Information released recently by a coalition of conservation organizations revealed six years of impressive results from the federal Collaborative Forest Landscape Restoration (CFLR) program. Created in 2010, the program was created to increase the pace of forest restoration and reduce extreme wildfire risk at 23 project sites across the nation, from Florida to Washington.
The 23 project sites reveal big cumulative gains in 2015:
• 361,000 acres were treated to reduce hazardous fuels (nearly a thousand acres a day)
• 285,000 acres of wildlife habitat were enhanced (twice the size of Chicago)
• 875,000 cubic feet of timber sold (enough wood to build 35,000 homes)
• 135 miles of stream were improved (as long as the Buffalo River, the nation’s first National River)
• 15,200 acres were treated to remove noxious and invasive weeds (bigger than Manhattan Island)
• 2,500 miles of trails were maintained or improved (distance between San Francisco and Washington, D.C.)
Since the start of the program in 2010 more than $925 million in labor income has been generated, mostly in rural communities. Economic modeling also indicates that CFLR activities supported the creation or maintenance of 7,100 jobs.
Congress funds the CFLR program at $40 million per year (House Interior appropriations subcommittee has proposed the same level for FY2017 budget), which the USDA Forest Service and partners match with an additional $94 million investment. In comparison last year’s 76,000-acre Valley Fire in California cost $1.5 billion in damages, on top of causing the tragic deaths of four people and destroying 2,000 homes and other structures.
Today approximately half of the Forest Service’s forested lands are in desperate need of restoration. Much of this Oregon-sized area requires immediate treatment to avoid the worst harms to people, water, and wildlife by uncharacteristically severe fires.
From The Nature Conservancy: https://www.nature.org/newsfeatures/pressreleases/nearly-1k-acres-a-day-treated-to-reduce-fire-risk.xml