Lake County News
The California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection and The Nature Conservancy announced a historic partnership to improve forest management and reduce the risk of high-severity wildfires through the expanded use of prescribed fire.
The memorandum of understanding, or MOU, guiding this partnership includes prescribed fire training with experts and trainees from both organizations, forest management projects including thinning and prescribed fire in cooperation with a diversity of partners, and joint communications to improve the public’s understanding of prescribed fire.
This partnership, in recognition of a worsening wildfire crisis and the need to involve new stakeholders, is a first-of-its-kind collaboration between a state firefighting agency and an environmental nonprofit organization in California.
“Many of California’s forests are overgrown with brush and small trees and urgently need better forest management at greater pace and scale, including prescribed fire. We are set to increase efforts exponentially, especially through expanding the trained workforce,” said Mike Sweeney, executive director, The Nature Conservancy's California Chapter. “Together, we will make Sierra Nevada forests safer and healthier.”
“Forest Management including the use of prescribed fire is the way we will ensure Forest Resiliency and the health of our forests for future generations,” stated Chief Thom Porter, director of Cal Fire. “This partnership will help the state to increase pace and scale of fuels management to attain the goal of treating 500 thousand acres each year.”