The Watershed Center’s Cannabis Restoration Initiative, which has operated for just two years, has completed a truly staggering amount of work in that timeframe.

The Cannabis Restoration team has hosted multiple clean up days in Post Mountain/Trinity Pines. These volunteer events were augmented by work with contractors we paid to haul away large items, like abandoned cars, RVs, and travel trailers. To date, these efforts have removed a whopping 33 TONS of refuse (66,000 pounds) from public lands in the area.

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“Watch the cones,” Randi Paris, Forestry and Fuels Program Director, instructed her leads. “We need to gather them before they open.” In late August, the sugar pinecones, dangling from the tips of the branches like ornaments decorating the forest, were just right to harvest.  

The Forestry crew, along with partners Mountain Tree Care, LLC from Medford, OR scaled the trees with climbing ropes and shook the cones loose from their branches. All told, 550 burlap sacks were filled with cones, placed in a large warehouse owned by the Evans brothers in Hayfork, and meticulously turned over twice per day by both the Botany and Forestry crews to ensure the cones dried evenly.

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We’re happy to report that our snorkel surveys in South Fork Trinity River and Hayfork Creek have been safe and successful.

These aquatic efforts--which have been ongoing for 15 years--are made possible with extensive partnership, particularly with the Trinity County Resource Conservation District, Bureau of Reclamation, California Department of Fish and Wildlife, Hoopa Tribe, U.S. Department of Fish and Wildlife, U.S. Forest Service, the Yurok Tribe, numerous volunteers, and the landowners who grant us permission to access the waterways from their property. The fish population data we collect help guide our restoration techniques and inspire future projects.

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The Watershed Center, founded in 1993 to retrain displaced loggers and mill workers, envisioned fuels management as an important employment opportunity within Trinity County’s forests. Who better to wield chainsaws in the woods in an expert manner than former loggers? Thus, the Fuels Program was an early and core component of the organization.

The work is physically demanding, requiring safe chainsaw use in rugged terrain and variable weather conditions. In the summer, Fuels Crew members meet at 5:00 AM to maximize work performed during the cool morning hours.

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This season proved another successful year for the Hayfork and Weaverville Youth Conservation Crews at the Watershed Research and Training Center! The Hayfork YCC tended the trails of the Yolla-Bolly Wilderness and logged out the South Fork River Trail. The Weaverville YCC brushed Stoddard Lake Trail and started building the LaGrange extension. In addition to completing key trail maintenance, both WRTC youth crews learned about many disciplines this season and gained valuable skills such as First Aid and CPR, and knowledge regarding benthic macroinvertebrates and watershed health, western pond turtle surveys, vernal pool and wet meadow protections, botanical and soil preservation, prescribed fire use, noxious weed management, and reforestation techniques.

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On June 11th, 12th, and 13th 2024, the Watershed Center led prescribed burns in the Hayfork Valley in an effort to reduce yellow starthistle (Centaurea solstitialis, YST) populations. The Trinity Integrated Fire Management Partnership came together to implement these burns, and partners included Hayfork and Hyampom Volunteer Fire Departments, Natural Resource Conservation District, Trinity Resource Conservation District, CAL FIRE, and multiple community volunteers, as well as outside partners from Big Chico Creek Ecological Reserve, Butte County Resource Conservation District / Butte Prescribed Burn Association, and Oregon State University Extension Service.

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The Watershed Center Botany and Forestry Crews are hard at work this year, dividing and conquering to cover more ground, detect invasive plants, and replant native conifers. The Botany Crew is utilizing “Early Detection Rapid Response” protocols in the McFarland, Monument, River, Salt, and Lava fire footprints to head off invasive species before they begin to spread. The Forestry Crew has been, and will continue to, replant the August Complex fire scars in Six Rivers National Forest with native conifer species.

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By all accounts, the 2024 Northern California Singletrack Summit was a great success! The Watershed Center hosted 73 participants from 20 organizations and led a Dry-Stack Masonry Workshop, held a Taps for Trails fundraiser, facilitated presentations from nine organizations, and led downhill and cross-country bike rides. A great deal of fun and learning occurred and hopes are high that economic development in the region will flourish.

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The Watershed Research and Training Center (WRTC) has recently been awarded nearly $7 million by the CAL FIRE Forest Health program to implement the Southern Trinity Fire Resilience Project (Project).

The Project is designed to restore forest health, protect watersheds and communities, promote long-term storage of carbon in trees and forest soil, and minimize the loss of forest carbon by increasing forest wildfire resilience. The Project builds on over a decade of work and seeks to increase the geographic scope, pace, scale, and overall impact of WRTC’s forest management and fuel reduction efforts throughout Trinity County.

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Jackie Perry, Wildlife Program Manager, sat with me for an interview about her work surveying for spotted owls and other raptors in the forested mountains of Trinity County. Having started her career at the Watershed Center in 2019, she has witnessed the program grow from four people to fourteen technicians slated to begin their 2024 season this spring.

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