REPRESENTING BUSINESS ISSUES
Federal Funds for Forests Include Oregon and California WASHINGTON, D.C. | April 2022 | Press Release
$31-million in federal funds planned for forest landscape restoration include projects in Southern Oregon and Northern California involving the Rogue Basin, Lakeview and Western Klamath Mountains. The Biden-Harris Administration and U.S. Department of Agriculture’s (USDA) Forest Service announced the funding today for 15 projects that “aim to reduce the risk of severe wildfires, support local economies, create jobs and enhance forest and watershed health in eight states. “The selected projects will enhance the work already accomplished through the program,” said Forest Service Chief Randy Moore. “The infusion of funding augments the work we do with other governments and partners around other important work such as improvements to infrastructure and the 10-year wildfire strategy.” Twelve new funded projects involve the Rogue Basin, Lakeview and Western Klamath Mountains, as follow from the USDA: California: $3 million to the Western Klamath Mountains Fire and Fire Resiliency Project, a 1.2-million-acre project to prepare the landscape for frequent, yet smaller, lower-intensity wildfires to protect communities and critical transportation routes. This work will increase watershed health and ecosystem resilience that includes areas traditionally managed by the Karuk Tribe. The work will also prepare the land for traditional burning. $3 million in the North Yuba River watershed across 356,000 acres. The watershed provides clean water for homes, communities, businesses and ecosystems. There is an urgent need to address high wildfire hazard potential and areas more susceptible to insects, disease and drought. Treatments will promote forest conditions that are more
resilient, while restoring watershed health and native biodiversity.
Oregon: $2 million to the Lakeview Stewardship project on 859,000 acres important to rural communities for recreation and forestry sector jobs. The goal is to create a healthy, resilient and functional forest landscape maintained with fire to mitigate the threat of high-severity wildfires to dry forests, habitat, water quality and communities. $3 million to the Southern Blues Restoration Coalition for a million acres that suffer from departed fire regimes, species composition, and forest stand densities that threaten to destroy key habitat, old growth, important aquatic resources and private property due to uncharacteristic wildfires and effects of a changing climate. The overarching goal is restoration at a scale that will help native wildlife thrive, create forests that are resilient to climate change, and support the health, safety, and prosperity of local communities. $3 million to the Rogue Basin Landscape Restoration Project across 4.6 million acres. The proposed work will accelerate urgently needed restoration treatments to meet long-term, collaboratively developed strategic goals of wildfire risk reduction, landscape resiliency, improved wildlife habitat, watershed protection, adaptation, and social and economic resilience. Three projects getting FY22 funds that received funding in previous years are all in Oregon and California, as follow from the USDA: Oregon: $3 million to Northern Blues Forest Restoration, a 10.4-million-acre project to reduce wildfire risk and prepare the landscape to safely manage fire. The area has a strong
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The Business Review | April 2022
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