CAL FIRE Forest Health Project Spotlights
The Forest Health Program supports landscape restoration projects to improve forest resilience, sequester carbon, and protect communities.
Decades of fire exclusion, combined with a changing climate, have created an urgent need for management in California's forests to reduce the risk of catastrophic wildfire. CAL FIRE's Forest Health Program is taking on this challenge by providing competitive grants to organizations in every corner of the state to carry out fuels reduction, prescribed fire, pest management, reforestation, and biomass utilization projects.
CAL FIRE has awarded more than $630 million in Forest Health grants to 137 projects through 2024. Collectively, these projects will treat more than 460,000 unique acres across the state and are anticipated to store nearly 15 million tons of carbon dioxide equivalent over their lifetimes.
The Forest Health Program's value is most evident in the stories of individual projects in action. Explore the map below to tour around California and see examples of how non-profit organizations, tribes, agencies, and landowners are restoring ecosystems, protecting communities, combating climate change, and fostering more resilient forests.
Upper Pit River Forest Health
Upper Pit River Forest Health. Click to expand.
Two Forest Health grants have funded fuels reduction and prescribed fire activities on public and private lands in Modoc County that are increasing forest resilience, accelerating reforestation of severely burned forests, and reducing the risk of future catastrophic fire impacts to local communities, ecosystems, and natural resources.
Craggy Vegetation Management Project
Craggy Vegetation Management Project. Click to expand.
Fuels reduction work funded by a Forest Health grant outside the town of Yreka played an important role in containment of the 2020 Badger Fire. The thinning of the forest understory that had already been completed at the time of the fire helped to reduce the rate of spread, allowing access to suppression personnel, and keeping the fire out of local communities.
Western Klamath Landscape Forest Health
Western Klamath Landscape Forest Health. Click to expand.
Mid Klamath Watershed Council has received three Forest Health grants to carry our fuels reduction and prescribed fire on nearly 20,000 acres in the Karuk Tribes ancestral homelands in northern California. The project is a collaboration among local, state, tribal, and federal partners.
Bringing Fire Back to the Hoopa Valley
Bringing Fire Back to the Hoopa Valley. Click to expand.
A $1.36 million Forest Health grant is helping the Hoopa Valley Tribe re-introduce fire to an important oak woodland ecosystem on the current Hoopa Valley Reservation. The work will improve conditions for mature oaks and species that depend on the oak woodland habitat, as well as promote the growth of important plants for basket making.
Improving Forest Health in the Yurok Community Forest and Salmon Sanctuary
Improving Forest Health in the Yurok Community Forest and Salmon Sanctuary. Click to expand.
A $4.3 million grant awarded in 2020 is facilitating the return of cultural burning practices, creating employment opportunities for Yurok Tribe members, and improving wildlife habitat in Blue Creek, an important cold-water tributary to the Klamath River that is essential for endangered fish species.
Redwoods Rising
Redwoods Rising. Click to expand.
Two Forest Health grants have supported an ambitious partnership among Save the Redwoods League, the National Park Service, and California State Parks called Redwoods Rising. The effort aims to rehabilitate more than 70,000 acres of second-growth redwoods that were heavily logged and fragmented by roads.
Tehama Mendocino Fuels Reduction Partnership
Tehama Mendocino Fuels Reduction Partnership. Click to expand.
The 2020 August Complex Fire burned through 90% of the footprint of the Tehama Mendocino Fuels Reduction Partnership Forest Health project. The fuels reduction and biomass removal moderated fire activity and provided lessons learned for future management.
Valley Fire Remediation and Upper Putah Creek Watershed Restoration
Valley Fire Remediation and Upper Putah Creek Watershed Restoration. Click to expand.
An early Forest Health grant provided $469,000 for restoration work in the aftermath of the 2015 Valley Fire, which burned 76,000 acres in Lake County. The project has spurred other landscape-scale projects on private and federal lands in the county.
Forest Health in San Mateo County - A Collaborative Approach
Forest Health in San Mateo County - A Collaborative Approach. Click to expand.
A $2.5 million grant awarded in 2020 funded fuels reduction treatments across 445 acres at two county parks and Camp Butano Creek, a property owned and managed by the Girl Scouts of Northern California.
Enhancing Forest Health and Wildfire Resilience in Santa Cruz County
Enhancing Forest Health and Wildfire Resilience in Santa Cruz County. Click to expand.
The Resource Conservation District of Santa Cruz County is using a $3 million Forest Health grant awarded in 2021 to implement fuels reduction work across multiple land ownerships in the Santa Cruz Mountains.
Southern Sierra All-Lands Restoration and Recovery
Southern Sierra All-Lands Restoration and Recovery. Click to expand.
Forest resilience treatments funded through a $2 million Forest Health grant helped to save the ancient, majestic giant sequoias in Yosemite National Park’s Mariposa Grove from the 2022 Washburn Fire.
Saving San Diego's Last Mixed Conifer Forest
Saving San Diego's Last Mixed Conifer Forest. Click to expand.
With a $6.4 million Forest Health grant, a collaborative of landowners led by the San Diego Fire Safe Council and the Resource Conservation District of Greater San Diego County is implementing a landscape-scale restoration project aimed at improving forest health on Palomar Mountain.
Upper Pit River Forest Health
Two Forest Health grants have funded fuels reduction and prescribed fire activities on public and private lands in Modoc County that are increasing forest resilience, accelerating reforestation of severely burned forests, and reducing the risk of future catastrophic fire impacts to local communities, ecosystems, and natural resources.
Craggy Vegetation Management Project
Fuels reduction work funded by a Forest Health grant outside the town of Yreka played an important role in containment of the 2020 Badger Fire. The thinning of the forest understory that had already been completed at the time of the fire helped to reduce the rate of spread, allowing access to suppression personnel, and keeping the fire out of local communities.
Western Klamath Landscape Forest Health
Mid Klamath Watershed Council has received three Forest Health grants to carry our fuels reduction and prescribed fire on nearly 20,000 acres in the Karuk Tribes ancestral homelands in northern California. The project is a collaboration among local, state, tribal, and federal partners.
Bringing Fire Back to the Hoopa Valley
A $1.36 million Forest Health grant is helping the Hoopa Valley Tribe re-introduce fire to an important oak woodland ecosystem on the current Hoopa Valley Reservation. The work will improve conditions for mature oaks and species that depend on the oak woodland habitat, as well as promote the growth of important plants for basket making.
Improving Forest Health in the Yurok Community Forest and Salmon Sanctuary
A $4.3 million grant awarded in 2020 is facilitating the return of cultural burning practices, creating employment opportunities for Yurok Tribe members, and improving wildlife habitat in Blue Creek, an important cold-water tributary to the Klamath River that is essential for endangered fish species.
Redwoods Rising
Two Forest Health grants have supported an ambitious partnership among Save the Redwoods League, the National Park Service, and California State Parks called Redwoods Rising. The effort aims to rehabilitate more than 70,000 acres of second-growth redwoods that were heavily logged and fragmented by roads.
Tehama Mendocino Fuels Reduction Partnership
The 2020 August Complex Fire burned through 90% of the footprint of the Tehama Mendocino Fuels Reduction Partnership Forest Health project. The fuels reduction and biomass removal moderated fire activity and provided lessons learned for future management.
Valley Fire Remediation and Upper Putah Creek Watershed Restoration
An early Forest Health grant provided $469,000 for restoration work in the aftermath of the 2015 Valley Fire, which burned 76,000 acres in Lake County. The project has spurred other landscape-scale projects on private and federal lands in the county.
Forest Health in San Mateo County - A Collaborative Approach
A $2.5 million grant awarded in 2020 funded fuels reduction treatments across 445 acres at two county parks and Camp Butano Creek, a property owned and managed by the Girl Scouts of Northern California.
Enhancing Forest Health and Wildfire Resilience in Santa Cruz County
The Resource Conservation District of Santa Cruz County is using a $3 million Forest Health grant awarded in 2021 to implement fuels reduction work across multiple land ownerships in the Santa Cruz Mountains.
Southern Sierra All-Lands Restoration and Recovery
Forest resilience treatments funded through a $2 million Forest Health grant helped to save the ancient, majestic giant sequoias in Yosemite National Park’s Mariposa Grove from the 2022 Washburn Fire .
Saving San Diego's Last Mixed Conifer Forest
With a $6.4 million Forest Health grant, a collaborative of landowners led by the San Diego Fire Safe Council and the Resource Conservation District of Greater San Diego County is implementing a landscape-scale restoration project aimed at improving forest health on Palomar Mountain.
Learn More
To learn more, including how to apply, visit CAL FIRE Forest Health Grants .