Campus News
UC Santa Cruz awarded forest health grant to advance regional wildfire resilience
The grant will support large-scale vegetation management to reduce wildfire risk, improve forest health, and promote restoration of sensitive habitats
(Photo by Nick Gonzales/UC Santa Cruz)
UC Santa Cruz has been awarded $972,000 as part of a $7 million Forest Health Grant awarded to the Santa Cruz County Resource Conservation District (RCD) by CAL FIRE. The grant will support large-scale vegetation management to reduce wildfire risk, improve forest health, and promote restoration of sensitive habitats on campus and nearby lands managed by regional partners.
The treatments proposed in the grant were guided by the work completed by the University’s Wildfire Vegetation Management Technical Working Group. The specific treatment areas in the grant were proposed by Erika Carpenter, Principal Environmental Planner and Alex Jones, Campus Natural Reserve manager, and others as part of a broader regional effort to improve landscape health across jurisdictional boundaries. The coordinated grant includes work on neighboring lands, including Pogonip, maximizing regional impact.
The campus-wide Wildfire Vegetation Management Plan, which is scheduled for approval by the winter quarter 2026, would optimize strategic vegetation treatments and enhance ecosystems across the campus landscape, promoting resilience against wildfires and the overall effects of climate change. The plan evaluates fire risk and recommends stewardship actions in a manner that aligns with campus values of biodiversity, resiliency, sustainability, unique campus integrity, and the overall academic mission.
“The momentum to coordinate land management efforts regionally has been building, and our location above the westside of Santa Cruz makes us an ideal partner,” Jones said. “The CZU Lightning Complex fire in 2020 came within a mile of campus and was a big wake-up call. We hope these initial treatments will set the stage for using low-intensity, good fire for maintenance, returning nutrients to the system, and promoting biodiversity into the future.”
Compliance with the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA) will be through a California Vegetation Treatment Program (Cal VTP) Project Specific Analysis (PSA) Environmental Impact Report (EIR) Addendum, which includes standard project requirements and mitigation measures that are required as vegetation treatments are implemented on campus. Mechanical treatments will reduce fuel connectivity across 104 acres, including removing ladder fuels that let fire climb into the treetops. In another 65 acres of sensitive areas, vegetation will be thinned by hand, as crews work to restore hardwood stands and rare shrublands and coastal prairie grasslands subject to conifer encroachment. These steps intend to slow the spread of wildfire, protect wildlife habitat, and keep the forest healthy. They can also help bring back native vegetation that grows beneath the trees, which adds biodiversity, holds the soil in place, and adds to the resiliency of the ecosystem.
The university’s 2021 Long Range Development Plan’s EIR identified the need to manage the campus’s vegetation to reduce the risk of catastrophic wildfire. The work enabled by the Forest Health Grant allows UC Santa Cruz to follow through on this commitment to protect its infrastructure and community.
“This work not only reduces wildfire risk and improves ecosystem health, but also lays the groundwork for future restoration and resilience projects across our region,” said Carpenter.
The grant is one of 12 awarded through CAL FIRE’s Forest Health Program, which distributed nearly $72 million statewide this year. Funded projects address critical forest health needs across landscapes larger than 800 acres, with priority given to multi-jurisdictional and multi-partner collaborations. The program is part of California Climate Investments, which channels cap-and-trade funds into projects that advance climate goals, protect vulnerable communities, and support local economies.
As UC Santa Cruz advances its Wildland Vegetation Management Plan, the work funded by this grant will further protect the campus and surrounding lands in the years ahead.