George Community Fuels Reduction Project

Ecological services help a vulnerable, rural community improve wildfire preparedness.

As part of an on-call contract to provide the Clackamass County Soil and Water Conservation District with Priority Invasive Weed and Vegetation Management Services, Biohabitats is helping the agency and six different private landowners implement a wildfire preparedness project in the rural community of George, Oregon.

Located within a Douglas fir and mixed hardwood forest where small fires had been previously suppressed, the community of George is particularly vulnerable to wildfire. Funded by an Oregon Department of Forestry’s Small Forestland Grant Biohabitats helped the Clackamas County SWCD secure, the project aims to reduce wildfire risk by reducing the amount of available fuel and preventing fire from climbing into the canopy.

To achieve this, Biohabitats thinned the underbrush, along with trees smaller than eight inches in diameter. Specifically, the crew performed precommercial thinning, pruning of dead limbs, herbicide application, and invasive species removal in the riparian area of Suter Creek. Biohabitats also masticated the removed fuel and donated labor for firewood to the Estacada Area Food Bank. The team returned to the site that fall to prune, and in winter planted native seedlings in the cleared riparian area. Approximately 100 acres across eight properties were treated.