Lake County All Lands Restoration Initiative FIP
Project Description
The Lake County Umbrella Watershed Council is a member of the Klamath Lake Forest Health Partnership (check out their website for more details https://www.klfhp.org/). Together we applied for a Focused Investment Partnership (FIP) grant from the Oregon Watershed Enhancement Board (OWEB). We were finally awarded this grant opportunity in the spring of 2024. This grant covers a 6 year period with $4 million per biennium for Dry-Type Forest Habitat.
The partnership envisions utilizing this funding to create a healthy, resilient, and functional
forest landscape maintained with fire as an ecological process, while mitigating the threat of high severity wildfire to dry forests, fish and wildlife habitat, water quality, and the surrounding
human communities. The ecological outcomes align with the Dry-Type Forest Habitat OWEB priority and include: developing a short- and long-term strategy for prescribed fire to re-establish the historical frequency of fire; engaging with private landowners to increase public knowledge of dry forest restoration principles and techniques; restoring dry forest landscape resiliency by re-establishing open and variable forest structure and reducing fuel loading; restoring healthy aspen, meadow, and shrub-steppe habitats by reducing encroaching conifers and juniper; and re-introducing prescribed fire as a key ecological process. These outcomes would be accomplished through strategic thinning, prescribed fire, and noxious weed treatments completed by the core partners.
Project Partners
Our core partners include Klamath-Lake Forest Health Partnership (KLFHP), Lake County Umbrella Watershed Council (LCUWC), Fremont-Winema National Forest (USFS), Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS), Oregon Department of Forestry (ODF), Oregon State University (OSU Extension), Great Basin Institute, Lake County Cooperative Weed Management Area (Lake County CWMA), Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife (ODFW), The Nature Conservancy (TNC), and the University of Oregon (UO).
Project Status
LCALRI FIP Partnership Capacity Grant Biennium 1 (24-26) $102,300
This grant provides for enhanced communication between partners to share knowledge, identify priority areas, and incorporate efforts into existing areas.
LCALRI FIP Technical Assistance Grant Biennium 1 (24-26) $238,000
This grant allows us to work with partners to develop a short- and long-term strategy for prescribed fire. We are also focused on foresters helping private landowners with their land management plans.
LCALRI FIP Stakeholder Engagement Grant Biennium 1 (24-26) $73,500
This grant helps us engage with private landowners to increase public knowledge of dry forest restoration principles and techniques.
LCALRI FIP Restoration Grant Biennium 1 (24-26) $3,469,500
This grant provides for the on the ground implementation of restoration activities like thinning, piling, pile burning, noxious weed treatments, and reintroducing prescribed broadcast burning as an ecological maintenance tool.
LCALRI FIP Monitoring Grant Biennium 1 (24-26) $116,000
This grant provides funding for ecological monitoring crews to implement established protocols that mirror efforts conducted on USFS lands and allow us to create a comprehensive and comparable report of our projects and how they are performing. We will also be analyzing the socio-economics impacts of this funding source within our community.