Thank you for your interest in the Wildfire Action Symposium: From Talk to Action. The purpose of the workshop was to explore how we might use the critical tools of defensible space, mechanical fuels removal, grazing and prescribed fire to help save lives, property and our environment. Presentations addressed what each of these treatment options can offer to help us reduce risk. Discussion focused on tasks we need to accomplish to move forward. Details about the current CRCF project proposal to use these tools in our area can be found below the registration form.
Presentations on Friday, February 1st, 10 am to 3pm at Timber Cove Lodge will be posted shortly. Thank you to all who attended!
- Welcome and Introduction | Judy Rosales, Executive Director, CRCF
- Coast Ridge Community Forest: Our Role in Fire Action | Demetra Markis, Board Chair, CRCF
- California Wildfires: The New Normal | Marshall Turbeville, CalFire Battalion Chief
- Start at the House and Work Out: Create a Fire Adapted Home | Caerleon Safford, Coordinator, Fire Safe Sonoma
- Grazing to Reduce Wildfire Risks: How Can it Work Here? | Leland Falk, Falk Livestock & Land Management
- Fighting Fire With Fire: Prescribed Fire | Stephanie Larson, County Director and Livestock Range Management Advisor, University of California Cooperative Extension
-
Fuels Management in a Working Forest- Richardson Ranch | Dan Falk, RPF, Falk Forestry Services
CRCF Community Grazing and Fuel Reduction Project
Rotational grazing for grassland management and improving soil health is a conservation strategy that is gaining support in Sonoma County and beyond. The Coast Ridge Community Forest (CRCF) is collaborating with the University of California Cooperative Extension, grazing specialists, and other agencies and NGOs to evaluate the opportunities and challenges of using rotationally-grazed livestock to increase soil carbon and reduce the risk of catastrophic wildfire on the northern Sonoma coast.
This targeted grazing effort is part of the larger Coast Ridge Fuel Reduction Project designed to control fire risk by applying an array of fuel reduction tools including prescribed burning, manual thinning of dry grasses and ladder fuels, and shaded fuel breaks.
This is a fire reduction project focusing on our own communities, but we are also developing this model as one that could be applied throughout Sonoma County.
Five fuel reduction trials will be conducted on private lands at the Gualala and Sea View Ranches and the Timber Cove subdivision. Shaded fuel breaks will be applied to approximately 12.5 miles of roads as part of the larger Fuel Reduction Project covering the Gualala, Navarro, and Sea View Ranches.
A research plan is being designed to produce scientifically defensible information that could be used to inform grazing management decisions and to answer the question: is there a positive scenario in which livestock grazing can be used to control fire risks.
The Coast Ridge Community Grazing and Fuel Reduction Project will extend to a broader group of sites totaling approximately 10,000 acres spanning the North Coast to assess the potential for more widespread use of targeted rotational grazing as an effective forest management tool to control fire risks.