Small Forest Landowner Assistance Program (SFLAP)
Butte RCD is excited to introduce the Small Forest Landowner Assistance Program (SFLAP). This program provides low-cost or no-cost treatments toward fire recovery and resilience for small, non-industrial, private landowners, most of whom would not qualify to have these acres treated in any other program. The treatments can include tree and brush thinning, re-planting, pruning, fuels reduction, large hazard tree removal, or whatever other services will make the greatest improvement in landowner and community safety.
Each landowner will be eligible for no-cost work on 1 to 10 acres that best contribute to wildfire safety and resilience on their property. There is no cap to property size, however, properties smaller than 250 acres will be prioritized. In 2023, we helped 15 landowners in Berry Creek. For the 2024 season, this program is serving 20 landowners (3 in Berry Creek, 17 in Feather Falls) and will treat about 170 acres. All properties are within the North Complex (Bear Fire) footprint. SFLAP provides landowners with a forest management plan prepared by a Registered Professional Forester. Next, we provide landowners with a field botany survey and a unique archaeological survey performed by a professional archaeologist plus a team of cultural resource experts from the local Tribe. This allows BCRCD to complete environmental compliance (also known as CEQA) so we can get to work using State funds to help improve fire-resilience and ecological health on local properties. During 2022-24, BCRCD also selected qualified contractors and funded 100% of the cost of implementing the selected treatments.
To qualify for SFLAP, you must communiciate your intrest in having an active role in your land management and the long-term maintanence of provided services. We cannot fund all who apply. Landowners who are low income and/or who live on their property will be prioritized for selection. Check back later to see if we can offer SFLAP in a new community in 2025.
Who Can Apply? You can, if you meet the following criteria:
- Your property must be within the focus area for that year (2025's is TBD).
- You are a non-industrial, private landowner.
- You are the landowner or someone (land manager, forester) who has the written approval of the landowner to apply. Properties held in a Trust and LLCs are also eligible applicants.
- You are willing to enter into an agreement with Butte County RCD and allow for work to be completed on your land.
- Your property is or was forested containing any of the following vegetation types: oak woodland, mixed evergreen, ponderosa pine.
What kind of work will this program support?
No commercial value wood product can be removed through this program. The project area must be at least one acre in size.
Projects under SFLAP must include one or more of the following activities:
- Preparation of a Forest Management Plan by a Registered Professional Forester (RPF)
- Reforestation activities, such as
- Site preparation
- Tree or native plant planting
- Tree shelters
- Fuels reduction and forest stand improvement activities, such as
- Hazard tree removal
- Dead and dying fuels treatment
- Shaded fuel breaks
- Oak woodland improvement
- Brush removal
- Thinning/“release” treatments
- Pruning (limbing-up)
- Follow-up fuel hazard reduction activities, such as mastication/chipping or pile-burning.
Click here to read more about SFLAP Treatment Options.
A Good Fit
The following qualities are not required, but they make you an especially good fit for SFLAP:
- You’re committed to the sustainable management of your forestland
- You’ve cooperated with your neighboring landowners to enroll adjacent properties in the program
- You are low-income and/or you would not be able to treat your forestland without the financial support of this program
- You’ve developed a forest management plan or other guiding document with a forester and you’ve already identified management units and planned treatments.
- Your land already has some resource surveys (like archaeological surveys or even full CEQA coverage) from previous management
Acknowledgement
If selected, to participate in the program you must enter into an agreement with the BCRCD to allow biological and cultural surveys to be conducted on your property. Additionally, we require selected applicants to transfer the ownership of their dead and/or dying trees to the Licensed Timber Operator (LTO) that is awarded the project contract. By doing this, the RCD will ensure that the proper permits are submitted to government agencies for tree removal work on each property. Plus, the LTO will use revenue generated from the sale of saw logs to subsidize tree removal and slash cleanup work on the property.
Selection Scoring Method
To view how the applications were ranked, please see our scoring system:
Selection Sheet - Selection Criteria.pdfHow to Apply
The Program is not currently accepting applications. Please check back for future rounds.
For more information please visit the Butte County RCD webpage or contact us at forestry@bcrcd.org or at (530) 693-3173
This program has been funded by the USDA Forest Service (USFS) 2021 Post-Fire Disaster Recovery Grant via the California Association of Resource Conservation Districts and by a Regional Fire and Forests Capacity Program subgrant from the Sierra Nevada Conservancy.