The California Fire Safe Council recently announced that funding for several new projects has been approved for implementation through the Trinity County Resource Conservation District.

One project will conduct fuels reduction work on private parcels contiguous to US Forest Service lands in, and around, the communities of Salyer and Hawkins Bar. The Down River Communities Fuel Reduction Project is designed to create 44 acres of roadside buffers near Salyer and Hawkins Bar. This work was identified as high priority in the Down River Fire Management and Protection Plan prepared by Registered Professional Forester, Kenneth Baldwin in 2005.

Another project was approved for similar work on private parcels next to Bureau of Land Management properties, specifically those in the Odd Fellows Camp on Highway 299 near Buckhorn Summit and those on Oregon Street next to the Weaverville Community Forest.

Landowners in both the Odd Fellows Camp and on Oregon Street requested the assistance of the TCRCD to obtain funding to develop a total of 83 more acres of shaded fuel breaks. This work will continue the fuels reduction efforts started in the Grass Valley Creek Watershed along Highway 299 in 2002 and 2003, and along Oregon Street in 2003 and 2004.

Another of the approved grants will continue the successful Trinity County Fire Safe Council Planning and Outreach effort that began back in 1998.

With the occurrence of the Junction Fire this summer, plus the Bar Complex of fires, landowners are anxious for additional protection from wildfire. The District is very appreciative of the California Fire Safe Council’s assistance to make these important fuels reduction projects a reality.

In other efforts to help protect residences and properties, the District is beginning three shaded fuel break projects on private land. These are Poker Bar; Lower South Fork Road; and the Bear Creek/ Rush Creek Roads Project.

Fuel Reduction Work is almost complete on 184 acres of public forestland in the Lower Trinity District of Six Rivers National Forest. This work is part of the Salyer / Hawkins Bar Community Protection Fuels Project and involves thinning, pruning, and cutting of understory brush. Trimmings and brush are hand piled, and will be burned this winter by USFS staff under appropriate conditions. Most of this project is funded by the Trinity County RAC and links to the work on private lands in Salyer and Hawkins Bar.

The RCD was recently awarded a grant from the State Water Resources Control Board. Two projects in that grant will help address fire issues, with funding provided to conduct fuels reduction in the Weaverville Community Forest and to replant areas burned in recent wildfires.