PG&E donates $5 million to Forest Service to reduce wildfire risk — Plumas to receive $1.25 million
As part of its continuing efforts to further mitigate wildfire risks across Northern and Central California, Pacific Gas and Electric Company (PG&E) has donated nearly $5 million to the U.S. Forest Service, Pacific Southwest Region, to fund fuel reduction projects and purchase equipment that will be used in six national forests located throughout the state.
The Forest Service intends to use the funds for fuel-reduction projects in 5,870 acres through the various forests. Projects will include prescribed pile burning, mechanical thinning and bio-mass removal for mulching.
Additionally, the funds will allow the Forest Service to purchase new fuel-reducing equipment such as machine saws, mastication heads, grapple machinery, wood chippers and trailers, which will enable more in-house work and faster reaction times to complete needed work.
The program will fund and facilitate the completion of required NEPA (National Environmental Policy Act) surveys and documentation needed to treat the forests with fuel reduction activities.
California faces an increasing threat from catastrophic wildfires, severe weather and higher temperatures, and recent state and federal climate assessments warn the threat is only growing. In 2012, just 15 percent of PG&E’s service area was designated by the California Public Utilities Commission as having an elevated wildfire risk. Today, it’s more than 50 percent.
2020 National Forest Service Reduction Program Funding
| Los Padres National Forest | $1,681,000 |
| Plumas National Forest | $1,250,000 |
| Shasta-Trinity National Forest | $167,000 |
| Sequoia National Forest | $433,500 |
| Six Rivers National Forest | $850,000 |
| Stanislaus National Forest | $603,000 |
PG&E’s Community Wildfire Safety Program includes real-time monitoring and intelligence capabilities, new and enhanced safety measures and hardening its electric system. Some examples include expanding the network of weather stations and high-definition cameras in high fire-risk areas, doing enhanced vegetation management work to keep trees away from power lines and installing covered power lines and more resilient utility poles.
