The USDA awarded nearly $19 million for six projects to reduce the threat of wildfire in the Pacific Northwest.

Three California projects were allocated $15 million.

The funding, announced in mid-September, is part of a $100 million effort to expand work on the U.S. Forest Service’s Wildfire Crisis Strategy.

Oregon

•The Elk Tribal and Community Healthy Forest Restoration Project on the Umpqua National Forest will receive $4.89 million to restore forest health using prescribed fire and construct strategic fuel breaks in the Elk Creek watershed.

Work will expand collaborations with the Cow Creek Band of Umpqua Tribe of Indians and the Oregon Department of Forestry.

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•The Grayback Creek Watershed Ecological Restoration and Wildfire Risk Reduction Project in the Rogue River-Siskiyou National Forest received $4.4 million for strategic planning and forest restoration efforts, community engagement and collaboration and workforce development.

The project area is in a landscape that has mostly avoided wildfires in at least 125 years, leading to critically high levels of dead and live vegetation.

•The Sufferin Springs NEPA Heritage Surveys in the Wallowa-Whitman National Forest was allocated $132,722.

It will support surveys that will enable completion of an environmental analysis in the La Grande Ranger District.

Idaho

•The Municipal Watershed to Panther Creek Project in the Salmon-Challis National Forest will receive $4.77 million.

Work will reduce risk of wildfire impacts on the city of Salmon and a critical utility power line, provide wood products, create strategic fuel breaks, restore endangered fish habitat and aspen and provide wildlife habitat.

The project is part of a 600,000-acre effort to reduce wildfire risk and restore forest health.

•Lowman Hazardous Fuels Reduction and Aquatic Habitat Restoration in the Boise National Forest was allocated $4.06 million.

Commercial timber harvests, non-commercial thinning, prescribed fire and aquatic restoration work. Work will focus on the Lowman Ranger District.

Washington

•The Tribal Co-Stewardship and Traditional Ecological Knowledge Project in the Columbia River Gorge National Scenic Area was provided $345,000.

The project will conduct cultural resource surveys, develop traditional ecological knowledge recommendations for management and promote tribal youth engagement on approximately 5,000 acres of ceded lands of the Confederated Tribes and Bands of the Yakama Nation.

California

•The Breckenridge Community and Communication Site Fuels Reduction in the Sequoia National Forest will receive $5 million to reduce wildfire risk to the Breckenridge and Pine Flat communities and communications sites.

Area forests are densely loaded with hazardous fuels after a multiyear drought killed many tees. Efforts will include thinning and prescribed fire.

•Hazardous Fuels Reduction, Strategic Fuel Breaks and Prescribed Fire for Wildfire Resiliency on the Georgetown Divide in the Eldorado National Forest was allocated $5 million.

The region’s forests are increasingly at risk to drought, insects, disease and high-severity wildfire.

The project will create strategic fuel breaks near residential and commercial infrastructure near Volcanoville and Georgetown.

•Tahoe National Forest Resilient Communities and Partner Capacity Building also will receive $5 million.

Thinning vegetation will reduce hazardous fuels and establish defensible space around six communities. Ingress and egress also will be built along 6 miles of road.

The project area is in an area with dense vegetation, steep slopes and high rates of tree mortality adjacent to infrastructure.