Grant Money To Help Forest Health
Sonora, CA–Tuolumne County and Yosemite Stanislaus Solutions received $5 million dollars for a CAL FIRE Health Forest grant to begin implementing Social and Ecological Resilience Across the Landscape(SERAL) that is designed to make local communities and forests resilient to large-scale fire, insect, and drought issues.
Yosemite Stanislaus Solutions Collaborative (YSS) in partnership with Tuolumne County and the U.S. Forest Service, has developed the SERAL project to increase the speed and size of forest restoration activities in the Stanislaus National Forest and surrounding areas. SERAL will be combining resources from multiple agencies in a 118,808-acre project area including 94,823 acres on the Stanislaus National Forest. Patrick Koeple, Executive Director of Tuolumne River Trust and YSS leadership team member explained.
“SERAL is a big step forward in improving forest health in an unburned area that is of high risk to catastrophic fire. The project will meet many of YSS goals including reducing fire risk to our communities, improving wildlife habitat, and protecting our watersheds, and supporting local economies.”
The first phase of SERAL is the construction of 4,700 acres of fuel management features strategically placed in high-priority locations on the Stanislaus National Forest to protect communities and infrastructure along the Highway 108 corridor. Additionally, the project goals include forest thinning and prescribed burns with an emphasis on forest health. Liz Peterson, Tuolumne County Senior Administrative Analyst explains the goals of the project.
“SERAL is a big step forward in improving forest health in an unburned area that is of high risk to catastrophic fire. The project will meet many of YSS goals including reducing fire risk to our communities, improving wildlife habitat, and protecting our watersheds, and supporting local economies.”
Additionally, the grant also provides funding for fuels reduction and forest health treatments on 120 acres of Murphy Ranch owned by the Tuolumne Band of the Me-Wuk Indians
