Fuel Reduction Project at Bearpaw Reserve
Bearpaw Reserve features nearly 600 acres of steep, spectacular mountains with a seasonal 110-foot waterfall. Vegetation includes incense cedars, ponderosa and coulter pine, chaparral, and oracle oaks—a rare hybrid between black oaks and interior live oaks. In 2020, this landscape and its diverse species were severely impacted by the devastating El Dorado fire.
The northern portion of the reserve, which is predominantly lower elevation scrub oak and mixed conifer woodland, burned most severely with very few trees surviving post fire. What was once a very dense interconnected canopy of oak and some conifers became a dried-out lattice of scrub oak trunks and branches. This increases the risk of future wildfires moving through at a much faster pace, posing threat to the reserve’s infrastructure, surviving trees, and nearby communities.
Fuel reduction projects and vegetation treatments have been proven as a means of lessening catastrophic wildfire and its threat to public safety and damage to property. The objective is to remove enough vegetation, or fuel, so that when a wildfire burns the effects are less severe and more easily managed.
In 2023, The Wildlands Conservancy started working with partners at Inland Empire Resource Conservation District (IERCD) and Southern California Edison (SCE) to secure funding for a significant fuel reduction project at Bearpaw Reserve. We’re also partnering with the Southern California Mountains Foundation Urban Conservation Corps on the project. The Corps offers young people opportunities to better their lives through environmental conservation, working on meaningful projects that build valuable workforce skills.
A key conservation outcome for this project is to improve the success of conifer growth, which historically grew in this area, while reducing scrub oak species. This effort will not only encourage a more fire resilient vegetation community, but also aims to promote biodiversity for the local flora and fauna. Central to the mission of The Wildlands Conservancy is to help heal the Earth for the benefit of plants, wildlife, and people, and we are pleased to be furthering our mission at Bearpaw Reserve working alongside our partners.
This project is currently underway and aims to improve forest health conditions and increase safety for hikers and campers on the reserve, but also improve defensibility in the event of wildfire that could impact nearby communities
Wildlands would like to acknowledge our generous funding partners IERCD and Edison International, parent company of SCE, whose support is making this important work possible.