Wildfires are now the biggest natural disaster facing the Western US. 65% of California’s water supply originates in watersheds at high risk of wildfire.

Restoring healthy function to forests includes interventions such as thinning, prescribed fire, meadow restoration, invasive plant removal, native plant regeneration, and road decommissioning.

The US Forest Service has identified 63 million acres of forest and grasslands at high or very high risk of catastrophic fire, but the USFS does not have the resources to restore these forests alone.

By implementing a Conservation Finance model, Blue Forest & the World Resources Institute seek to scale forest restoration across the West, starting in California.

The Yuba II Project focuses on two interrelated activities: general fuels reduction followed by underburning and prescribed fire. Removing fuels from the landscape while retaining large, fire-resistant trees creates a more fire-resilient landscape. Where possible, trees and vegetation removed by the project will be used for commercial products, supporting the local restoration economy as a co-benefit to wildfire risk reduction. Underburning will restore fire back into a fire dependent ecosystem, improve forest health, and reduce accumulations of small, dead, and downed fuels. Similar to thinning, intentional burns reduce the risk that wildfires become large and uncontrolled. Reduced fire risk also protects communities from risk to their drinking water supply from increased sediment and toxins. Reduced vegetation water use after restoration enhances water supply for the Yuba Water Agency and the communities and farmers in their service area. In addition, overall healthier forests help sustain good water quality for the communities that live downstream of the Yuba River Watershed. Protecting water quality and enhancing water quantity for the Yuba Water Agency has the potential to provide hydroelectric power, drinking water, water for agriculture, and flood control for over 30,000 people. Overall, this project reduces the risk of severe wildfires, protects ecosystems and communities, and delivers a range of other monetary and non-material benefits.

Everyone benefits from a healthy forest:

Utilities benefit from enhanced water flows and avoided sedimentation and damage from large fire and post fire flooding events.
Counties benefit from increasing rural community resilience through job creation and protected homes.
Companies benefit from a more secure water supply while being able to take credit toward water positive goals and engaging in public private partnerships.
Society benefits from avoiding massive carbon emissions and poor air quality tied to wildfire.

Project lead: BEF on behalf of Blue Forest & World Resources Institute (WRI)
Participating CWAC members: Danone N. America | Target | BEF
Additional partners: Yuba Water Agency | South Yuba River Citizens League | The Nature Conservancy | Sierra County | US Forest Service | National Forest Foundation
To learn more: Contact Sara Hoversten, Director, Business for Water Stewardship BEF - [shoversten@b-e-f.org]