The North Yuba River watershed stretches from New Bullards Bar Reservoir east to the Sierra Crest along Highway 49. The North Yuba Landscape Resilience Project area covers 275,000 acres, of which approximately 210,000 acres are National Forest System lands within Sierra County, with the westernmost portions of the Project area in Yuba County. The Project area includes thousands of acres of forested habitat, is an important source of water to downstream users, supports high biodiversity and many recreation opportunities, and is home to many communities including Camptonville, Downieville, and Sierra City. 

Many forests in the North Yuba watershed are unhealthy. The current fire regime is highly departed from historical norms, with the absence of recent low-to-moderate-severity fires in the Project area leading to accumulated surface, ladder, and canopy fuels and dense forest stands with fire-susceptible tree and plant species and dense areas of brush. These forests, once characterized by large, widely-spaced trees and beneficial, low-to-moderate severity fire are now dominated by non-fire resilient stands, high fuel loading, and capacity for increased wildfire intensity, flame lengths, and rate of spread.  

Due to these forest conditions and the increased potential for high-severity wildfire, local communities and critical infrastructure – including roads, utility lines, and communications resources – are at extreme risk. High-severity wildfire could also cause extreme damage to watershed health, water security, and general ecological function of the North Yuba. Without actions to reduce hazardous fuels, restore historic forest densities, and improve watershed-wide forest health, future wildfires in this area could result in catastrophic losses of infrastructure, water security, recreation, biodiversity, and human livelihoods.

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