EASTERN SIERRA CLIMATE & COMMUNITIES RESILIENCE PROJECT
EASTERN SIERRA CLIMATE & COMMUNITIES RESILIENCE PROJECT
EASTERN SIERRA CLIMATE & COMMUNITIES RESILIENCE PROJECT
Eastern Sierra Wildfire Alliance
Working ESCCRP
About the Project
The Eastern Sierra Climate & Communities Resilience Project
ESCCRP
The project sets forth to plan and implement ecological forest restoration on approximately 56,000 acres of Inyo National Forest lands surrounding the Town of Mammoth Lakes. In the face of rapidly increasing climate stressors, the need for proactive forest management is urgent.
Well over a century of anthropogenic influences have reshaped the forests across the Sierra Nevada. Exacerbated further by climate change, our forests are primed for catastrophic change. The ESCCRP aims to intercept the current trajectory of our Eastside forests and return them to more historic densities, a critical step toward ultimately allowing us to return to using fire as a tool for forest health. This effort will work to make the forested landscapes we love, more resilient to anticipated future threats from climate change which include, high severity fire, extended drought, mass beetle outbreaks, and changes in precipitation timing and amounts. These actions will also work to safeguard the Town of Mammoth Lakes from catastrophic fire events and give emergency firefighting forces tactical options as they continue to encounter increasingly challenging and complex fire scenarios.
Project Area
56,141 acres
The Collaborative
Stakeholder Organizations
35
NEPA Progress
Funding
The ESCCRP is a multi-decadal endeavor that will require sustainable funding streams to be a success. Project costs are roughly estimated to be around
ESCCRP staff and project partners are working to understand real project costs and develop a multi-pronged approach to identify sustainable funding streams to make the project a success.
$ 200 M
Funding sources:
Match Funding Pledged
$ 5.8 M
Grant Funding
$ 10 M
-
CDFW Announcement- Eastern Sierra Pace and Scale Accelerator $3,384,269
-
CAL FIRE Announcement- ESCCRP: Phase I Implementation $4,913,908
2021 Grant Award Announcements:
Implementation
60,000
50,000
40,000
30,000
20,000
10,000
56,141 acres in Project Area
Goal to treat by 2042
2156 acres funded
70 acres treated
ESCCRP Phase 1 Implementation
2022 — 2025
Hand Thin- 528 acres
Mechanical Thin- 748 acres
Pile Burn- 542 acres
Aspen Regen- 38 acres
Rx Fire- 300 acres
2156 acres funded
"Funding for this project provided by the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection's Forest Health Program."
1. Protect the Town of Mammoth Lakes
Protect the Town of Mammoth Lakes. Strengthen protection of the Town of Mammoth Lakes and its assets from fire by increasing the pace and scale of fuel and vegetation treatments in and around the Town of Mammoth Lakes.
2. Allow for Safe and Effective Fire Management
Allow for Safe and Effective Fire Management. Create vegetation conditions that allow for safe, effective, and efficient fire suppression, use of managed wildland fire, and application of prescribed fire, while protecting public and community health and safety.
3. Promote Community Fire Resilience
Promote Community Fire Resilience. Manage and respond to fire within its natural range of variation, in an ecologically beneficial and socially acceptable way, that perpetuates landscape heterogeneity and reduces the threat to human safety or infrastructure from catastrophic wildfire.
4. Restore Ecosystem Health and Resilience
Restore Ecosystem Health and Resilience. Reduce the potential for catastrophic wildfire and other stressors through progressive and proactive forest treatments to return forest structure, function, and composition to the natural range of variation. A healthy ecosystem yields both ecological and community benefits and supports a diverse array of animal and plant species.
5. Utilize Best Available Science
Utilize Best Available Science. Implement restoration based on science, including traditional ecological knowledge, which allows for learning and adaptive management to address changing climate and other environmental stressors.
6. Create a Fire-Conscious Community
Create a Fire-Conscious Community. Increase public understanding of the role of wildland fire on the landscape, the need for proactive forest management, and an increase in pace and scale of restoration to allow fire to play its necessary role.
7. Cultivate Long-Term, Sustainable Partnerships
Cultivate Long-Term, Sustainable Partnerships. Foster a collaborative approach to landscape-scale restoration. Utilize agreements and other mechanisms to form partnerships between federal, state, local, and tribal governments as well as non-governmental organizations and private entities to accomplish fuels reduction projects on federal and other lands more efficiently.
8. Build Local Capacity
Build Local Capacity. Invest in partnerships and technology to help increase pace and scale of restoration through creative biomass and workforce solutions that contribute to a sustainable wood products market.
Project Goals
ESCCRP Grants Timeline Overview
Eastern Sierra Climate & Communities Resilience Project
Planning Grants
Solving for Biomass
Eastern Sierra Pace & Scale Accelerator
2020
2019
2021
2022
2023
2024
2025
2026
Lakes Basin Fuels Reduction
Implementation Grants
ESCCRP: Phase 1 Implementation
ESCCRP Grants Funding Breakdown
Eastern Sierra Climate & Communities Resilience Project (Initial Planning Grant)
Sierra Fuels Reduction Impact: Solving for Biomass Removal, Water and GHG Benefits
Eastern Sierra Pace & Scale Accelerator
Lakes Basin Hazardous Fuels Reduction Project
ESCCRP: Phase 1 Implementation
$ 339,534
$ 205,000
$ 3,384,269
$ 1,200,000
$ 4,913,000
$ 10,041,803
Eastern Sierra Climate & Communities Resilience Project (Initial Planning Grant)
Grant Funder
Grantee
Grant Term
May 2020
—
September 2022
NEPA Progress:
WELCOME STAKEHOLDERS
Our collective effort aims to promote resilient landscapes, support fire adapted communities, and lead by example to support the Eastern Sierra on the journey to achieving regional resilience.
THANK YOU FOR YOUR COMMITMENT!
STAKEHOLDER MEETINGS
Contact kelsey@whitebarkinstitute.org to be added to our stakeholder correspondence list.
Funding for this project is provided by the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection's Forest Health Program, Sierra Nevada Conservancy's Resilient Sierra Nevada Communities Program, and California Department of Fish and Wildlife's Proposition 1 Watershed Restoration Program.
