OUTCOME: Ecosystem Conservation and Restoration

Problem

Immediately following a large high-severity wildfire, there is a serious risk of erosion and pollution of soil, waterways, and rural water supplies. Post-fire salvage logging operations, if not conducted carefully, can create additional erosion problems, and damage or remove large standing trees that may have survived the fire.

Solution

Post-Fire Ecosystem Restoration - Develop and implement post-fire cleanup and restoration strategies to minimize disturbance to ecosystems while protecting water resources.

Background and Context

Areas that have been impacted by fires often need immediate mitigation to protect local communities and waterways from erosion and toxic runoff, and longer-term mitigation to reduce the hazardous fuel load from standing dead trees and brush that creates an ongoing fire hazard. The risk of rapid insect infestation of burned timber increases the urgency of salvage operations, but market saturation for fire-damaged wood and lack of an adequate workforce increases the difficulty of effective and timely salvage operations (See Fire Resilient Forests – Timber Industry Solution).

An additional challenge is to ensure that post-fire restoration and mitigation are done in a way that restores and enhances ecosystem processes and function, rather than further degrading them. It can be difficult to determine whether fire-damaged trees will recover and should be protected, or whether they should be removed. Archaeological and Tribal cultural resources may be present and need to be protected from further damage during salvage. Soils around burnt structures are often considered toxic waste sites and must be remediated. These difficult conditions are exacerbated by the fact that multiple crews from different agencies or contractors often conduct different post-fire cleanup activities with little coordination. Due to federal and state procurement regulations that can make it difficult for local contractors to qualify, contractors are often brought in from outside of the area to conduct salvage work.

All ground-disturbing activities, including post-fire cleanup of tree and structure debris, require CEQA/NEPA analysis and permits that are designed to protect important ecological and cultural resources. However, in post-fire cleanup emergencies, these requirements are not always followed on the ground. Following community cleanup and tree and structure debris removal after a fire, local residents often do not know whether toxins are present in soils and water. Additional monitoring and post-fire cleanup may be needed to ensure the health and safety of residents, particularly those dependent on wells or other local water sources that may have been impacted by the fire or the resulting toxic debris. Community and Tribal liaisons should be authorized to participate in any state or federal clean-up process to facilitate timely information sharing with local residents.

Recommendations

Emergency Forest Restoration Teams (EFRTs) should be established in the North Coast region. This program, funded by NRCS-CA and other private partners, supports the pre-establishment of local teams for rapid post-fire recovery of private forestland. These teams coordinate with other fire recovery partners, conduct rapid assessments of private forestland needs, and implement post-fire restoration activities. This rapid restoration of private forest lands can help prevent further damage to life, property, and natural resources. Teams can work with multiple landowners in an affected area to more efficiently complete necessary projects. EFRTs represent an improvement over current programs that can’t respond quickly and often require a significant cost share. The key to successful ERFTs is a strong lead partner. RCDs and other NGOs can play this role. Lead partners create an Incident Command Structure (ICS) type of organization, identify implementers at each level, obtain funding, and implement the work. Lead partners can pre-identify contractors that would like to participate and set up procurement or contracting structures in advance of the need for deployment (see Capacity – Private Workforce Solution). EFRTs can fill private landowner needs not already being addressed by other emergency entities, focus on human safety or natural resource hazards, excess woody debris or weakened trees that threaten homes and structures, rebuild private land infrastructure and roads, conduct restoration activities, and coordinate with commercial salvaging and utilization of woody debris to offset other restoration costs, where feasible.

Following fires, Incident Management Teams or EFRTs should provide detailed maps to local Tribes, government, fire departments, and residents of the geographic areas within and adjacent to the fire that have been burned or impacted by fire suppression activities. Cultural and archaeological sites are critically important to protect, thus cleanup guidelines must ensure the protection of cultural resources (i.e., archeological sites, gathering sites for food and cultural use materials, ceremonial locations). On Tribal lands, Tribal Historical Preservation Officers (THPO) and appropriate Tribal staff need to survey the location and, if warranted, be on site during post-fire cleanup. Tribal monitors should also be a part of clean-up crews when contracting firms are hired, and should complete post-fire mapping of areas that include cultural resources, those receiving water from contaminated runoff, or those protected by the Endangered Species Act.

Actions

Annually update maps of fires in the region and potential impact on water resources and at-risk communities. Ensure post-fire burn severity assessment geodatabases are connected to capacity, ecosystem restoration, and other appropriate data and mapping efforts and that those maps are updated. Facilitate delivery of evaluation results and proposed mitigations to local Tribes and communities.

Work with regional partners to establish EFRTs in the region.

Include local Tribes and communities in post-fire planning, implementation, and monitoring of post-fire cleanup, including through IMT Tribal and Community Liaisons.

Connect landowners in burn areas with resources to safely protect recently burned areas from erosion, etc. (RCDs, NRCS, UCCE) and with revegetation/reforestation planning resources

Support WERT (Interagency Watershed Emergency Response team) and BAER (Burn Area Emergency Response) team post-fire evaluations by funding, coordinating, providing technical assistance, and implementing mitigation measures.

Support federal partners in reforestation projects and cost sharing for such projects after wildfire events.

Support conducting pre-fire consultations with NRCS, RCDs, UCCE and others on recommended best management practices for post-fire clean-up activities.

  • Create a Qualified Pool specific to post-fire restoration and conduct training modules for qualified contractors.
  • Include additional guidelines as necessary on when trees should & should not be removed to prevent removal/” salvage” of large trees which are likely to recover from fire impacts.
  • Identify whether counties/Tribes have capacity to implement the actions articulated in the playbook. If not, create and support planning to develop this capacity.
  • Include key actions identified in Sonoma County’s 2018 Living in a Fire Adapted Landscape.

Fund and support Tribal specialists to Identify and develop guidelines specific to Tribal lands that account for Tribal cultural resources such as sacred sites, food gathering locations, and the potential of contamination or post-fire activities to impact those sites.

Connect existing forest industry professionals with tools to ensure successful fire salvage operations that do not cause economic volatility in the biomass residuals or timber markets.

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