Amador County – Earlier this month, the U.S. Forest Service announced that a local group will bring $730,000 in Collaborative Forest Restoration Landscape Restoration Program to the local national forests this fiscal year, and the potential for $43 million over the next 10 years.
The “Cornerstone Project” was developed in early 2011 by the Amador-Calaveras Consensus Group, a community-based forest collaborative group that works to create fire-safe communities, healthy forests and watersheds, and sustainable local economies.
The project “will generate 204 jobs, harvest 1.7 million board feet of timber, restore 32 acres of waterways, reduce fire danger by removing 66,400 tons of biomass and small-diameter trees, reduce sedimentation from 787 miles of road, and restore 400 acres of Native American cultural sites while making local communities safer from damaging and costly fires,” said Group member Katherine Evatt, president of the Foothill Conservancy.
Evatt, Cornerstone project editor and contributing writer, said the project was named for its potential to be a foundation, or cornerstone for growth. She said it “shows what a diverse group of people can do when they join forces and work together for a common goal. Without the broad skills, knowledge and viewpoints of the team and the ACCG, we never could have developed a nationally competitive project.”
If renewed over the next 10 years, the Cornerstone Project would bring more than $43 million in federal and partner funds. It will take place in the Amador and Calaveras Ranger Districts in Alpine, Amador, Calaveras and El Dorado counties, Evatt said, and the project planning area encompasses nearly 400,000 acres of federal lands in the El Dorado and Stanislaus National Forests.
The group’s diverse membership includes forest contractors and other businesses, resource agencies from all levels of government, social service agencies, Native Americans, fire-safe councils, conservation organizations and individuals.
Calaveras County Supervisor Steve Wilensky helped originally convene the Amador-Calaveras Consensus Group in December 2008, with Sierra Nevada Conservancy Executive Director Jim Branham. After the announced award of the grant, Wilensky said: “With this recognition and funding, our local national forests have moved to the forefront of community-based forest restoration. It’s a great day for Amador and Calaveras.”
Wilensky said “this is the result of a tremendous amount of work by a very broad coalition of dedicated people from both counties and beyond.”
Consensus Group and Cornerstone team member Cathy Koos-Breazeal, Executive Director of Amador Fire-Safe Council, said “we’ve worked very hard together over the last three years to get to this point.”
Consensus Group member John Romena, of Buena Vista Biomass Power in Ione, also cheered the news, saying his company’s “Jackson Valley plant needs a reliable and predictable supply of biomass from local forests. This 10-year project will make a significant contribution to our operation.”
Story by Jim Reece This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
