Skip to main content

Seven Awarded Forest Health Grants

Project Partners

San Mateo Resource Conservation District, Resource Conservation District of Santa Cruz County, Santa Clara County FireSafe Council, San Luis Obispo County Community FireSafe Council, Upper Salinas - Las Tablas Resource Conservation District, California State Parks, Midpeninsula Regional Open Space, Santa Clara County Parks, Girl Scouts of Northern California, San Mateo County Parks, San Jose Water

Overview of Actions

Starting in 2020, ARC Forestry played a lead role in the development and award of seven CAL FIRE Forest Health Grants (FHG) totaling over 36.2 million dollars.

All seven grant awards focus on prioritized, strategic forest density reduction to reduce fire severity and ladder fuel connectivity and ultimately increase forest health and resilience.

ARC Forestry prioritized and designed strategic treatment areas and treatment prescriptions across 1,000’s of acres, including developing and supporting the development of grant applications, coordinating partners, presenting to the public, negotiating with agencies, developing multiple CalVTP’s and archaeological survey reports, and other CEQA exemptions.

ARC Forestry developed project specifications for contracts, conducted bid tours, evaluated bids, supported contractor selection, developed ARC Field Maps for operations, conducted project layout, and supervised treatment implementation including winter period monitoring.

ARC Forestry supported un-siloed capacity building for all partners to methods to expand regional capacity through supporting the training of land stewards and contractors as needed.     

Treatment Status

Supported and Obtained CEQA Compliance for over 5,000 acres of prioritized, strategically placed treatments across four California Counties that consider sensitive resources, economics, and maintainability for long term resilience. As of October 2025, over 2,500 acres of initial treatments are complete.

LOCATION

San Luis Obispo County
San Mateo County
Santa Clara County
Santa Cruz County

TREATMENT ATTRIBUTES

  • Forest Health Fuels Reduction
  • Forest Density Reduction/ Large Tree Restoration
  • Roadside Treatments
  • Hazard Tree Removal
  • Invasive Species Management
  • Forest Trend Monitoring

PROJECT COMPONENTS

Documentation

  • Various PSAs – development and support, completed, and approved
  • Archaeological Survey Reports - developed, completed, and approved
  • Vegetation Treatment Specifications – developed and approved
  • Contract and Request for Bid – development and support

Field & Operations

  • Operational layout and mapping completed supporting the implementation of the CalVTP SPR’s or applicable avoidance measures
  • Conducted permit compliance on vegetation treatment implementation

STAFF INVOLVED

  • Steve Auten, Owner/RPF – project design and strategy, grant development, permit development, mapping, and operational supervision
  • Shelby Kranich, Director of Forest Resilience – direction, grant development, permitting, and operational supervision
  • David Van Lennep, Chief Forester of Operations – direction, operational planning, contracting, and supervision
  • Chloe Knowd, Senior Associate Forester – project layout, mapping, operational planning, and operational supervision
  • Charlie Hillis, Assistant Forester III – project layout, mapping, and operational supervision
  • Heath Hooper, Assistant Forester II – mapping and operational supervision
  • Daniel Auten, Lead Forestry Technician – marking trees, verification, and layout
  • Nolan Hayes, Lead Forestry Technician – marking trees, field verification, and layout