Climate Change in the Mountains Rick Carr CAL FIRE Staff Chief, Southern Region Resource Management

Department of Forestry and Fire Protection California’ ~101,000,000 acres of wildlands provide valuable timber, watershed, wildlife habitat, and recreation resources. Maintaining the sustainability of all these natural resources is the goal of the CAL FIRE Resource Management Program. The Department achieves this goal by: Enforcing the CA Forest Practice Act and Rules on non-federal timberlands. Administering state and federal forestry assistance programs for landowners. Demonstrating sound management practices on Demonstration State Forests. Coordinating efforts for fuel reduction to reduce the risk of catastrophic wildfire and protect rural communities.

California Forest Land Base Percentages of forestland: Over 50% of forests are under federal land management, while the remaining non-federal forestland may be subject to one or more of the Programs delivered by CAL FIRE FRAP 2010 Total Land Base: ~101 million acres Forestland Base: ~33 million acres Range Land Base: ~57 million acres 3

The Problem: 102 Million trees have dead since 2010. Aerial Detection Survey, USFS program

How Did We Get Here? Multi-Year Drought Warming Climate Declining Snow Pack Overstocked Forests Forest Management Fire Suppression Land Use and WUI Expansion

Drought Impacts Proportion of the land in California under varying levels of drought Under a warmer climate droughts and water stress are more likely to occur. Allen et al, 2015, Ecosphere

Climate Impacts - Forests STAND DENSITY INDEX Index incorporates average tree size and trees per acre. Trees with high SDI are more prone to stress, succumb to disease, pests, and mortality.

Drought – Tree Mortality Tree Mortality – Bass Lake Low severity ground fire

Drought Tree Mortality County Acres Mortality Estimated Number of Dead Trees Tulare 1,114,985 20,326,991 Fresno 768,320 17,401,033 Madera 480,363 11,043,867 Mariposa 374,562 8,548,931 Tuolumne 551,624 7,641,235 Kern 455,410 7,536,675 Modoc 500,392 3,500,803 Calaveras 207,518 2,259,998 Siskiyou 672,330 2,039,474 Lassen 422,308 1,814,976 El Dorado 337,466 1,620,780 Shasta 324,180 1,372,841 Plumas 332,068 1,182,601 Trinity 343,225 876,339 Amador 85,696 762,441 Tehama 198,037 695,256 Placer 130,095 677,646 Low severity ground fire Tree Mortality Task Force, 2016

Potential Wildfire Impacts Types of impacts: Post-Fire Erosion Sediment/water quality Peak Flow Nutrients Water Yields Smoke and air pollution Low severity ground fire High severity crown fire

Wildfire Trends Longer Fire Season Low severity ground fire Longer Fire Season Up to 78 days longer across the West than just 3-4 decades ago (Westerling et al, 2006). Sierra Nevada Conservancy

Forest Health Program Landscape scale (e.g. sub-watershed) Up to 750,000 ac Logical management unit Multiple landowners and management activites Coherent plan to improve forest health Eligible Activities Reforestation Fuels Reduction Pest Management Forest Conservation Biomass Utilization (includes long-lived wood products and fossil fuel displacement from energy production)

Forest Health Program Concept Proposals Due April 7, 2017 at 3:00 PM. http://www.fire.ca.gov/resource_mgt/resource_mgt_foresthealth_grants