U.S. Department of Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack last week announced the Burney-Hat Creek Basins Project will receive a substantial grant under the Collaborative Forest Landscape Restoration (CFLR) program.
The CFLR program is part of an accelerated restoration strategy underway on national forests and grasslands across the nation. Its overarching goal is to increase the pace of restoration on national forest lands and to create jobs in forest-dependent communities.
The Basins Project, envisioned by the Burney-Hat Creek Community Forest and Watershed Group (BHCCFWG), is slated to receive $605,000 in funding in 2012.
The BHCCFWG is comprised of a number of partners, including Todd Sloat representing the Fall River Resource Conservation District (RCD), Hat Creek District Ranger Kit Mullen representing the Lassen National Forest, and more than a dozen others.
The project focuses on 369,000 acres of Burney and Hat Creek watersheds and the communities dependent on this landscape. It involves public and private land and a diverse collaborative partnership group.
The Shasta Resource Advisory Committee (RAC) was the initiator of the idea of implementing a “legacy” project – a project that would involve the establishment of a collaborative to implement a landscape-level project to reduce the risk of catastrophic wildfire, improve resiliency and forest health, and improve socioeconomic conditions.
In 2009, the RAC launched the project, supporting first an evaluation of local social and economic conditions, and how those conditions were linked to landscape health. Second, the Shasta RAC supported a stakeholder assessment, which involved interviews of more than 35 stakeholders, including representatives of the following groups: environmental, fire safe/services, fishing and the recreation service industry, independent forest contractors, Forest Service and other agencies, local ranches, private industrial timberland managers, the Pit River Tribe, and local mill and cogeneration facilities.
“The Burney-Hat Creek Community Forest and Watershed Group is an outstanding example of how people from a wide diversity of interests and backgrounds can come together to benefit our local communities and the environment,” said Jerry Bird, Lassen National Forest Supervisor.
More information on the Collaborative Forest Landscape Restoration (CFLR) program, including the Burney-Hat Creek Basins Project, may be found by following this link.
