Nevada County, U.S. Forest Service fund two Deer Creek fuels‑reduction projects to protect evacuation routes and watershed

Nevada County supervisors approved two wildfire fuels‑reduction actions on Sept. 23, accepting a U.S. Forest Service federal financial assistance award for a Nevada City and County fuels project and authorizing a contract with the Nevada County Resource Conservation District to implement a FEMA Hazard Mitigation Grant Program (HMGP) planning and implementation project for the Lower Deer Creek / Penn Valley area.

Both proposals were presented to the Board by Alex Gubel Toll, the county’s director of emergency services. Gubel Toll said the projects are drawn from the county’s Community Wildfire Protection Plan and prioritized because the Deer Creek watershed contains steep canyons, constrained evacuation routes and assets the county wants to protect. “Collaboration at the end of the day is really what is getting the job done,” he told supervisors.

Why it matters: the projects target landscape areas where fire behavior and topography combine to create heightened risk for communities and evacuation corridors. Commissioners and presenters emphasized that placing publicly funded treatments where they protect many households and critical egress routes produces broader community benefit than treatments limited to single parcels.

Project specifics and funding - Nevada City…