GNA Spotlight - USDA Forest Service Region 5, July 2021

Good Neighbor Authority Spotlight

Authored by Jason Ko 

Initiated in 2016, the Acorn and Shaver Springs Good Neighbor Authority (GNA) project was one of the first GNA agreements implemented in California.

Since inception, the project has implemented approximately 563 of the planned 1,000 acres of fuels reduction and forest health tree mortality work on the High Sierra District of the Sierra National Forest and adjacent private lands in collaboration with CAL FIRE. The GNA agreement allowed CAL FIRE crews to perform tree felling, limbing, and mechanical and hand piling work on USDA Forest Service (Forest Service) lands, and was complemented by a Participating Agreement that allowed for Forest Service crews to work on adjacent private/state lands in the same manner. Each agency was able to utilize relative strengths to accomplish the work more efficiently and effectively.

Significantly, parts of this fuel break and forest health initiative was recently used to help protect the community of Big Sandy Rancheria threatened by the 2020 Creek Fire.

For more information about this project, contact Daniel Tune.