Wildfire is the single largest threat to our region’s forests, the long-term functionality of Sierra watersheds, and, ultimately, our favorite recreation destinations and communities.
During the past several years, the Nevada Irrigation District (NID) has partnered with state and local agencies on projects that focused on hundreds of acres in the foothills and headwaters of the Sierra Nevada, the district’s water source. Much of the work has involved removing hazardous fuels, thinning, chipping and grinding fuels in efforts to reduce the risk of catastrophic wildfire. These projects have helped to reduce the potential for excessive erosion and foster ecosystem health and recovery.
NID recognizes an urgency to complete these forest health and watershed projects on its property, which is among the most popular recreation destinations in the state.
It’s about the impacts of a warming climate and a statistic associated with the increasing draw of Sierra recreation. In Nevada County, 80 percent of all wildfires are human-related.
In Nevada County, popular recreation destinations include Sierra lakes owned and managed by NID, such as Bowman, Jackson Meadows, and a slew of smaller lakes: Milton, French, Faucherie, Sawmill, and Jackson.
In the foothills, Scotts Flat and Rollins reservoirs are popular stopovers for camping and fishing. The entire region features beautiful landscapes and pristine waterways, which is a major, increasing draw for recreation. That makes the region prime for wildfire.
“Where the people are, fires start,” says Greg Jones, NID’s assistant general manager. “It is vital that we do the work to strengthen our watersheds now. Forest management projects are essential for protecting the watersheds in our care.”
NID has taken action at several locations, including around the campgrounds at Rollins and Scotts Flat reservoirs in the foothills. Most recently, the district partnered with the USDA Forest Service and Tahoe National Forest to receive a planning grant for a 3,000-acre forest management project to return the Middle Yuba headwaters region to a healthier state.
The Sierra Nevada Conservancy (SNC) has made much of NID’s forest management work possible through its financial support.
Scotts Flat Reservoir Forest Health and Wildfire Risk Reduction Project
The water is blue, and the trees are green. It’s an example of building a healthy watershed
Nearly $1 million in grant support from the SNC has made possible forest management at Scotts Flat Reservoir, just outside Nevada City.
The Scotts Flat Reservoir Forest Health and Wildfire Risk Reduction Project has been a seven-year effort to reduce understory ladder fuels and to thin the forest around the reservoir. Here, forested lands meet campgrounds, residential communities and critical water system infrastructure in the Wildland Urban Interface (WUI).
NID has completed more than 500 acres of forest treatment to create a “shaded fuel break” by thinning excess trees and reducing ground fuels. Shaded fuel breaks allow fires to burn cooler, reduce the probability of an upper canopy crown fire, and create zones where fires can be more easily contained before reaching nearby communities.
The project involved selective logging of larger trees; crews then removed trees with a diameter of less than 10 inches, chipped and spread the material over the Scotts Flat project area. To preserve habitat for wildlife, some medium to large diameter trees, shrubs, standing dead trees, and flowering hardwoods were retained.
The forest at this site now reflects a mixed-species composition and a mixed age distribution with improved functionality compared to pre-treatment conditions. Before treatment, there were 2,205 trees per acre; post-treatment the count is 110 trees per acre.
“These changes in the characteristics of forest stands indicate the success of the project in reducing stand density, which decreases wildfire severity and risk of ignition, increases carbon sequestration rates, and improves forest health,” says Neysa King, NID’s environmental resources administrator. “And healthy forests provide more water and are more resilient to wildfire and climate change.”
