American River Conservancy
South Fork American River (SOFAR) Restoration Project
The ARC SOFAR Restoration Project will implement ecological forestry and land management techniques that promote healthy forests and watersheds, increase carbon sequestration, and reduce catastrophic wildfire risk on the landscape. The Project will cover 1,943 acres of ARC owned properties in the South Fork of the American River watershed. These properties are known individually as Lewis Ranch, Salmon Falls, Elliot Pond, and Wakamatsu Farm. Thinning will occur in mixed conifer and oak woodland vegetation types using mechanical and manual methods, as well as prescribed fire and herbivory,
The Partnership: Funding for the SOFAR Project was provided by the CAL FIRE Forest Health and Post-Fire Reforestation and Regeneration Grant. ARC and CAL FIRE have a longstanding partnership and will continue to work together to conduct prescribed fire and other thinning activities.
Economic Benefits: The Project employs a local workforce of forest and land management specialists. With a focus on ecological forestry, this workforce serves to protect natural resources from megafires while bringing needed economic activity to local communities.
Contact Autumn
at 530-621-1224 or autumn@arconservancy.org
Megafires and the Solution
California has seen a significant increase in large and catastrophic megafires. This is due to a history of fire suppression, excessive fuel loading, past forest management and climate change. Ecologically focused forest and land management is the solution to reducing extreme fire danger.
Ecologically-managed forests thin the understory and mid-story vegetation to reduce fuel. Prescribed fire can then be used to mimic moderate to low-severity fire that is natural to the ecosystem.
Unmanaged forests with decades of fire suppression are dense in vegetation and have excessive fuel loads. These forests typically burn with high severity and have ground-to-canopy fire that kills most trees.
© Erica Simek Sloniker and TNC
Unmanaged Forests vs. Ecologically-Managed Forests
Before thinning. Note the inability to see between trees.
After the removal of mid-story and understory vegetation. Note the space between trees.
A variety of ecosystem management techniques are used to achieve resilient landscapes. Each treatment is designed to maximize reduction of fuel load and promote overall health of these landscapes. Grazing, prescribed fire and forest thinning are a few of the techniques that are being implemented at Salmon Falls.
Funding for this project provided by the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection’s Forest Health Program as part of the California Climate Investments Program.