Page 136 - Mapping the Nation: Taking Climate Action

135 Wildfire Restoration: Mapping a Climate-Resilient Camp Fire Recovery Plan The Camp Fire, an enormous California wildfire in 2018, claimed 85 lives and consumed the entire town of Paradise. Ever since, experts have been devising ways to safeguard against another tragedy and rebuild the forest destroyed by the fire. Rather than simply replanting what was there, BLM set out to map a climate-informed restoration plan. "We want to plant it back better to withstand wildfire and future climate, so the community is not vulnerable like that again," said Coreen Francis, California and Nevada state forester BLM. During her more than 20-year forestry career, Francis has seen shifts in forest health from drought, insects, disease, and climate. The pace of change in the forests around Paradise, however, has forced everyone to reexamine their understanding and try to catch up. To create a smart restoration plan, she convened experts to combine their knowledge about the land and forest using GIS technology to build a sustainable plan. Several fires had burned across the same 153,336-acre Camp Fire burn area in less than a decade. Since then, more