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County to partner with Whitebark Institute on prioritized riparian projects needing CEQA exemptions
Summary
County wildfire staff said Whitebark Institute will lead initial riparian projects, including Lone Pine and Birch Creek areas, using governor's CEQA exemptions; county will later propose additional projects to the board.
Kristen Feiler, the county's wildfire coordinator, told the Board of Supervisors on Aug. 5 that the Eastside Riparian Working Group has identified riparian projects that may qualify for CEQA governor's exemptions and that the county is partnering with Whitebark Institute to implement initial projects in Lone Pine and Birch Creek.
Feiler said Whitebark has implementation capacity and existing project work, and the county invited Whitebark to submit a statement of interest and the full proposal. "We did get invited they got invited back to submit the full proposal, which is due at the August," Feiler said, explaining why the county will leverage Whitebark capacity for early projects.
She described the riparian work as requiring extra CEQA and permitting steps and said the county is assembling projects for each community and must complete project submissions before December to use the governor's environmental-protection plan pathways. "Going forward, the next steps are we have each community kind of has to submit their own project for this environmental protection plan approval... we have to do that before December this year," Feiler said.
Feiler told supervisors the county will return with proposed county-led projects for board consideration; the Lone Pine and Birch Creek proposals will proceed with Whitebark as the initial implementer.
