By Jim Peifer, Executive Director, Regional Water Authority
Though summer is behind us, the risk of wildfires persists in our region’s forests. According to Cal Fire, eight of California’s 10 most destructive wildfires started in either September, October, or November. Regional Water Authority (RWA) member agencies are hard at work on projects to reduce wildfire risk and protect our precious water supplies.
In the bustle of daily life, it’s not unusual to lose sight of where our water comes from. But it’s worth remembering that our water flows from the Sierra Nevada forests, where water falls as snow and rain, then flows downhill into our reservoirs and groundwater aquifers.
A century of well-intentioned but overzealous firefighting has left our watershed forests too dense with trees. Throw in the growing influence of climate change — hotter summers and more intense storms — and the threat to our water supply is immense.
When a fire sparks in these forests it easily becomes catastrophic, destroying all trees and reducing the forest’s capacity to store and filter runoff. In addition, post-fire runoff can erode ash, debris, and productive soil into our reservoirs, decreasing water storage capacity and damaging infrastructure.
This is what we saw with the King Fire in 2014, which burned 97,000 acres and cost RWA member agencies, like Placer County Water Agency (PCWA), millions of dollars in cleanup and repair work.
Placer County Water Agency: Restoring French Meadows, Protecting Water Quality
After the King Fire, PCWA began the French Meadows Forest Restoration Project, an innovative public-private partnership with the U.S. Forest Service and others to reduce fire risk on 28,800 acres surrounding French Meadows Reservoir. Now completing its sixth season of work, the project is about 60 percent complete.
Work is underway to thin overgrown forests through careful logging, brush clearing, and prescribed burns. So far, roughly 7,000 acres have been treated. Prescribed burning is also planned for this fall, managed by the Forest Service, contingent on resource availability and climate conditions.
There are numerous challenges to this type of work in remote areas of the watershed. One of the realizations of these projects is that they are not “one and done,” said Darin Reintjes, PCWA’s Director of Resource Management. For example, French Meadows project managers already anticipate the need to re-treat the lands restored in the first phase of the project five years ago.
“Reducing the risk of high-intensity fires means initially reducing and thinning the fuel loads, but then going back through every eight to 10 years to maintain that reduced risk,” he said.
After mechanical treatment, shrubs and small trees will regrow and need further attention to keep the fuel load down. While prescribed burns are ideal for maintaining the understory, limitations may require periodic mechanical removal of undergrowth in the future.
While this is underway, PCWA is already planning the next major restoration project. The Long Canyon Watershed Protection Project has similar goals: Reducing wildfire risk on 16,500 acres in the Long Canyon Creek watershed, a tributary to the Rubicon River, an essential PCWA water supply.
PCWA recently approved an agreement with the U.S. Forest Service to conduct selective tree thinning, prescribed burns, and reforestation in Long Canyon. Planning is ongoing, with work expected to begin as early as 2026. Owl and raptor surveys will begin next year, alongside fieldwork and environmental documentation. PCWA will also continue to develop partnerships and a grant and funding plan to support the project’s implementation in 2026.
This is difficult, expensive work. It’s also essential for protecting the Sierra Nevada water supply we all enjoy at our taps every single day in the Sacramento metro area.
This work is critically important because, without it, we face increasingly severe wildfires that threaten both our communities and natural resources. By restoring forests to a more natural state, we can reduce the risk of catastrophic fires, improve water and air quality, and even enhance the reliability of our water supply. Healthy watersheds act as natural reservoirs, storing and filtering water for the long-term sustainability of our region.
That’s why water agencies are stepping up to get this work done, with help from state and federal partners like the Sierra Nevada Conservancy, CalFire, and the U.S. Forest Service. Numerous nonprofits and private landowners have also joined the effort, recognizing that the challenge of protecting important forest resources is too great for any single entity to tackle alone. Together, they understand the value of a united approach in facing this challenge, recognizing the value of a united effort to protect important forest resources.
Yuba Water Agency’s Accelerated Forest Management
The Yuba Water Agency, another RWA member, also has big forest management projects underway. Its Watershed Resilience Program began in 2018 when it was approached by a local nonprofit, Blue Forest, to help accelerate watershed restoration work on the Tahoe National Forest in the Yuba River watershed.
With the water agency as a financial contributor, the partnership completed forest thinning and prescribed burns on 5,000 acres in four years, more than twice as fast as originally estimated.
This project led to the creation of the North Yuba Forest Partnership, a broader effort that aims to reduce fire risk on all 275,000 acres of the watershed. It brings nine partners to the work, including a local tribe and non-governmental organizations.
As a result of this unique partnership, more than 20,000 acres of needed forest health treatments have been implemented. Additionally, the partnership has completed an innovative landscape-level environmental impact statement covering 210,000 acres and more than $150 million in new federal and state funding has been awarded to the North Yuba River Watershed since 2018.
One of the challenges with this kind of work is that there are few markets for the small trees and brush that must be cleared from forests to reduce fire risk. Sometimes this material can be chipped and used as mulch, but it still must be hauled somewhere else in huge trucks. This is extremely expensive, the cost usually isn’t covered by available grants, and it works against our climate mitigation goals.
So, Yuba Water and PCWA are investing in small-scale biomass energy facilities. These facilities, to be built in each local watershed, will convert small woody debris from nearby restoration projects into electricity through clean, controlled burning. They also create jobs and fill a vital link in a thriving local restoration economy.
“We see this biomass plant as subsidizing all the rest of our restoration projects and key to us increasing the pace and scale of forest restoration in our watershed,” said JoAnna Lessard, watershed manager for Yuba Water Agency.
There are a host of side benefits to these projects. These federal forest lands are vital habitat for all kinds of beneficial wildlife. They’re also important recreation lands for hikers, anglers, hunters, cyclists, and many others. Restoring these forests means preserving these places of solace for people and wildlife alike.
If you were to look back 20 years, it would seem radical for water agencies to engage deeply in forest management. But today we recognize the inseparable connection between water supply and land management.
Our watersheds are our lifeblood, as much as the water itself. And we can’t protect our water without protecting our watersheds, too.
Jim Peifer is Executive Director of the Regional Water Authority, representing nearly two dozen water providers serving 2.2 million people in the greater Sacramento region. Learn more at rwah2o.org.
