Published Aug 16, 2023, 07:15 am

Sonora, CA — The Tuolumne County Board of Supervisors voted to accept $3.7 million in unanticipated revenue coming from the federal Inflation Reduction Act for local forestry-related efforts.

The funding stems from the Master Stewardship Agreement Tuolumne County has with the Stanislaus National Forest and the Yosemite Stanislaus Solutions group.  The money will benefit the SERAL project that is focused on forest restoration efforts across 117,000 acres in the Stanislaus National Forest.

It includes 3,000 acres of fuel breaks being constructed, of which 2,300 acres are already completed, and the new money will help with the final phase.

District Three Supervisor Anaiah Kirk stated, “If you look at all of the work that all of the organizations in this community are doing, we are literally building a horseshoe around our community to keep a mega-fire from devastating us. It is incredible.”

District Two Supervisor Ryan Campbell praised all of the work taking place in the forest, noting, “We as a society have allowed our forest to get to a state that is not natural, that is not normal, and that is overloaded with fuels.  Because we as a society have created this situation, it is our responsibility to do something about it. That is exactly what you are seeing with these million-dollar grants that are related to specific areas and specific regions of our county, with specific types of treatment.”

District One Supervisor David Goldemberg concluded, “I just hope that at some point we’ll get the insurance industry to recognize everything that we are doing here in the county and lower the damn premiums.”

Multiple supervisors also noted that the grant comes ahead of a significant event, as this Thursday, August 17, is the 10-year anniversary of the Rim Fire.

Written by BJ Hansen.