1.2M Awarded for Fuels Reduction in Central Sierra

The Sierra Nevada Conservancy has awarded GBI 1.2M to support the Twofer Pilliken Fuels Reduction Project. The collaborative effort reduces fuels and fire threat through mechanical treatments on approximately 1,350 acres within the Crystal Basin Ecological Restoration Project area in the central Sierra region. Project work includes mastication and shrub control as part of the Tahoe-Central Sierra Initiative, a landscape treatment strategy that seeks to reduce the density of understory fuels to promote healthy stand structure. Project collaborators include USDA Eldorado National Forest, Blue Forest and the National Wild Turkey Federation. Work will be performed under a Master Stewardship agreement between Great Basin Institute and US Forest Service. The $1.45M project includes matching contributions from USDA Region 5, the Bonneville Foundation, and in-kind partnership contributions from the National Wild Turkey Federation. “The support from the Conservancy is a critical funding piece that furthers our collective strategy to improve forest conditions within this high value landscape,” said Dan Smith, US Forest Service project partner. “We have an urgent need to treat this area which receives intense recreational visitation while functioning as a key watershed for the Sacramento Basin.” The Institute is grateful for ongoing support from the Conservancy which continues to provide the needed fiscal resources for the Institute’s stewardship work across the Sierra Nevada range.