The Eshom Ecological Restoration Area is an approximately 11,000-acre area located on the Hume Lake Ranger District of Giant Sequoia National Monument and Sequoia National Forest/Giant Sequoia National Monument within the Upper Kaweah River Watershed (landscape-scale area designated area under the 2014 Farm Bill). The area is within the 4,000-5,000-foot elevation range and within the Southern Sierra Fisher Conservation Area.

Recent drought has led to dieback of 50 to 80 percent in a number of species, specifically ponderosa pine, sugar pine, white fir, and incense cedar. It has also led to increased bark beetle activity in the pine and cedar stands, as well as other insect and drought mortality in the white fir component. As a result, there are several areas of high mortality across the landscape. A portion of the area has numerous dead trees mixed with a few live trees, and several of the pine plantations are completely dead due to insect activity.

A combination of commercial biomass removal; mastication of brush and smaller trees; hand treatments including brush cutting, hand thinning of live and dead material, and piling; and prescribed burning including pile burning and underburning; and limited reforestation would be used to treat stands. The goal is to improve heterogeneity by modifying stocking and species mix, restore forest health and wildlife habitat, and re-establish the fire cycle while reducing high fuel loads across the landscape.

This project protects irreplaceable giant sequoias, threatened and endangered species habitat, and livelihoods of small communities near Sequoia and Kings Canyon National Parks (SEKI). The work proposed will thin small diameter conifers, create fuel breaks in key areas to slow advancing fires, and restore areas where the 2020 Castle and 2021 KNP Complex Fires burned giant sequoias. Without substantial mechanical thinning, there is no pathway for conducting necessary prescribed fire to reduce hazardous fuel loading, and few options for stopping wildland fire in the steep, snag-dense terrain. The mean annual risk of wildfire in the project area is 89%; for this reason and others this project is critical for the protection of the most vulnerable of California’s mixed conifer forests where they encompass groves of giant sequoias. 

Ancient sequoia forests in California are important and functionally irreplaceable. They are special places for the love and stewardship they inspire, for their role as habitat for old growth-dependent threatened and endangered species (e.g., Pacific fisher and California spotted owl). Healthy old growth forests in the Sierra Nevada are also critical for water purification and water quality. Aided by the continued presence of old growth mixed conifer giant sequoia forests, California experiences the 1849 Gold Rush every year anew when millions of acre feet of purified spring snowmelt cascades down the mountains into the Kaweah and other rivers to foothill reservoirs for drinking and agriculture. Giant sequoia trees are incredibly long-lived and the 40 groves in SEKI serve as the spokestrees for forest health issues in the Sierra Nevada. 

The FSC Program actively supported implementation on several key projects, including Monache, North Castle, Rough Phase 2, and the Castle Fire Biomass project. By joining partnership efforts, GBI supported critical project management gaps, enhanced on-the-ground capacity, ensured high-quality project delivery, and helped maintain momentum on the forest’s ecological restoration and fuels reduction priorities

Large-scale, proactive restoration is needed to restore the health and resilience of the Tahoe Basin’s forests and meadows and to reduce the risk of catastrophic fire impact to the communities within the Lake Tahoe Basin. The Lake Tahoe Basin’s Multi-Jurisdictional Fuel Reduction and Wildfire Prevention Strategy (Fuels Strategy) was to provide the framework to treat hazardous fuels and restore and maintain fire resilient landscapes in the Tahoe Basin. The Fuels Strategy facilitates the strategic decision making to reduce the probability of catastrophic wildfire in the Tahoe Basin. To help achieve the Fuels Strategy restoration goals, the Forest Service partners with GBI to accomplish critical forest restoration activities.

GBI’s collaborated to see the Cathedral project through the full suite of pre-sale tasks, including cruising, layout, marking, and contract development. The work was supported by crews from GBI’s Basin and Range Forestry program, highlighting the program’s ability to collaborate across initiatives. Building on this success, the FSC program is now developing a solicitation to implement the Cathedral project under a GBI contract, showcasing the program’s strength in bridging project development and implementation through effective partnership. 

Multiple projects are taking place on the Eldorado National Forest in the vicinity of the Crystal Basin on Placerville and Pacific Ranger Districts that together contribute to landscape restoration and resilience. The Crystal King Restoration Partnership project is a roughly 300,000-acre area which contains the Crystal Basin, the King Fire area portions of the South Fork of the American River (SOFAR) National Cohesive Wildland Fire Management Strategy Collaborative Area, high value recreation sites, important infrastructure, wildlife habitat, and forest lands.