Partnerships

The North Yuba Forest Partnership is a diverse group of nine organizations passionate about forest health and the resilience of the North Yuba River watershed. Together, the partners are working on an unprecedented scale to collaboratively plan, analyze, finance and implement forest restoration across 275,000 acres of the watershed. 

The partnership includes: Yuba Water Agency, the U.S. Forest Service, The Nature Conservancy, South Yuba River Citizens League, Nevada City Rancheria Nisenan Tribe, National Forest Foundation, Sierra County, Blue Forest Conservation and Camptonville Community Partnership.

Through ecologically-based thinning and prescribed fire, the partnership seeks to protect North Yuba communities from the threat of catastrophic wildfire and restore the watershed to a healthier, more resilient state. Restoration efforts are expected to take many years, if not decades to complete, with the most critical project areas targeted first, i.e. at-risk communities, emergency response, evacuation access routes and treatments to areas that have the potential to stop a wildfire from spreading.

To help reduce the risk of catastrophic wildfire, promote fire adapted communities and improve forest health, Tahoe National Forest is providing the National Forest Foundation $117 million to implement forest management work in the North Yuba Landscape. In 2022, North Yuba Landscape was one of 10 initial high-risk landscapes nationally selected for investment as part of the Forest Service’s Wildfire Crisis Strategy. The landscape is one of the most at-risk watersheds to large-scale, catastrophic fire in the United States and includes the 275,000-acre North Yuba Landscape Resilience Project, a multi-phase vegetation and fuels management project to be implemented over 15 to 20 years.

In addition to the investment of $117 million to the National Forest Foundation, the Tahoe National Forest anticipates up to $36 million more of federal funds in 2023 for additional project work. The forest received $6.8 million of federal funds in 2022 to direct toward the North Yuba Landscape, with significant non-federal funding from the North Yuba Forest Partnership since 2018. Federal funding sources stem from a variety of legislative actions including the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law and Inflation Reduction Act.