Products from thinning treatments await a buyer at the mill in Hayfork © Wendy Fulks/TNC

Expanding from the Hayfork Basin Demonstration Landscape, this Network was formed in early 2008. Grounded in communities that have been pioneers in the development of Fire Safe Councils, the Network plans to used its enlarged scope to:

• establish a robust local workforce through training, capacity building and developing a consistent and high-quality program of work;
• bridge social and ideological gaps by collaborating with diverse stakeholders and forging common-ground solutions; and
• improve the economics of fuels reduction and forest restoration through innovative harvesting and utilization strategies.

In addition to the Hayfork Basin demonstration landscape and the Weaver Basin participating landscape, partners from the Mid-Klamath, Lower Trinity and Southern Trinity areas are becoming engaged in this Network.

Project Vision

The successful restoration of fire-dependent ecosystems requies an integrated approach that considers all factors and balances ecological objectives -- such as protecting habitat for endangered species and ensuring the long-term resiliency of forest systems — with the socio-economic need to provide living-wage jobs from the stewardship of those forests.

Background

The Klamath-Siskiyou region of northwestern California us a well-known hotspot of global biological diversity. Its temperate forests contain the greatest variety of coniferous tree species in the world, provide habitat for several critical runs of anadromous Pacific salmon species and are home to myriad other rare and important species. Tucked amid the rugged mountain ranges of the Marbles, Salmons, Scotts and Trinity Alps are small rural communities struggling to thrive as stewards of this complex system.

Logging, mining, grazing and fire exclusion have significantly altered historical fire regimes and forest ecosystem structures. Over the past several decades the region, like much of the American West, has begun to experience uncharacteristically large, stand-replacing wildfires that threaten both ecological values and human communities. While community evacuations have become commonplace summer events due to wildfire threats, the ecosystem impacts are becoming equally troubling. Although fire continue to burn at their historical frequencies, their impacts are increasing in severity and scale. Re-burn events, where uncharacteristically high-intensity fires are burning over the same acres on short return intervals, are causing ecosystem conversions from forest systems to shrub, brush and grassland systems. Managers and scientists are only beginning to understand the implications of this trend for wildlife and communities in the region.

Implementation of landscape-scale forest restoration will be critical to conserving threatened ecosystem values. Long-term restoration plans will need to consider the imperatives of human health and safety, which can be integrated with restoration plans through community wildfire protection strategies. Ultimately the solution to these problems lies in striking a balance that can be sustained as social values, budgets and climates continue to change.

Leaders: Lynn Jungwirth and Nick Goulette