California Vegetation Treatment Program (CalVTP) Update

The California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection (CAL FIRE) is providing funding to help implement vegetation treatments on State Responsibility Area (SRA) Lands in the Sierra Nevada foothills of Mariposa County along Triangle, Darrah, and Jerseydale Roads. The Mariposa County Resource Conservation District has prepared a Project Specific Analysis (PSA) and Addendum for the Upper Chowchilla River Watershed Forest Health and Fire Recovery Project as a later activity covered by the California Vegetation Treatment Project (CalVTP) Program Environmental Impact Report (EIR) on June 8, 2026, which entails implementation of vegetation treatments on up to 1,667 acres; CAL FIRE is providing funding to the Sierra Foothill Conservancy to implement treatments on up to 1,535 acres. The proposed treatment types (Ecological Restoration and Fuel Breaks) and treatment activities (e.g., manual and mechanical treatments, prescribed burning, including both broadcast and pile burning, prescribed herbivory, and herbicide application) are consistent with those evaluated in the CalVTP Program EIR and the writ of mandate issued by the Superior Court of San Diego County on November 14, 2025 in California Chaparral Institute and Endangered Habitats League v. Board of Forestry and Fire Protection, and pursuant to PRC §4483, and have been designed to avoid type conversion in areas where chaparral and/or coastal sage scrub plant communities may be present. Maintenance treatments would involve the same vegetation treatment types and activities used in the initial treatments. The purpose of these treatments is to promote forest and watershed health, reduce fuel load, and demonstrate efficacy of climate beneficial prescriptions.