Tahoe Conservancy to expand work to restore forest resilience and reduce wildfire risk

SOUTH LAKE TAHOE, Calif. - New forestry guidelines were adopted by the California Tahoe Conservancy (CTC) Monday that will help increase the pace and scale of their work to reduce wildfire risk to Tahoe communities and improve forest resilience.

The CTC board authorized a program budget of up to $50 million for the Conservancy to begin implementing work under the new guidelines.

“The Caldor Fire showed us the scale of the threat to Tahoe from wildfire, but also the value of protecting our communities and natural resources by accelerating forest restoration in the Lake Tahoe Basin,” said Conservancy Board Chair and El Dorado County Supervisor Sue Novasel. “Investing in forest management will reduce risk to our neighborhoods and help protect Lake Tahoe in the years ahead.”

The new forestry guidelines and funding will help the Conservancy expand work that reduces hazardous fuels in the wildland-urban interface and advance landscape-scale forest restoration. The forestry guidelines are consistent with the Tahoe Program Timberland Environmental Impact Report (PTEIR), which CAL FIRE certified in April.

The Tahoe PTEIR is an environmental document that addresses a long-term program of forest management treatments to reduce the risk of high-severity wildfire and improve forest ecosystem conditions on 17,480 acres of wildland-urban Interface on the California side of the Lake Tahoe Basin, including Conservancy lands. CAL FIRE, assisted by North Tahoe Fire Protection District, Lake Valley Fire Protection District, and the Conservancy, prepared the Tahoe PTEIR to evaluate the effects of forest management and improve the approval process for later activities covered by the Tahoe PTEIR. The Conservancy will use its forestry guidelines to develop and implement forest management projects that are consistent with the Tahoe PTEIR.

The Conservancy coordinates its forestry efforts with Tahoe Fire and Fuels Team (TFFT) partners. The Lake Tahoe Basin Forest Action Plan―developed by the TFFT’s 21 federal, tribal, state, and local conservation, land management, and fire agencies―charts a path for collaboration across property boundaries to accelerate landscape restoration and community wildfire protection at Tahoe.