Coast Ridge Community Forest

In 2023 CRCF continued work on the Cal Fire grant-funded Fuels Reduction Project: Clearing the Way for Safe Evacuation Phase II. By 2026 this project will remove hazardous roadside fuels up to 100 feet on either side of the road, along 6.4 miles of rural access roads connecting to Fort Ross Road in Cazadero, the main evacuation route for hundreds of residents, in addition to .7 miles of rural access roads on Muniz Ranches, supporting mulitple rural communities in the coastal hills of Sonoma County. The project also funded three community workshops on forest health including: Tree Health, Thinning Your Trees, and Safe Pile Burning. The workshops were attended by 20-30 community members who gained important knowledge and hands on experience in land management and wildfire resliance. The project's expenses for 2023 were $78,616.25, with work focused on project and permit planning and landowner and community outreach. CRCF also completed additional work on the grant-funded Fort Ross Road Fuels Reduction Project: Phase I, this included removing hazardous roadside fuels along the lower portion of Fort Ross Road in Cazadero, not completed in 2022. The project's additonal expenses for 2023 were $952.30. In 2023 CRCF continued a Community Chipper Project, initiated by the grant-funded purchase of a commercial chipper. The Project was additionally funded in 2023 by $1577 in community-donated funds, which covered fuel, oil, maintenance, insurance, operation, and safety equipment purchases.