The MCRCD Forest Health and Resiliency Program’s mission is to promote sustainable forestry and land stewardship through active management for both climate change and fire resiliency on public and private lands.
Through a combination of technical assistance, outreach, education, and regional partnerships, we:
- Educate and engage the public on issues regarding fire and fuels, insects and disease, habitat diversity, and the importance of active and informed management.
- Help residents, landowners, and land managers understand the ecology of their forestland and how to best manage to achieve their goals and objectives.
- Act as a catalyst in mobilizing community planning and implementation efforts for cross-boundary, landscape level treatments.
- Link landowners and managers to outside financial assistance opportunities to support thoughtful implementation projects to promote forest health, reduce hazardous fuel loading, enhance wildlife habitat, and improve overall forest stand resiliency.
- Acquire grant funds to enhance planning capacity and implement vegetation management activities the contribute to the health and resilience of forests within Mendocino County and throughout the North Coast.
Forest Ecosystems provide multiple benefits, including fresh air, clean water, wildlife habitat, and both economic and cultural products. Forests play an integral role sustaining healthy and resilient communities in the face of climate change and the suite of challenges it poses. Approximately half of Mendocino County is considered forestland, ranging from conifer to oak woodlands. Unlike other forest dominated counties in California, Mendocino County is 90% privately owned, with only 10% of forest land held by public agencies. With such a high component of privately held forest tracts comes a wide diversity of land management goals and objectives. MCRCD’s Forest Health and Resiliency Program aims to assist these landowners and residents in how to sustainably manage their properties while looking at landscape-level forest health, watershed function, wildfire resilience, and a variety of ecosystem services.
