Tomales Bay State Park Forest Health and Wildfire Resilience Project
Tomales Bay State Park Forest Health and Wildfire Resilience
In November 2022, California State Parks initiated the compliance and permitting process for the Tomales Bay State Park Forest Health and Wildfire Resilience Project. The goals of this effort are to preserve and steward the park’s Bishop pine and mixed hardwood forests, improve resilience of the forested and other habitat areas of the park for ecological benefit and to reduce wildfire risk, and to reestablish tribal priorities for vegetation management in the park. A virtual community meeting for the project was held on December 14, 2022. A recording of the meeting can be viewed here: Tomales Bay State Park Forest Health and Wildfire Resilience Project – Virtual Community Meeting - YouTube
A 2019 Tomales Bay State Park Forest Inventory documented the need for this project by recording high levels of tree disease and mortality in declining populations of bishop pine, tan oak and coast live oak. The report demonstrated that absent some natural or human intervention, there is insufficient natural regeneration to sustain the bishop pine and hardwood forests. This document is available on the Inverness Association website at this link: Microsoft Word - Tomales Bay State Park Forest Inventory101719.docx (squarespace.com)
Additional project documents (draft project description and draft treatment prescriptions) are currently available by request. To request those documents, please e-mail Bree Hardcastle at Bree.Hardcastle@parks.ca.gov or Cyndy Shafer at Cyndy.Shafer@parks.ca.gov. We are working to remediate these documents to provide increased transparency and meet the digital needs of Californians with disabilities. Thank you for your patience as the California Department of Parks and Recreation continues to work to ensure accessibility of our website content.
2/23/23 Update:
As part of the planning and compliance process for this project, California State Parks is preparing a combined California Vegetation Treatment Program (CalVTP) Project-Specific Analysis (PSA) and Coastal Vegetation Treatment Standards (Coastal VTS) to provide California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA) and California Coastal Act compliance for the proposed Tomales Bay State Park Forest Health and Wildfire Resilience Project. A Public Works Plan (PWP) containing the Coastal VTS is also being prepared for certification by the California Coastal Commission.
The proposed Tomales Bay Forest Health and Wildfire Resilience Project information has been posted on the Online Viewer for Proposed Projects Under the CalVTP. Proposed projects are publicly posted as part of the CalVTP Project Specific Analysis process early in the planning process. For questions about the project planning and compliance process, including opportunities for public input, please e-mail Bree Hardcastle at Bree.Hardcastle@parks.ca.gov or Cyndy Shafer at Cyndy.Shafer@parks.ca.gov.