The Los Gatos Creek Watershed Collaborative obtained one of many largest awards final week in CAL FIRE’s newest spherical of Forest Well being Grants.
The $6.3 million grant will go towards increasing the collaborative’s undertaking space by 841 acres to incorporate Aldercroft Heights and Lupin Lodge, residential neighborhoods within the Santa Cruz Mountains, bringing total protection to 2,700 acres.
Aldercroft Heights and Lupin Lodge have a handful of areas which are at a excessive hearth danger. Residents must journey one-lane roads throughout evacuations, which might trigger site visitors and congestion, mentioned Seth Schalet, chief govt officer of the Saratoga-based Santa Clara County FireSafe Council.
The watershed is positioned within the Santa Cruz Mountains that border Saratoga, Los Gatos and San Jose, close to the place the CZU Lightning Advanced Fireplace burned 86,509 acres in Santa Cruz and San Mateo counties in 2020. It additionally holds water reservoirs that serve greater than 100,000 individuals.
“There’s a danger of fireside and a historical past of fireside,” mentioned Schalet. “What we’re attempting to do is reduce the influence ought to a fireplace occur. Hopefully, by our mitigation efforts, a fireplace can be much less damaging ecologically and economically.”
The collaborative’s mitigation efforts throughout the watershed embody eradicating useless bushes and clearing underbrush that may make fires unfold quick. The grant brings the entire CAL FIRE allocation for these efforts to greater than $13.8 million.
CAL FIRE had $93 million in grant funding to unfold throughout the state this 12 months, and candidates requested greater than $225 million. Of 44 organizations that utilized, 17 have been awarded funds.
CAL FIRE awarded $7.5 million to the Los Gatos Creek Watershed Collaborative in 2021. Schalet mentioned he was pleasantly shocked that the collaborative obtained such a big grant within the newest spherical of funding.
Schalet mentioned he was pleasantly shocked that the collaborative obtained such a excessive grant after it already obtained a big award.
“They initially had us allotted for $4 million,” he mentioned. “They have been so glad with the work we have been doing that we obtained the total award. … We’re investing within the space.”
Ed Orre, a unit forester with CAL FIRE, mentioned the collaborative’s work will assist to guard the 1000's of residents who reside in or close to the watershed, in addition to the reservoirs that provide the West Valley with water.
“As a result of they'd confirmed they have been able to doing comparable work, and standing on current success, that did put them in a extra favorable place with the grant,” Orre mentioned.
The collaborative has already began trimming bushes and clearing underbrush within the watershed and is eradicating bushes that have been dried out by sudden oak demise, which makes them faster to burn and extra more likely to unfold a wildfire.
The undertaking may even shield the consuming water within the Lexington and Elsmann reservoirs that provide greater than 100,000 Santa Clara County residents.
Along with the FireSafe Council, the Los Gatos Creek Watershed Collaborative contains San Jose Water, Midpeninsula Regional Open Area District and Santa Clara County Parks.
“Pure disasters usually, earthquakes, hurricanes, floods, wildfires, they take a backseat in individuals’s minds till they’re hit with one,” Schalet mentioned. “We’re investing within the space.”