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

2. 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.

3. 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

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

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

6. 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

7. 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.

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

9. 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

10. 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

11. 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

12. 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)

13. Forest Health Program Concept Proposals Due April 7, 2017 at 3:00 PM.