The Feather River Resource Conservation District and the University of California Cooperative Extension are hosting a tree planting event on Saturday, April 22 at 9:00 am in Greenville. This event coincides with the first round of reforestation in the Indian Valley. Meet at the Greenville Cemetery District Office at 133 Hideaway Road.
This is the first step in a three-year project by the Emergency Forest Restoration Team, led by Feather River RCD and a coalition of local partners, to plant at least 3,000 acres of private non-industrial forest land in Plumas County. The program is offered free of charge to private landowners in Plumas County affected by wildfires in 2020 or 2021. A registration form is available at http://www.frrcd.org. Funding comes from CALFIRE, USDA State and Private Forestry and the private non-profit organization One Tree Planted. Services provided include site assessments by a licensed registered professional ranger, mechanical site preparation/dead tree removal, reforestation and subsequent release treatments.
“This planting project has been a long time coming,” said Michael Hall, District Manager for Feather River RCD. “We’ve been slowly working on preparing plots for trees, it’s rewarding to finally be able to do this.” Planting trees is just one step in the process of reforestation and follows the removal of dead trees and felled wood residues, also known as “site preparation”. known, creating suitable conditions for seedlings. After a forest fire, undergrowth vegetation such as Ceanothus species (e.g. red deer, snowbrush, hawthorn, mahala mat) and Arctostaphylos species (e.g. green-leaf and white-leaf manzanita) will quickly reestablish themselves without competition from mature trees . Manual planting of seedlings will help speed up the process of establishing a young coniferous mixed forest. This is especially true in the case of high severity areas that do not have access to mature overgrowth for natural regeneration. It is important to establish our mixed conifer seedlings early and actively support their survival by managing competing vegetation. Feather River RCD has purchased approximately 160,000 Douglas Fir, Ponderosa Pine, Jeffrey Pine, Locust Cedar and Sugar Pine seedlings selected for local seeding zones and surveys to be planted primarily on properties around the Indian Valley over the next two months .
Other benefits of reforestation include carbon sequestration, clean air and water, soil stability, habitat creation, and more. Over 19,000 acres of private non-industrial forest land in Plumas County were affected by the 2020 and 2021 wildfires, and the Plumas Emergency Forest Restoration Team’s project represents a timely and locally-based effort to restore community forests. Brad Underwood, project coordinator at Feather River RCD, believes “planting seedlings native to our area is another step in restoring the landscape, promoting healthy, fire-resistant forests and communities, and recapturing the area’s beauty that has.” there were last fires before that.”
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The event begins with an educational presentation from Foresters of the University of California Cooperative Extension on fire recovery considerations, reforestation strategies, planting techniques and young tree cultivation for private landowners.
Be prepared to get dirty at this volunteer event as we will be planting trees on rough and sloping terrain. Please prepare with water (2-3 liters), long pants, sturdy closed shoes, work gloves, sun protection, a lunch and a camping chair if you prefer to sit on the ground!
Questions about this event or registering for the program may be directed to (530) 927-5299. Or email to [email protected]. You can also find resources for landowners at https://ucanr.edu/sites/forestry/Contact/Staff/ or https://frrcd.org/
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