North Yuba Forest
Partnership
Land Acknowledgement: The North Yuba Forest Partnership recognizes that the North Yuba River watershed resides within the Ancestral and Traditional homelands of the Nisenan Tribe and intertribal regions of the Mountain Maidu, Konkow, and Washoe. These Tribes exist today and retain their relationships with the forest. We commit to the continued inclusion of their voices in this project.
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The North Yuba Forest Partnership is a diverse group of nine organizations passionate about forest health and the resilience of the North Yuba River watershed. Together, the partners are working on an unprecedented scale to collaboratively plan, analyze, finance, and implement forest restoration across 275,000 acres of the watershed.
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Through ecologically-based thinning and prescribed fire, the partnership seeks to protect North Yuba communities from the threat of catastrophic wildfire and restore the watershed to a healthier, more resilient state. Restoration efforts are expected to take many years, if not decades to complete, with the most critical project areas targeted first, i.e. at-risk communities, emergency response, evacuation access routes, and treatments to areas that have the potential to stop a wildfire from spreading.
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The North Yuba watershed stretches from New Bullards Bar Reservoir east up to the Sierra Crest along Highway 49. The Landscape is approximately 313,000 acres, of which approximately 210,000 acres are National Forest System lands within Sierra County, with just the westernmost portions of the project area in Yuba County. The area includes thousands of acres of forest habitat, is an important source of water to downstream users, supports high biodiversity, is home to many communities, and offers excellent opportunities for recreation.
Current North Yuba Forest Landscape
Many forests in the North Yuba watershed are unhealthy. They are overstocked with small trees and brush, and at risk of high-severity wildfire due to fire suppression and historic timber harvesting practices, exacerbated by climate change. As a result, communities and infrastructure within the watershed are at significant risk.
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Forests once characterized by large, widely-spaced trees and beneficial, low-to-moderate severity fire are now dominated by non-fire resilient stands of vegetation ranging from dense thickets of small trees and brush to overstocked forests with significant ladder fuels.
This greatly increases the likelihood of destructive wildfire causing significant damage to communities and watershed health. In addition, many homes and communities have been built within and near the forests, making it challenging in some locations to protect lives and property from high-severity wildfire and to allow the use of prescribed fire or managed wildfire as a management tool.
Partnership Goals
1. Improve
and restore forest health and resilience
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2. Reduce
the risk of high-severity wildfire
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3. Protect
and secure water supplies
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4. Support
the development of a local economy that can create sustainable jobs