The Honey Lake Valley Resource Conservation District is pleased to announce that the Sierra Nevada Conservancy has awarded the Lassen Creek Watershed Restoration Project a Watershed Restoration Grant under Proposition 1. The SNC Board of Directors approved this action on Dec. 8, 2016. The amount of the grant is $250,000.

The project area lies within the Lassen Creek watershed immediately north of the Lassen National Forest boundary and south of Wingfield Road. It adjoins and will complement other forest restoration and fuel reduction projects on both private and USFS lands.

The main purpose of this project is to improve the health of the forest condition and reduce the risk and potential harmful impacts of large, damaging fires by restoring and enhancing ponderosa pine, Sierran mixed conifer, quaking aspen and California black oak ecosystems on a 325 acre project site. This will be accomplished with a multitude of forest management tools including: mechanical harvesting (+/- 300 acres) of conifers under 12” diameter; and hand-thinning, pruning, mastication, and slash disposal near residential areas, along access corridors, and sensitive watercourses (+/- 25 acres).

The intended results include but are not limited to:

•Increase in water availability and storage through the reduction of living plants in overstocked conifer stands and removal of encroaching young conifer trees in native grass meadows;

•Reduce the threat of catastrophic wildfire through the reduction of woody biomass and ladder fuels;

•Reduce the risk to and improved safety for residential areas, emergency personnel, and a historic cemetery from the threat of wildfire within a portion of the Susanville WUI.

•Reduce the risk of insect infestation and resulting tree mortality by decreasing stand density.

The RCD will work with Philip Nemir, a local RPF, who is a long time forest manager of the properties associated with this project to successfully implement this restoration work. He currently manages over 8,000 acres of forestland in Northern California on 15 different ownerships