Joint Chiefs’ Initiative for Yreka-Craggy

Overview

The United States Forest Service (USFS) and the NRCS have entered into a multi-year partnership to improve the health and resiliency of forest ecosystems where public and private lands meet across the nation. By leveraging technical and financial resources and coordinating activities on adjacent public and private lands, conservation work by NRCS and USFS will be more efficient and effective in these watersheds. Reducing forest fuels will provide additional protection for community safety, wildlife habitat, watershed health, recreation opportunities and cultural resources.

The conservation goals and funding priorities for the Joint Chiefs’ Initiative for Yreka-Craggy is to promote community wildfire protection and assist in the restoration of ecological process on non-industrial private forestland.

Funding has been made available for a 3-year period, 2019, 2020 and 2021 fiscal years, to install forestry and fuel load management practices on private lands in the zone between the City of Yreka and the Klamath NF boundary. 

This project area and focus is in support of a larger ‘Craggy’ project that encompasses a large area of Klamath National Forest (NF) to the west of the City of Yreka.  Klamath NF is in partnership with CALFIRE under the Good Neighbor authorities for work on federal lands.

Initial work will be prioritized in the Greenhorn Corridor in the Mill Creek area and will expand northward depending on demand in the varying vegetative zones starting with conifer forest in the southern area of the project area northward through the oak and brush areas of Humbug, Long and Canal Gulches.

Conservation practices implemented with assistance through this Joint Chiefs’ Initiative can help to establish a sustainable system of strategic fuel treatments across the landscape that will assist in reducing the potential for large fires.

The system of fuel management will also benefit habitats, sensitive populations, and watersheds by reducing vegetative competition among the trees of overstocked properties creating opportunities for among other activities controlled broadcast burns reducing severe fire disturbances by replacing them with higher frequency, lower intensity disturbances that will impact the understory and lower canopy fuels. 

The California NRCS State Conservationist has determined that the geographic scope of a Forest Management Plan and nonindustrial private forest land does not include areas within 100 feet from a permitted structure or a greater distance if required by state law, or local ordinance, rule or regulation.

The following sections include the applicable land uses, resource concerns, and conservation practices for the ranking pool.

Land Uses

The descriptions below are the general NRCS land use definitions - applications should fit within, but do not need to exactly match, these descriptions. Below are the applicable land uses for the ranking pool.

• Forest: Land on which the primary vegetation is tree cover (climax, natural or introduced plant community) and use is primarily for production of wood products or non-timber forest products.
• Associated Agricultural Lands: Land associated with farms and ranches that are not purposefully managed for food, forage, or fiber and are typically associated with nearby production or conservation lands. This could include incidental areas, such as odd areas, ditches and watercourses, riparian areas, field edges, seasonal and permanent wetlands, and other similar areas.

Resource Concerns

The goal of conservation planning is to help each client attain sustainable use and sound management of soil, water, air, plant, animal, and energy resources, based on related human considerations (SWAPAE+H).  Below is a list of priority resource concerns for the ranking pool.

Conservation Practices

NRCS conservation practices eligible for financial assistance through this ranking pool are listed in the below table. For more information about NRCS conservation practices visit the following website link: http://www.nrcs.usda.gov/wps/portal/nrcs/detail/national/technical/?cid=NRCSDEV11_001020.

Interested Applicants

For more information about EQIP, how to apply and program eligibility, interested applicants should contact a NRCS field office in the county which you own land or where you have an agricultural operation.

Visit https://offices.sc.egov.usda.gov/locator/ to find the NRCS representative for your county.