoe Basin FOREST ACTION PLAN Protecting Communities Restoring Landscapes Published by the California Tahoe Conservancy, August 2019 WILDLAND-URBAN INTERFACE TREATMENTS THE FOREST ACTION PLAN (PLAN) CONTAINS LAKE TAHOE BASIN IGNITIONS 2010–2017 three overarching strategies that support completing LAKE TAHOE BASIN LAND OWNERSHIP and maintaining all wildland-urban interface treatments, and implementing large-landscape restoration: 1. Scale up to match the scale of the solution to the scale of the threat. Develop and Implement Landscape Scale Initiatives Streamline Planning and Permitting Create Powerline Resilience Corridors 2. Build capacity for all phases of the forest landscape management cycle. Expand the Restoration Workforce Lake Tahoe USDA Forest Service 155,000 ac Adapt for Organizational Effciency State of Nevada 7,000 ac State of California 13,500 ac Strategically Use Prescribed Fire Private & Local Government 28,000 ac Increase Restoration Byproduct Utilization 3. Leverage technology for rapid, large-scale, more efcient implementation. OWNERSHIP OF UNDEVELOPED Launch the Technology Innovation Sprint RESIDENTIAL LOTS Improve Decision Making through Better Data Management Enable Rapid Response through a Wildfre Camera Network LAST YEAR BROKE RECORDS for the largest, deadliest, 350 wildfre ignitions most destructive, and most expensive wildland fres. More (red dots) were acres burned in California and Nevada than in any other recorded in the Lake states. Climate change projections suggest that such Tahoe Basin from 2010 levels of destruction could soon become commonplace. to 2017. Over 80 percent Example Lake Tahoe straddles the border of California and Nevada, were human caused. Neighborhood seemingly undisturbed by wildfre. But wildfre, drought, and a potential bark beetle epidemic threaten the communities of the Lake Tahoe Basin (Basin) and the treasured landscape that 24 million visitors enjoy every year. Responding to the increasing threat to our forests, the partner organizations of the Tahoe Fire and Fuels Team The Plan implements the Forest Health focus area of the (TFFT) developed this Plan to proactively minimize the Basin’s Environmental Improvement Program, the signature growing risk. The Plan charts a path for collaboration partnership to restore and protect Tahoe’s natural resources. across property boundaries to accelerate landscape The vitality and resilience of the Basin’s natural landscape USDA Forest Service 3,000 lots restoration and community wildfre protection. and human communities have long been inextricably linked. States of NV & CA 4,000 lots Private & Local Government 6,300 lots The Plan aligns with state and federal plans and The Washoe Tribe of Nevada and California has a 10,000 mandates that call for increasing the pace and scale of year history of environmental stewardship in the Basin. The forest management including Nevada’s Cohesive Strategy Washoe Tribe’s unique knowledge and guardianship of the Implementation Plan and Forest Action Plan, California Basin and its plants and animals guide and support partner Executive Orders B-52-18 and N-05-19, and USDA Forest restoration activities. Within Basin neighborhoods over 13,000 small undeveloped lots are intermixed with homes, forming a dense Service Region 5’s Ecological Restoration Leadership Intent. patchwork. The USDA Forest Service, California Tahoe Conservancy, and Nevada Tahoe Resource Team have completed nearly 100 percent of initial treatments on these public lots to complement neighbors’ defensible space. The TFFT is prioritizing continued maintenance and helping private landowners treat their lots. 2 3 FROM VULNERABILITY TO RESILIENCE Over the next five years, the TFFT will treat an additional 22,000 acres in the wildland-urban interface (completing all initial treatments) and help residents and businesses achieve nearly 100 percent compliance with defensible space requirements. On June 24, 2007, embers from an illegal and abandoned FIRE), Nevada Division of Forestry, and Tahoe Regional FUNDS EXPENDED ACRES TREATED campfire ignited the most destructive fire in Tahoe’ s Planning Agency. Seven fire districts and the Tahoe $20M 10k history. Stoked by strong winds and overgrown forests, Resource Conservation District lead the Tahoe Network the Angora Fire destroyed 254 homes and structures and of Fire Adapted Communities. They help prepare families 9k burned 3,100 acres within hours. If another large fire and neighborhoods for evacuation, create defensible 8k $15M occurs on a summer day, hundreds of thousands of visitors space, and make homes less vulnerable to fire embers. 7k will overwhelm the Basin’ s limited evacuation routes. 6k The Lake Tahoe Basin Multi -Jurisdictional Fuel Reduction The TFFT formed in 2008 with the twin aims of reducing and Wildfire Prevention Strategy guides the TFFT ’s $10M 5k fuels in the wildland -urban interface (WUI) and preparing work. Accordingly, TFFT partners have treated 57,000 4k communities for wildfire. The partnership involves 21 federal, acres in the WUI since 2008. These multiple -benefit 3k tribal, state, and local conservation, land management, thinning and prescribed fire treatments connect to form $5M 2k and fire agencies, including the USDA Forest Service (USFS), continuous areas where fire behavior is reduced and California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection (CAL forest health is improved. 1k — — 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016 2017 2018 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016 2017 2018 Acres treated lag one to two years behind expenses due to contract timelines. Multiple-year funding from 2008 to 2010 allowed partners to quickly ramp up treatments. Since then, annual funding has reduced signifcantly. Before 2004 2014 The USDA Forest Service, The TFFT revises the California Tahoe Conservancy, Multi -Jurisdictional Strategy 2017 and Nevada Tahoe Resource Team to align with state and begin fuel reduction treatments federal priorities U.S. Forest Service completes on undeveloped public lots 2007 planning for its remaining initial California State Parks WUI treatments 2020 2025 & beyond California State Parks and North The Angora Fire burns in completes most of its initial Lake Tahoe Fire District use South Lake Tahoe and WUI treatments and shifts to Nevada Tahoe Resource Team Complete planning for Maintain WUI treatments prescribed fire to reduce fuels partners develop the maintaining the treatments and Nevada fre districts complete all remaining initial WUI and continue implementing and improve forest health Multi -Jurisdictional Strategy with prescribed fre their initial WUI treatments treatments landscape restoration 2004 2008 2011 2016 2019 2022 Basin fre districts complete Community The TFFT forms to Nevada Tahoe Resource Team begins using Partners launch the Complete the Lake Begin implementing Wildfre Protection Plans that identify redouble community prescribed fre to reduce fuels and improve Lake Tahoe West Tahoe West Landscape Lake Tahoe West priority actions to reduce hazards protection efforts forest health in Lake Tahoe Nevada State Park. Restoration Partnership Restoration Strategy on-the-ground treatments 4 5 A VISION FOR RESILIENT LANDSCAPES AND COMMUNITIES 1. Homes are built, maintained, and retroftted to 6. Forests near powerlines are managed to resist ignition by fre embers. safeguard against ignition, reduce fuels, and improve forest health. 2. Residents and visitors are prepared for evacuation. 7. Prescribed fres burn mainly on the forest foor, Residents and visitors alike depend on the Lake Tahoe Basin’s 3. Defensible space surrounds homes to reduce the reduce fammable undergrowth, and lead to wildfre threat. healthier and more resilient forests. recreation opportunities (and associated economy), clean water, 4. Forests in the wildland-urban interface (about ¼ 8. Streams and riparian areas are restored so mile from communities) have tall, healthy trees that natural processes like fres and foods health benefits, wildlife, and natural beauty. Increasing resilience and little fammable undergrowth. keep hardwoods and meadow vegetation means taking action from the shoreline to the ridgetop. 5. The forests beyond form a mosaic of different sizes healthy and thriving. and types of vegetation, providing diverse habitat for wildlife. SCALING UP STREAMLINE PLANNING & PERMITTING Basin partners are updating and streamlining planning and permitting processes that accelerate project implementation while enhancing environmental safeguards. The climate crisis is outpacing our forest management. Plan large multiple-beneft projects across ownerships. Basin agencies are shifting from planning dozens of smaller Wildfres in the west are becoming larger and more destructive. projects—each of which requires separate environmental review, permitting, contracting, and monitoring—to single Insects have killed 150 million trees throughout the Sierra projects covering thousands of acres across multiple ownerships. Photo: Ben Fish Nevada. The Basin cannot address these threats without Complete a Program Timberland Environmental Impact matching the scale and pace of management to the scale Report (PTEIR) for all non-federal lands on the California CREATE POWERLINE RESILIENCE CORRIDORS side of the Basin. Led by CAL FIRE and Basin fre districts, and pace of climate change. Land managers, fre districts, starting in 2020 the PTEIR will provide comprehensive environmental analysis for thousands of acres of projects. Powerlines are a vital part of the Basin’s infrastructure,