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LAKE COUNTY, Calif. – While California experiences another destructive fire season, the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection announced that more than $170 million has been awarded in grants to prevent catastrophic wildfires, like the Carr Fire and Mendocino Complex, and restore forest health.

More than 100 agencies and organizations across California will receive funding to help the state reduce greenhouse gas emissions from wildfires and sequester carbon.

State Sen. Mike McGuire said $26 million in grants will come to North Coast communities.

Two Lake County organizations are among the grant recipients, according to the Cal Fire list.

Seigler Springs Community Redevelopment Association will receive $216,869 for fuel reduction.

Heart Consciousness Church, also known as Harbin Hot Springs, will receive a $469,000 grant for a project to address severe fire remediation challenges created by the 2015 Valley Fire, which destroyed the popular resort.

With the participation of multiple landowners, agencies and professional foresters, the project will restore forest health over 450 acres of the Upper Putah Creek watershed. It will use a wide range of management activities to promote the long-term storage of carbon in forest trees and soil and to minimize the loss of forest carbon from another wildfire and thereby reduce greenhouse gas emissions.

“California is facing a new normal – the size and scope of wildland fires are getting worse. These grants will better prepare and protect the North Coast by reducing hazardous fuels, removing dead and dying trees and helping communities with fire planning,” Sen. Mike McGuire said. “With nearly 1 million acres burned so far this year, these mega-fires have proven deadly and extremely destructive and have also released countless tons of carbon into our atmosphere. The safety of our communities depends on programs like these being implemented across the state.”

With funds provided by the Greenhouse Gas Reduction Fund for California Climate Investments, or CCI, Cal Fire awarded 142 fire prevention grants totaling $79.7 million and 23 forest health projects totaling $91.5 million.

The Fire Prevention grants will enable local organizations like fire safe councils, to implement activities that address the risk of wildfire and reduce wildfire potential to communities and forests.

Funded activities include hazardous fuel reduction, fire planning, and fire prevention education with an emphasis on improving public health and safety, all while reducing greenhouse gas emissions.

“California continues to invest millions of dollars into creating healthier, more resilient forests that benefit all of us,” said Chief Ken Pimlott, Cal Fire director and California’s state forester. “Already this year more than 700,000 acres have burned across the state creating significant carbon releases that counter our efforts at reducing greenhouse gases. Local projects funded by this money will prevent wildfires before they start, and when combined with our fire prevention activities, will help move us toward our greenhouse gas reduction goals.”

Cal Fire’s Forest Health grants were distributed to non-profits and local and state resource agencies to implement collaborative projects that extend across multiple land ownerships.

These projects seek to improve water quality, manage forest pests, and increase the use of tools such as prescribed fire and hazardous fuels reduction to create resiliency in California’s forests. Multiple projects include a bioenergy component – turning trees killed by drought and bark beetles into energy.

Five of the Forest Health grants will enable the purchase of conservation easements under Cal Fire’s Forest Legacy Program.

These grants will protect more than 14,000 acres of forestland in Humboldt and Sonoma counties from urban and agricultural development which would increase greenhouse gas emissions.

To date, Cal Fire’s Forest Legacy Program has conserved nearly 111,996 acres of working forest lands in California.

The 165 grants were made possible by proceeds from California’s cap-and-trade program to combat climate change.

Through the Greenhouse Gas Reduction Fund, Cal Fire and other state agencies are investing in projects that directly reduce greenhouse gases while providing a wide range of additional benefits in California communities.

This May, Gov. Edmund G. Brown Jr. announced the creation of the Forest Management Task Force to address the issue of the health of California’s forests, which have been adversely impacted by drought and climate change.

The task force, which has met twice, is working to facilitate strategies to reduce risk of wildfire and increase the pace and scale of forest restoration activities leading to improved watersheds.

A list of the North Coast grantees follows.

FIRE PREVENTION GRANTS

Humboldt County

University of California, Agriculture and Natural Resources, Cooperative Extension, fire prevention education, $286,689

Lake County

Seigler Springs Community Redevelopment Association, fuel reduction, $216,869

Sonoma County

Mayacamas Fire Safe Council, fire prevention education, $5,000

Muniz Ranches Property Owners Association, fuel reduction, $61,650

Sonoma County Transportation and Public Works, fuel reduction, $1,082,969

Sea Ranch Fire Safe Council, fuel reduction, $44,250

Geyserville Fire Protection District, fuel reduction, $497,750

Mendocino County

County of Mendocino, fuel reduction, $951,450

Brooktrails Fire Department, fuel reduction, $162,550

Marin County

Southern Marin Fire Protection District, fire prevention planning, $53,680

FIRESafe MARIN, fire prevention planning, $71,288

Marin County Parks and Open Space District, fuel reduction, $75,000

Trinity County

The Watershed Research and Training Center, fuel reduction, $197,635

Trinity County Resource Conservation District, fuel reduction, $421,463


FOREST HEALTH GRANTS

Humboldt County

Sean and Kathryn O'Day, Grizzly Creek Forest Conservation Easement, $1,195,500

Lake County

Heart Consciousness Church DBA Harbin Hot Springs, Valley Fire Remediation and Upper Putah Creek Watershed Restoration Program, $469,000

Sonoma County

Western Rivers Conservancy/Sonoma County Agricultural Preservation & Open Space District, Silva Ranch Conservation Easement, $4,050,000

Humboldt County

Save the Redwoods League, Redwoods to the Sea Corridor Forest Resilience Project, $1,279,270

City of Arcata, Arcata Community Forest Expansion - Forsyth Tract, $227,000

The Trust for Public Land, McKay Community Forest Phase 2 and Adjacent Ryan Creek Legacy Easement, $3,600,000

Northcoast Regional Land Trust, Diamond D Forest Conservation Easement, $4,500,000

Mendocino County

Mendocino County Resource Conservation District, Applied Innovative Forest Health Strategies on Post-Fire Landscapes, $1,909,820

Humboldt/Siskiyou counties

Mid Klamath Watershed Council, Western Klamath Landscape Fuels Reduction and Forest Health Project, $5,000,000

It couldn’t be done, they said. France had tried it a half century before, only for noxious bogs and swarms of insects native to the land to swallow and suffocate the unfortunate workers sent to complete the impossible task.

But this was a man not accustomed to failure. He was at the height of his comfortable arrogance – the leader of a country equally confident in its own ability. If Egypt should have the Pyramids and Rome the Coliseum, then America should have its Pacific-Atlantic passageway, that very waterway connecting the hemispheres that Lewis and Clarke had so ardently sought. They hadn’t found it in America, so President Theodore Roosevelt would build it in Panama.

For the past 50 years, America and European countries had quarreled among themselves over who would build a pan-isthmian canal through Central America – a region early identified as the shortest, and therefore best, route between the Atlantic and Pacific oceans.

These titans of imperial power held backroom negotiations, completely ignoring those nations whose land would actually be trenched, and the lives of whose workers would be lost in the attempt.

Finally, at the turn of the century, America had won the right among western powers to build such a thoroughfare.

In 1902, America opened negotiations with Columbia for the rights to build and maintain a canal. The American offer was not enough for the Colombian Congress, who turned it down in no uncertain terms.

In response, President Theodore Roosevelt promptly dispatched two fleets of American warships to Panama City on the Pacific and Colon on the Atlantic in support of Panamanian Independence. If Columbia wouldn’t give us what we wanted, we would create a country that would.

America’s imperial foray was a success, and the new Panamanian government sold to its American patrons a 10-mile-wide strip of land that cut across the country. For its part, America agreed to pay Panama a one-time grant of $10 million and an annual annuity of $250,000.

In a shrewd move, the new Panamanian government also added the condition that America forever guarantee its independence against any future incursions from regional powers.

With the land secured, President Roosevelt dispatched a team of engineers to set the work in motion. The year was 1904.

Over the next decade, thousands of workers sweated under the oppressive heat of summer months, and withstood the harassing attacks of swarms of mosquitoes.

During the French attempt at building the canal, over 25,000 workers had died – largely due to malaria and other diseases. During America’s construction of the Panama Canal, a little more than 5,000 died – not necessarily because of better treatment, but largely because of new medicines that limited the ravages of jungle diseases.

At the height of construction, when workers faced cutting through the nine-mile stretch of mountains that marked the continental divide, upwards of 6,000 men were working at once.

In the end, some 3.4 million cubic meters of concrete went into building the locks and other works along the canal, and nearly 240 million cubic yards of rock and dirt were excavated during the decade of American construction.

Although President Roosevelt had started the project, it was President Woodrow Wilson – perhaps the polar opposite in his foreign policy from Roosevelt’s “big stick” approach – completed the construction when he triggered the final blast of dynamite via a telegraph wired from Washington D.C. in 1914.

At the time of its completion, the Panama Canal was America’s greatest engineering feat to date.

When the first wave of ships passed through the canal on August 15, 1904, the history of world trade – and America’s role in international affairs – changed forever.

Antone Pierucci is curator of history at the Riverside County Park and Open Space District and a freelance writer whose work has been featured in such magazines as Archaeology and Wild West as well as regional California newspapers.

This story has been updated with an statement from Cal Fire and the U.S. Forest Service.

LAKE COUNTY, Calif. – A firefighter has died after sustaining injuries while battling the Ranch fire on the Mendocino Complex.

Cal Fire confirmed the firefighter death to Lake County News Monday evening.

In addition to the Monday fatality, two other firefighters previously were reported to have been injured on the complex, which began on July 27 and is now the largest wildland fire incident in California history, officials said.

According to radio reports, the firefighter was fatally injured on the Ranch fire portion of the Mendocino Complex, where in recent days crews have been engaged in a pitched battle to stop the fire and keep it from burning structures near Lake Pillsbury and advancing further into the Mendocino National Forest.

Shortly before 5:30 p.m. Monday, radio transmissions from the scene stated that a male firefighter had been hit by a tree and immediate medical assistance was needed.

Minutes later, the man was reported to be unconscious, with personnel doing cardiopulmonary resuscitation.

The exact location of where the man was injured was not stated over the radio, but medivac units were requested to Drop Point 15, located about six miles southwest of Lake Pillsbury, according to radio reports.

Retardant drops also were requested to stop in the area at around 5:40 p.m.

Radio feed traffic then abruptly cut out.

Cal Fire said additional information was not available early Monday evening on the incident, and the firefighter’s name has not yet been released.

In a statement issued just before 7:30 p.m., fire officials said the following: The Mendocino Complex Unified Incident Commanders from Cal Fire, and the United States Forest Service are deeply saddened to report the death of a firefighter on the Mendocino Complex. Fact finding on the accident is ongoing and notification of the next of kin is in
Progress.”

Officials said more information will be released as it becomes available.

Email Elizabeth Larson at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.. Follow her on Twitter, @ERLarson, or Lake County News, @LakeCoNews.

LAKE COUNTY, Calif. – The Mendocino Complex continues to show little sign of slowing, as overnight it burned 8,000 more acres and pushed further into public lands to the north.

Cal Fire’s Monday report put the complex’s overall size at 344,890 acres with containment having rolled back a few percentage points to 68 percent. More than 3,200 firefighters – including some from Australia as well as active duty military firefighters – remain assisted to the incident.

The complex began on July 27 in Mendocino County. Within days it had moved into Lake County, where it has done most of the damage and burned most of its acreage. It also is burning in western Colusa County, and overnight the Ranch fire portion moved into the southwestern edge of Glenn County.

The River fire near Lakeport hasn’t grown in size in some time; it remains at 48,920 acres and 93 percent containment. Officials said patrolling and suppression repair continue in that area of the complex.

The story is different on the Ranch fire, which burned all of the additional 8,000 acres overnight to reach 295,970 acres. Cal Fire said the Ranch fire’s containment also slipped three percentage points, to 59 percent.

The damage assessment records 265 destroyed structures – 147 residences and 118 other buildings. In addition, 36 structures – 13 residents and 23 other buildings – have been damaged, Cal Fire said.

With minimal humidity recovery during nighttime operations the Ranch Fire was very active in its northwest corner, continuing to burn towards Lake Pillsbury. As the fire moves in this direction, fire crews in and around the surrounding areas of Lake Pillsbury are
preparing and defending structures, according to Cal Fire.

On the northeast side of the fire, Cal Fire said fire crews are still working on bringing the Ranch fire below and west of Lodoga Stonyford Road and back into the Mendocino National Forest. Dozer lines along with contingency dozer lines will continue to be put in and
improved.

The U.S. Forest Service is in joint command with Cal Fire on the incident. Mendocino National Forest spokeswoman Punky Moore said the Ranch fire grew 13,000 acres in the 24-hour period ending Monday morning; for perspective, the fire had grown by 6,000 acres in the previous 24-hour period.

Moore said that on Sunday, the fire crossed the dozer line along McLeod Ridge and moved toward Rice Fork summer homes and Lake Pillsbury. This area remains under a mandatory evacuation order.

She said firefighters worked through the night and held the fire along the Eel River. Firefighters burned off the dozer line along Gilmore Ridge and north through the 2012 Mill fire scar toward Davis Flat. The operation went well and the line is holding.

On Monday, fire crews are patrolling and providing structure defense in the Rice Fork homes and Pillsbury Lake areas and working to hold the fire at the Eel River.

Firefighters will hold and patrol the dozer line along Gilmore Ridge and north toward Davis Flat, which Moore said is to secure the fire’s northeast corner to keep the fire west of Stonyford and Century Ranch.

Construction of a contingency dozer line along Noel Springs Ridge and Bushy Camp Ridge will continue, as will work on constructing a contingency line west of Stonyford to Black Diamond Ridge, Moore said.

She said firefighters are improving the roads around the northern and western edges of the Pine Mountain Project to keep the fire east of Potter Valley. Crews will improve the contingency dozer line around Potter Valley.

Moore said there are many areas that the fire has burned through that are extremely important to many people; one example is Letts Lake. When it is safe to do so, these areas will be assessed and the information made available to the public.

For those impacted by the fire, a local assistance center is open in Lucerne through Friday, Aug. 17.

The center is located at Lucerne Alpine Senior Center, 3985 Country Club Drive. Hours are 10 a.m. to 7 p.m.

The county of Lake reported that a wide array of services are available, with many organizations on site to offer help for everything from food replacement to medical care access, animal-related issues, debris removal, replacing vital documents and requesting assistance with insurance.

Email Elizabeth Larson at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.. Follow her on Twitter, @ERLarson, or Lake County News, @LakeCoNews.

CLEARLAKE, Calif. – Three structures were reported to have been burned in a Sunday evening fire in a Clearlake neighborhood.

The fire in the 3300 block of Brown Street near Turner Avenue was first reported just before 7 p.m. Sunday.

Lake County Fire Protection District firefighters who arrived on scene just minutes after dispatch found multiple structures threatened, as well as fencing, boats and vehicles, according to reports from the scene.

Minutes later, radio reports indicated that two structures were fully involved and propane tanks were going off.

Cal Fire was asked to send resources, with a full wildland dispatch of five engines requested a short time later due to concerns about the fire spreading into vegetation, according to incident command. Cal Fire’s response included a strike team from the Ranch fire.

Just before 7:20 p.m., incident command reported stopping the fire’s progress into wildland, and canceled the two dozers and two crews that had been requested, but engines were asked to continue in.

Power lines also were reported to be down at the scene, and incident command stated problems with water supply.

Forward progress on the fire was stopped just before 7:45 p.m., when it was reported that several hours of mop up would be needed.

Incident command also requested dispatch notify the water company of several hours of high water flow in an effort to cool the outgassing propane tanks on the scene.

In response to the fire, the Clearlake Police Department issued a mandatory evacuation order for Grey, Brown and Amber streets from Olympic Drive to Bowers Avenue just before 7:25 p.m. That evacuation was called off at 10 p.m.

Incident command confirmed from the scene that three structures in total burned.

Mop up was still under way early Monday morning, and a Clearlake Police unit was asked to come to the scene just after 12:30 a.m. to take a further report on the fire, according to radio reports.

Email Elizabeth Larson at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.. Follow her on Twitter, @ERLarson, or Lake County News, @LakeCoNews.

LAKE COUNTY, Calif. – The Mendocino Complex pushed closer to Lake Pillsbury and nearby homes on Sunday, leading to Lake County officials reiterating the need for residents to evacuate.

The complex by Sunday night had increased by 5,000 acres to 336,395 acres during the course of the day, with containment up to 70 percent, Cal Fire said.

The Ranch fire’s activity accounted for all of the complex’s Sunday growth. Cal Fire said it is now up to 287,479 acres and 62-percent containment, while the River fire remained at 48,920 acres and 93 percent containment.

Cal Fire said that, throughout the course of Sunday, the Ranch fire was very active on its northwest corner, near Lake Pillsbury. Fire crews constructed dozer lines in Potter Valley to tie into the road system in an effort to stop the fire from progressing west.

Very active fire below and to the east of Lake Pillsbury produced the majority of the smoke seen from the fire on Sunday, Cal Fire said.

When the winds shifted and smoke clear, Cal Fire said air attack was able to fly and support the firefighting effort.

During the afternoon and into the evening, radio reports indicated firefighters were protection structures around Lake Pillsbury, with the fire moving close to the summer homes around Rice Fork.

The Lake County Sheriff’s Office issued a mandatory evacuation order for the Lake Pillsbury area on Aug. 4. Just before 3:30 p.m. and 6 p.m. Sunday the sheriff’s office two alerts reminding residents of the area of that evacuation order and encouraging them to leave immediately.

As of Sunday evening, there was no structure loss in Rice Fork, as firefighters continued to try to hold the fire south of Lake Pillsbury and the Eel River, according to reports from the scene.

On the northeast portion of the Ranch fire, in the northeastern portion of Colusa County, fire crews are continuing to tie in dozer lines as well as constructing contingency dozer lines along the ridge tops far ahead of the fire, according to the report and fire mapping.

The Snow Mountain Wilderness is still proving difficult for personnel on the ground to traverse in order to implement a direct attack, officials said.

Email Elizabeth Larson at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.. Follow her on Twitter, @ERLarson, or Lake County News, @LakeCoNews.