Regional Forest Health Reports Major Progress in Wildfire Risk Reduction

    Moonshine Ink Staff
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      PLACER COUNTY

      Placer County Regional Forest Health Coordinator Kerri Timmer presented the Regional Forest Health Division’s annual program update to the Placer County Board of Supervisors on March 10, outlining significant milestones in countywide wildfire risk reduction, strategic partnerships, and landscape-scale forest resilience projects.

      Established in 2021 by the board of supervisors to strengthen county-level leadership in wildfire resilience, the Regional Forest Health Division has grown from a startup operation into a coordinated program managing an active portfolio of projects across Placer County’s forests, communities and public lands.

      Since its inception, Regional Forest Health has helped secure more than $6.8 million — including upwards of $800,000 in the past year alone — to advance wildfire resilience goals.

      The division currently manages approximately $5 million in active Tier 1 implementation projects spanning more than 22,000 acres.

      Key projects include:

      • French Meadows Fuel Reduction Program, one of the nation’s first large-landscape public-private partnerships with the U.S. Forest Service, a model now replicated in other regions across California.
      • Cabin Creek and Olympic Valley Park fuel reduction, where strategic procurement allowed the county to double the number of treated acres at roughly half the anticipated cost by joining a larger adjacent Forest Service project.
      • Yankee Jim’s Fuel and Habitat Mitigation Project, integrating forest health work with the Placer County Department of Public Works’ bridge replacement effort along Shirttail Creek.

      The State of California selected Placer County to pilot the digital marketplace, a new platform that connects private landowners with forestry professionals to accelerate forest health work on non-public lands.

      The county is also co-leading the Tri-County Memorandum of Association for forest health and biomass coordination, which supports the Biomass Development Opportunity Zone — a regional effort to develop markets for excess forest biomass removal.

      Learn more about the Placer County Regional Forest Health Division at placer.ca.gov/forests.

      ~ Placer County press release