Making a Collective Impact for Stewardship Outcomes in Butte County

Members of the Butte County Collaborative Group observe fuels reduction projects at Maple Creek Ranch in April 2024.

The Northern California Regional Land Trust participates in collaborative partnerships that improve our communities’ stewardship and conservation outcomes. The Butte County Collaborative Group (BCCG) is a multi-stakeholder coalition of 50+ entities coordinating many efforts, including reducing risks of catastrophic wildfire in Butte County.  

CalFire is leading the update to Butte County’s Community Wildfire Preparedness Plan (CWPP), with considerable input and review by all members of the BCCG. Butte County residents are asked to please review and comment on the draft CWPP!  

When wildfire does roar through acreage and communities, BCCG prioritizes recovery and restoration that minimizes impacts to critical watersheds and natural resources, while investing effort towards wildfire prevention, through planning, fuel reduction, and funding. 

After fires in the early 2000’s, the Sacramento River Watershed Program initiated planning at scale to address fuels management at the landscape level. This initiative launched coalitions of federal, state, and local agencies, non-governmental groups, environmental organizations, and private industries. These coalitions created planning tools to evaluate and prioritize and to plan fuels reduction strategies within Butte County.  

Coalition meetings and development of the Planning Tool continued for years while wildfires devastated Butte County. The Camp Fire and subsequent fires, including the North Complex fire, stifled momentum and energy. In the works since 2013, the Covid-19 pandemic slowed productivity on the Community Wildfire Preparedness Plan (CWPP).  

The Planning Tool is now captured as the ArcGIS database at the heart of the BCCG website, and its interactive maps show fire recovery and fuel reduction projects, as well as other pertinent layers, representing years of collaboration.  

We joined the BCCG to collaborate for effective management of Deer Creek Preserve, which, despite being located in Tehama County, is part of Butte County’s “fire-shed.” Our participation became more critical recently, with over 30% of our conservation easement acreage, exceeding 12,000 acres, affected by 2024’s Thompson Fire and Park Fire. We work with partner landowners on stewardship to minimize the risk of post-fire erosion and potential sedimentation before the rains begin.

Fire will keep coming to our region, as fire is a part of our planet's natural cycles.  

We need your input on this new Community Wildfire Preparedness Plan (CWPP) to finish this update that has been in the works for over ten years. The plan includes management objectives such as prescribed burning, thinning forests, and empowering our Tribal partners to assist in watershed-level land management. We value your input!