USDA’s Forest Service and Natural Resources Conservation Service will allocate more than $48 million this year in making Western forests less vulnerable to wildfires.

The agencies are investing in 17 new projects and 41 overall. NRCS said they include work to reduce wildfire risk, restore forest ecosystems, protect water quality, improve habitat and ultimately to help combat climate change. The projects involve agencies, local groups, private landowners and others.

The Scattered Lands Hazardous Fuels Project, in Idaho Panhandle National Forests in the state’s northern region, received $284,625.

The 174,000-acre project area was designated as one of two priority landscapes defined by a shared-stewardship agreement between the state, the Forest Service and NRCS. It is south of the Pend Oreille River and west of Lake Pend Oreille next to the Washington line. It includes federal, state and private forest lands with high fuel loads.

NRCS said the area faces increasing risk for insect and disease outbreaks and catastrophic wildfires. Higher risk of major fires reflects reduction of active forest management; less diversity by tree species, age, size and density; and growth of wildland-urban interface, where 15,090 acres are to be treated.

Work will reduce wildfire threats to communities by treating hazardous fuels, improving overall forest health, safeguarding road access and increasing public outreach.

Officials said collaboration has been instrumental in prioritizing and developing treatments across ownership and jurisdictional boundaries. Partners are the U.S. Bureau of Land Management, Bonner County Office of Emergency Management, Idaho Department of Lands, Panhandle Forest Collaborative, Idaho Forest Group, Stimson Lumber Co. and Clearwater Paper.

In Idaho’s central mountains, the Wood River Valley Forest Health and Wildfire Resilience Project received $643,975.

Work includes reducing fuel and in turn wildfire threat in the main population centers in Blaine County. Plans call for working across ownership boundaries to reduce risk by removing hazardous, diseased and dead trees, and regenerating forest and sagebrush environments by planting native plants and abating invasive plants.

The project area encompasses about 30,000 acres of federal, state, municipal and private land. Partners are SB Restoration Coalition, National Forest Foundation, Sun Valley Co., Blaine County, Idaho Department of Lands, Idaho Fish and Game, the U.S. Bureau of Land Management and the cities of Ketchum, Sun Valley and Hailey.

In California, the Butte Valley South Landscape Restoration Project requested $600,000. NRCS said the project will directly treat 25,343 acres of public land and 1,000 acres of private land across a larger 76,072 project landscape on Forest Service, NRCS and private lands.

More than 42,000 acres are in the wildland-urban interface and over 31,000 are non-federal lands. Work will build on more than 11,000 acres of public and 8,000 acres of private landscape restoration treatments since 2000.

Project partners are the Butte Valley Indian Community, Klamath Tribes, Modoc Tribe of Oklahoma, Shasta Indian Nation, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, California Department of Fish and Wildlife, the state Department of Transportation, Cal Fire, North Coast Regional Water Quality Control Board, Siskiyou County, Fire Safe Council of Siskiyou County, Butte Valley Irrigation District, Ore-Cal Resource Conservation and Development Area Council, Blue Forest Conservation, and the California Deer Association.

Also in California, the Big Flat Community Protection Project received $701,342. Goals include altering tree-stand density to reduce risk to the wildland-urban interface, and to create control features. The 11,388-acre project area is dominated by like-age Douglas fir and Tanbark oak with high amounts of hazardous fuel.

NRCS said the project re-establishes and maintains a network of 25 miles and 600 acres of fuel breaks on federal lands and treats 600 acres of intersecting private inholdings along access roads, creating fire control points on private lands. 

Partners are Smith River Collaborative — comprised of Del Norte County elected officials and environmental groups Friends of Del Norte, Klamath Forest Alliance, EPIC, KS Wild, and Smith River Alliance — Elk Valley Rancheria, Tolowa Dee-ni’ Nation Tribes, Del Norte Fire Safe Council and the American Forest Resource Council.