Le Colline Forest Restoration Plan – 5/2/2025

Peter Lecourt, M.S. – North Bay Forestry

Current Forest Conditions

The wildlands of the 88 acre Le Colline property are extremely overgrown and dense due to the past century of wildfire suppression. A CAL FIRE dataset showing fire history dating back to 1878 shows no recent fire history on the land. The lack of thinning from natural, periodic, low intensity wildfire, resulting in current conditions of unnaturally high vegetation densities, has created an overabundance of competition for water, nutrient, and light resources for plants, and has also restricted wildlife movement through the land. Current conditions are ripe for significant vegetation mortality and catastrophic wildfire throughout the property, but particularly in the NW corner behind the homes adjacent to Bishop Place and Winding Way, and along the eastern property border. Further, the "snowmageddon" event of 2023 damaged a significant amount of vegetation on Le Colline, resulting in a tangled mess of downed dead trees and branches throughout the property, adding to the high fire threat and restriction of wildlife movement on this overly dense land. In short, Le Colline is currently a very unbalanced forest that is prone to tree mortality from numerous factors, and the land is dangerously ripe for catastrophic wildfire.

Desired Forest Conditions

The goal of this forest restoration plan is to create vegetation densities and compositions that decrease the competition for limited resources for plants, reduce the risk of disease and insect infestations, increase natural wildlife grazing to control understory growth, and reduce the risk of a catastrophic wildfire event. All this will result in a more natural, healthier forest that will be more wildfire resilient, yield a better groundwater supply, and restore a fully functioning wildlife friendly landscape.

Le Colline Forest Restoration Plan