Diamond Mountain Mark West CAL FIRE Planning Grant

““WORKING TOGETHER TO PLAN COMMUNITY STEWARDSHIP ACTIONS TO REDUCE FUEL DENSITY, FIRE INTENSITY, AND SUPPORT ECOSYSTEM HEALTH AND BIODIVERSITY””

DMMW Fuel Breaks and PODs Planning, is part of California Climate Investments, a statewide program that puts billions of Cap-and-Trade dollars to work reducing GHG emissions, strengthening the economy, and improving public health and the environment– particularly in disadvantaged communities. The Cap-and-Trade program also creates a financial incentive for industries to invest in clean technologies and develop innovative ways to reduce pollution. California Climate Investments projects include affordable housing, renewable energy, public transportation, zero-emission vehicles, environmental restoration, more sustainable agriculture, recycling, and much more. At least 35 percent of these investments are located within and benefiting residents of disadvantaged communities, low-income communities, and low-income households across California. For more information, visit the California Climate Investments website at: www.caclimateinvestments.ca.gov.

Planning Grant Achievements and Next Steps

Lead by the grant team and community coordinators we were able to achieve the following with the community’s support:

  • Planned three fuel breaks to improve fire control, public safety, and protection of communities and infrastructure. These fuels breaks are scheduled to undergo site specific surveys to meet environmental compliance needs Spring of 2025.

  • Developed a planning process with landowners to provide the needed information and tools and increased capacity to develop and implement cooperative forest stewardship actions. The planning process included 4 in-person community wide meetings, 20+ in-person and virtual community coordinator meetings and a unit planning workshop with CAL FIRE. Additionally, this process led to the organization and development of the Mountain Station FireWise Community.

  • Created a community forest stewardship plan that provided ecological background, management techniques and considerations and funding options to guide implementation of cooperative forest stewardship actions that reduce high intensity wildfire and improve forest ecology and climate resilience, while sustaining and improving critically endangered Coho and Steelhead Salmon in the Mark West Creek watershed.

On November 2nd, the DMMW Grant leadership team hosted the final community meeting and shared the final Forest Stewardship Plan. Over the upcoming months the first step to environmental compliance needs will be met through the completion of the CALVTP report and project specific surveys on identified fuel breaks. Landowners are encouraged to continue working with their FireWise Community leaders to prioritize potential projects for community-scale implementation.

Upper Mark West FireWise Community  umwfsc at markwestwatershed.org 

Mountain Station FireWise Community Jeffterpstra at comcast.net

Ray Krauss, Community Coordinator

Reviewing the maps
Group Discussion

​Funding for this project provided by the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection’s (CAL FIRE) Fire Prevention Program as part of the California Climate Investments Program.

Thank you, Community Coordinators and landowners!

The Grant Leadership Team

The Diamond Mountain to Mark West (DMMW) Area encompasses a critically important region of wildfire and ecological focus. The watershed of Mark West Creek in the southern Mayacamas Mountain Range which leads into the Russian River is the geographical center of this landscape scale project. The ridge lines of the mountains in both Sonoma and Napa County generate intense wind events in late summer and fall that cause potentially dangerous wildfire conditions. 
This area has been impacted by large, destructive wildfires in the past five years. The Santa Rosa suburban communities of Fountain Grove, Coffey Park, and Rincon Valley historically experienced devastating wildfires, including the 2017 Tubbs Fire, the 2019 Kincade Fire, and the 2020 Glass Fire (A derivative of the LNU Lightning Complex Fires). High intensity winds blowing east to west out of the upper watershed combined with an untimely fire ignition and caused significant loss of life and property damage plus extensive regional economic impacts. The three fires have estimated to cause approximately $3BN in related costs to our community. Avoided costs in the future will be essential for not only the economic, social, and mental health for those in the project zone but also those who live around this region.

This project is a planning process for a cross parcel collaborative effort that represents the needs of landowners in the Diamond Mountain Mark West area of Sonoma County that was funded by CAL FIRE. We recently heard from CAL FIRE on Potential Operation Delineations (PODS) and their fire preparedness approach to these areas especially in regards to ingress and egress needs. The following PODs Story Map is a resource for more information about the PODs development and PODs in action.