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 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 is thinning the underbrush, along with trees smaller than eight inches in diameter. Specifically, Biohabitats’ crew is performing precommercial thinning, pruning of dead limbs, herbicide application, and brush removal. Biohabitats is donating labor to provide firewood to the Estacada Area Food Bank. Biohabitats will return to the site in the fall to prune, and in the winter to plant native seedlings in the cleared riparian area. Eight properties totaling 150 acres are being treated.