Department of Water Resources Prop 1 Round 2 Project 3 Post-Fire Headwaters Restoration -- Big Dry Creek and Jose Creek Watersheds of the upper San Joaquin Rive

The Sierra Resource Conservation District is acting as the lead agency to implement the Department of Water Resources Prop 1 Round 2 Project 3, focusing on post-fire headwaters restoration within the Big Dry Creek and Jose Creek Watersheds of the upper San Joaquin River in Fresno County, California. The project is centered in the Upper Aubery Ridge area and aims to improve water quality, stabilize stream banks, and enhance native vegetation to reduce erosion and sedimentation. Key objectives include the protection of communities, watersheds, and public and private lands from fire and post-fire hazards while safeguarding cultural resources and reestablishing wildlife habitats. The scope of work involves a variety of fuel reduction and restoration activities, including hazard tree removal, mechanical and hand cutting, chipping, limbing, and brushing. The project will utilize pile burning, prescribed burning, and cultural burning, alongside invasive species removal, erosion mitigation, and reforestation through native plantings. These efforts are designed to expand defensible space around structures in high-hazard fuel zones and rehabilitate riparian habitats. The project is classified as a categorical exemption under California Environmental Quality Act sections 15304 and 15333 for minor land alterations and small habitat restoration, and it explicitly excludes commercial timber operations.