The Eel River Recovery Project (ERRP) was awarded a CalFire forest health grant from the California Climate Investment fund in August 2023, and the current goal is to thin the forest on 881 acres and to carry out prescribed fire on 821 acres in the Tenmile Creek watershed near Laytonville. Environmental studies to comply with the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA) and the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) took a year for completion, but progress has been rapid since. Through August 2025, 561 acres had been thinned and 177 acres burned, so we are on track to complete the project well ahead of its scheduled end date of March 2028.

ERRP contracts with Elk Ridge Tree Service and Hybrid Indigenous Stewardship (HIS) for the thinning work and their crews are comprised of mostly local workers who are being trained as ecological technicians. While forest thinning to reduce catastrophic fire risk and to sequester carbon are primary goals, ERRP is shooting higher and hoping to fully restore ecosystem health. We protect and avoid any sensitive plant species while thinning and expect that as we reintroduce fire that many native species will thrive, including ones that are culturally important to Native Americans. Crews are well trained to avoid wildlife impacts, with constant surveys by biologist Kyle Keegan in advance of work. Sometimes crews find sensitive species missed in the biologist’s field survey and are then instructed about the area to avoid and for what duration.

ERRP contractor Steve Brown at center with HIS crew (L to R) Isiah Lucas, Carolyn Lucas, Monroe Lucas, Tom Campbell, Jodi Lucas and Rachael Campbell at Cahto Creek Ranch meadow. 5/28/24. Photo by Pat Higgins.

HIS completed thinning on the Cahto Tribe Rancheria in May and is currently working on the Triple Creek Ranch on the east side of the watershed. They will finish up on parcels along the Cahto Trail and on the Cahto Creek Ranch in the next few months. The area to be thinned on the Cahto Creek Ranch surrounds a meadow where ERRP obtained permits for gully erosion control and meadow restoration, and there is a synergy between the projects. Wood and branches from HIS thinning will be used to create check dams to heal the gullies and raise the water table in the meadow. Conifers and Manzanita that are competing with oaks will be thinned and material removed will be piled at the edge of grasslands where areas burned will provide ideal habitat for native grass restoration. ERRP has access to thousands of acres of grassland and is exploring alternative sources for restoration funding. A Native Grass Sub-Committee has formed to collaborate on restoration at the Tenmile Creek watershed scale.

Elk Ridge Crews have completed thinning work on the Vassar property in the northern Tenmile Creek watershed, with 250 acres prepped for burning in the fall. One of the crown jewels of the project is Lower Tenmile Creek, where 160 acres has been treated by Elk Ridge. Some of these parcels abut the BLM Cahto Peak Wilderness and the Angelo Reserve, so as forest health is improved animals from the reserves will colonize and improve biodiversity. Also, ERRP has data that suggests that thinning in the Peterson Creek watershed, that is within the Lower Tenmile project area, will enhance its flow, which is important because the creek is a cold-water refuge for steelhead trout rearing.

*Vassar property off Hargas Road with oaks and hardwoods released by thinning, with lopped and scattered limbs and branches set up for a broadcast burn in the fall. 10/23/24. Photo by Pat Higgins.*

Thirty-six acres of the Gravier property near Laytonville was thinned by Elk Ridge, largely to release beautiful old growth oaks by removing competing conifers and vegetation. We expect that by allowing the oaks to thrive that they will increase acorn output that helps promote biodiversity. Another area of work is the West Tenmile project unit that is off Tenmile Creek Road, where ERRP is serving 10 clients with thinning planned on 111 acres, including a Laytonville Unified School District (LUSD). ERRP is only using mechanical thinning on a limited number of acres, one of which was the LUSD parcel, where Edwards Excavation and Restoration did a beautiful job. The parcel that will become a forest health education site involving students from Laytonville Elementary and High Schools in monitoring and restoration.

Left: Laytonville Unified School District parcel before. 10/16/24.
Right: Laytonville Unified School District parcel after. 11/22/25.

While many forest health projects only thin the forest and do not follow up with prescribed fire, ERRP plans to carry out controlled burns on almost all the acres we are treating. This follows the guidance of the project Burn Boss Scot Steinbring of Torchbearr, who points out that studies after recent catastrophic fires show that areas thinned and not burned may be more susceptible to stand replacing fire than un-treated areas. Scot and the ERRP team recruited volunteers from the Mendocino County Prescribed Burn Association to assist with fires last season. He also won North Coast Resource Partnership funding to support fire trainees from Mendocino County Tribes. Up to May 2025, Torchbearr had burned a total of 177 acres, and expects to do at least twice that amount that during the upcoming burning season, from October 2025 through May 2026. For information on how to volunteer to help with burns, call or text ERRP Outreach Coordinator Erin Neuroth at 707 272-0832.

Prescribed fire team at first ERRP broadcast burn on Brown property in Lower Tenmile project area with volunteers on the right holding the fire line and ignition crew on the left. 10/7/24. Photo by Alicia Bales.

The Tenmile Creek Forest Health Project is part of California Climate Investments, a statewide initiative that puts billions of Cap-and-Trade dollars to work reducing greenhouse gas emissions, strengthening the economy, and improving public health and the environment — particularly in disadvantaged communities. Three dozen workers from Laytonvillle and the hills nearby have gainful employment as forest health workers under the CCI and their work is superb. See https://www.caclimateinvestments.ca.gov/. For more information about the ERRP Tenmile Creek CCI, you can also call Pat Higgins at 707 223-7200.