Dinkey Collaborative Forest Landscape Restoration Project
At the nexus of an unprecedented drought event and heavy fuel loading resulting from insect-related tree mortality, resides the 154,000-acre Dinkey Landscape. Since its inception in 2010, the Dinkey Collaborative Forest Landscape Restoration Project (CFLRP) has been calculated in their response to climatic challenges and decades of historic fire suppression on the Sierra National Forest in California. As one of the first projects in the nation to be recognized as a CFLR, The Dinkey Collaborative has set the framework for successive projects.
The Dinkey Collaborative represents a diverse group of stakeholders, including Tribes, backcountry equestrians, off-road vehicle clubs, history associations, homeowner’s associations, forest products companies, public utilities, conservation associations, and universities. The Collaborative, working closely with Sierra National Forest over the last decade, has evolved from building partnerships to leveraging those relationships to accomplish expansive restoration goals through Good Neighbor Authority (GNA), grants, and agreements.
Through integrating Shared Stewardship practices, the Dinkey Collaborative has successfully leveraged their partnerships to complete landscape-scale restoration and wildfire resilience projects. Notably, the relationship between USDA Forest Service and CAL FIRE (The California State Department of Forestry and Fire Protection) has allowed for more strategic treatment on cross-boundary landscapes and has yielded greater community protection in wildland urban interfaces (WUI).
Beyond direct community impacts of addressing needs for fuels reduction, the Dinkey Collaborative has affected broader change in the project’s surrounding community. An estimated 500 workers have been brought to the Dinkey Landscape for tree-removal work, and 94 wood products jobs a year have been created during the Dinkey Collaborative tenure. The Terra Bella mill located just south of Porterville, CA will continue to support the growing local economy. Lastly, their “Hands on the Land” program invests in local youth demographics by hiring and training 144 high school students for forest-related positions.
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