Point 002 - Before
Bearing 140@ Intersection of 274 & Gilpin Lane
37 Degrees 15' 172" North
119 Degrees 30' 359" West
Photo by Ron Severe, March, 2000
Point 002 - After
Piled 2001
Burned 2002
Photo by Ron Severe, September, 2002
Bearing 20
37 Degrees 13' 941" North
119 Degrees 28' 151" West
Photo by Ron Severe, September, 2000
Piled: 17 - 2002
Burned: 14 - 2002
Sprayed: 17 - 2002
Photo by Ron Severe, September 2002
Total Acres: 20
Cascadel Woods Property Owners Association
Photo by Ron Severe, September, 2001
Piled 2002
Burn and follow-up to be done by Association
Photo by Ron Severe, September, 2002 (From Dam)
WILLOW
CREEK WATERSHED PROJECT
Project Management and Administration
This
project has been managed and administered according to the contract
language in order to be completed within budget, on schedule and in
accordance with all procedures and regulations.
Comprehensive status reports have been submitted in a timely
fashion. The status reports
are detailed to determine percent of task completed and serve as a basis
for payment. There have been
subcontractors involved in the project and permits were obtained as
required. The subcontractors were Coarsegold RCD for the planning and
education, fuel break construction and vegetation restoration tasks; and
the North Fork CDC for the Mill Site Tasks.
California
Environmental Quality Act (CEQA) Documentation
A
mitigated negative declaration was prepared as part of an environmental
assessment for the Willow Creek Project.
Cooperative
Agreements
A
total of 132 cooperative agreements were received for an area of 800
acres. Of the 800 acres,
approximately 770 acres were approved.
Of the approved acres 672.03 were piled and of those, 624.65
chipped, burned, or disked. Included
in the piled acres are 96 acres of the Road 274 Fuel Break.
Follow-up maintenance has been accomplished on 922.68 acres.
Some landowners cleared their property prior to the project and
only participated in follow-up treatment.
Many properties were treated with herbicide more than once.
Some elected to treat their brush sprouts with a weed eater or
disk.
The
Willow Creek Watershed Project was advertised in the local paper and the
Cascadel Woods subdivision monthly newsletter.
Several public meetings were held in North Fork, Bass Lake Annex,
and Peckinpah Acres to notify local property owners of the goals of the
project and the opportunity to participate (the goals being to reduce fire
danger, increase water production, and improve wildlife habitat). A bus tour of other fuel reduction projects in the area was
held. Applications were
widely distributed and some property owners enthusiastically went
door-to-door telling neighbors about the project and the opportunities
offered.
After
a few months of advertising, it became apparent that few applications were
being received from Bass Lake Annex.
Each property owner was sent a letter explaining the program.
This resulted in a few applications but not what was expected.
The property owners in Cascadel Woods were more interested and our
efforts became focused on them to cover the shortfall in cooperative
agreements from the in Bass Lake Annex area.
A
Willow Creek Watershed Project Cooperative Agreement was created for this
project and was entered into by each participating landowner and the
Coarsegold Resource Conservation District.
A site review was conducted and a site-specific prescription
prepared by a licensed professional forester agreed too.
The prescription documented vegetation to be saved including
sensitive plants, wildlife trees, and snags, as well as vegetation to be
removed. Other resource
values were also documented such as protection measures for streams and
riparian areas. Property
owners were given charts documenting spacing of leave trees and a list of
potential contractors. It was
the property owner’s responsibility to have the work completed.
The licensed forester aided in this task as many participants
lacked experience in this type of work.
In fact, after the preliminary work, 46 property owners failed to
complete the work.
A
“cooperator file “ was created for each participant. Each file contained a comprehensive set of data including the
agreement, the prescription, location map, billings and invoices.
A mapping process, using aerial photography, was developed near the
end of the project using county parcel maps.
The aerial photography will be overlaid on each parcel and should
reflect a difference in the density of vegetation on the completed parcels
when compared to those not treated. These maps provide an accurate assimilation of the completed
parcels and the fuel break into one base map that may be used by both the
State and Fire Fighters in Madera County.
Aerial
photography scheduled for completion in July was delayed due to poor air
quality and a lack of adequate visibility.
Madera County will receive new aerial photographs of the project
area, and final aerial photography with treated parcels and fuel break
areas will be completed and sent to the State by the end of the year.
A
decision was made to not photograph each parcel because of the number of
small parcels (less than one acre). Instead,
permanent photo points were established and are included in with this
report.
Fuel
Break Construction and Vegetation Restoration
A
total of 86 landowners received reimbursement from the state from the
Willow Creek Watershed Project. In
addition, the Coarsegold Resource Conservation District contracted work
from California Division of Forestry, California Conservation Corp, Sierra
Pest Control, and Childers Precision Milling for work on the Road 274 fuel
break, roadside clearing in Cascadel Woods, and for work on two private
properties.
The
targets were to thin and restore 450 acres, construct 3 miles of fuel
break, and provide follow-up treatment on 450 acres.
Accomplishments included: piling brush on 672.03 acres, burning
piles on 624.65 acres, construction of 4 miles of fuel break, and doing
follow-up maintenance on 922.68 acres.
Private property owners were to invest 25 percent of their own
funds to the project. Matching
funds by private land owners amounted to $146,201.55, which is 50.9
percent of the State invested amount through this grant.
Challenges
and opportunities occurred throughout the project. Each challenge was resolved through meetings between property
owners and the project manager or in the monthly stakeholder meetings.
Concerns
about the use of herbicide were a recurring issue. All individuals were treated with respect and solutions were
arranged to meet the needs of each individual. A creative suggestion to
use goats was agreeable to several property owners but not the county road
engineer, who had the final decision.
The property owners agreed to do the fuel break maintenance
themselves. Several of the
problems encountered led to creative and successful resolutions.
Fuel Break Construction
The
fuel break portion of the project was divided into 5 tasks.
The goal and accomplishment in these tasks included:
Task
5.3 Cascadel Woods
The target was 60 acres; 134.94 acres were completed.
Task
5.4 Bass Lake Annex
The target was 90 acres; only 7 acres were completed.
Task
5.5 Fuel Break
The target was 3 miles; 4.4 miles were completed.
Task
5.6 Vegetation Restoration
The target was 300 acres; 433.09 acres were
completed.
Task
5.6 Matching Funds
The target was 25 percent; over 50 percent was achieved.
Task
5.7 Maintenance
The target was 450 acres; 922.68 acres were completed.
Monitoring and Evaluation
Monitoring
and evaluation decisions were a challenge encountered due to the North
Fork fire that started on August 20, 2001.
The fire burned 4,132 acres and cost 6 million dollars to control.
The Road 274 fuel break was half complete when the fire began.
If
the fuel break was complete, it is believed that the fire would have been
stopped by the fuel break and contained to roughly 10 acres at a cost of
less than $10,000.
Monitoring
is being accomplished through the photo points set up at specified sites
within the project area (photo point folder included). There are 30 photo views that will be monitored every five
years, indicating how well property owners and various government agencies
maintain their respective areas.
Included
in the photographs are sites where properties were cleared, as well as
properties where the landowner elected not to complete the work outlined
in their cooperative agreement. The
photographic record will document vegetation density and wildfire effects
over time. If property owners
maintain open “park-like” strands of trees and shrubs, the Willow
Creek Project objectives of improved water quantity and quality, improved
wildlife habitat, and reduced threat of catastrophic fire will be met.
The monitoring will provide an assessment of the long-term value of
the project.
The
aerial photography base map will document differences in strand densities
between properties cleared according to the guidelines of this grant and
those remaining in a “wild” condition.
Through
joint efforts of Madera County, California Division of Forestry, and the
Coarsegold Resource Conservation District additional maps will be prepared
that include this project plus other similar projects that have been
completed within Eastern Madera County.
Copies of this map will be provided to California Division of
Forestry and the United States Forest Service Fire Stations in Eastern
Madera County. The map will
be on paper as well as on disk. The
map will include established firebreaks and cleared properties.
The goal of this mapping is to help firefighters fight forest fires
aggressively and safely.
Education
and Outreach
Seven
public meetings were held to:
A. A. Review the North Fork fire and the benefits of the Willow Creek Watershed Project. Several homes and property were saved because of the project.
B.
Show
the environmental effects of the North Fork fire.
C.
Address
public concerns about the use of herbicides along the firebreaks.
D.
Resolve
differences and develop plans to reduce fuels within the subdivisions in
the project area.
E.
Advise
the stakeholders of the insufficient number of suitable air quality burn
days to complete brush burning and seek alternative methods of brush
removal.
Approximately
40 stake holders meetings were held, roughly one a month.
Stakeholders included private citizens, the Coarsegold Resource
Conservation District Board of Directors, California Division of Forestry,
California Conservation Corp, Madera County Road Department, North Fork
Community Development Council, United States Forest Service, and the
Department of Natural Resources. Stakeholder meetings helped keep the public informed and
provided a forum for collaboratively resolving challenges in a timely
manner. A measure of the
success of the project is that by the end of the grant all the challenges
and concerns were resolved.
For maps of the project, click on the links below:
Willow Creek Project Map
Bass Lake Annex Map
Cascadel Woods Map
