{"id":219691,"date":"2026-03-14T16:08:16","date_gmt":"2026-03-14T16:08:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/219691\/"},"modified":"2026-03-14T16:08:16","modified_gmt":"2026-03-14T16:08:16","slug":"placer-county-approves-1-3m-french-meadows-forest-thinning","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/219691\/","title":{"rendered":"Placer County approves $1.3M French Meadows forest thinning"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Connor<\/p>\n

Connor Ellison and Jasper Hodgson climb a hill as they leave Oxbow Reservoir while cycling on French Meadows Road near Foresthill in 2012. Placer County officials recently approved $1.3 million in contracts for tree thinning work as part of the French Meadows Ecological Restoration Project, a fuel reduction effort aimed at reducing wildfire risk.<\/p>\n

Paul Kitagaki Jr.<\/p>\n

pkitagaki@sacbee.com<\/p>\n

Placer County officials say work to make local forests safer from wildfires is expanding, with millions of dollars in projects underway across the county.<\/p>\n

County leaders recently approved three contracts totaling $1.3 million for tree thinning work as part of the French Meadows Ecological Restoration Project<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Placer County created its Regional Forest Health Division<\/a> in 2021 to coordinate wildfire prevention work, and officials say the program has since secured more than $6.8 million in funding, with about $5 million in projects underway.<\/p>\n

One major effort is the French Meadows fuel reduction program, a partnership between the county and the U.S. Forest Service to remove dangerous wildfire fuel across a large area. The project covers 22,000 acres of national forest lands and 6,000 acres of private land.<\/p>\n

The contracts were awarded to three companies \u2014 AAA Tree Service LLC, Dowling Underground & Networking Inc. and McKellar Tree Service and Logging Inc. Crews are expected to begin work during the 2026 operating season.<\/p>\n

Officials said the $1.3 million French Meadows contracts will be paid for entirely through grants and existing funding, meaning officials said there would be no additional cost to the county\u2019s general fund.<\/p>\n

AAA Tree Service LLC\u2019s money is funded by $316,317 contract is funded by $316,317 from the Sierra Nevada Conservancy\u2019s Wildfire Recovery and Forest Resilience Grant Program; $36,583 from a separate SNC grant sub-awarded in 2019; and $162,618 from previously received timber revenue.<\/p>\n

Dowling Underground & Networking Inc\u2019s $495,000 contract is fully funded by the SNC\u2019s Wildfire Recovery and Forest Resilience Grant Program.<\/p>\n

McKellar Tree Service and Logging, Inc.\u2019s $324,900 is funded by the SNC\u2019s Wildfire Recovery and Forest Resilience Grant Program.<\/p>\n

Mechanical thinning removes smaller trees and brush so forests are less crowded. County officials said this helps slow the spread of wildfires and makes forests healthier.<\/p>\n

Multiple contractors were hired, county officials said, so work could happen in several areas at the same time.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe French Meadows project represents one of the most significant forest health efforts in Placer County\u2019s history,\u201d said Regional Forest Health Coordinator Kerri Timmer.<\/p>\n

Other fuel-reduction projects include work in Olympic Valley Park and Cabin Creek.<\/p>\n

Another key project is the Yankee Jim\u2019s Fuel and Habitat Mitigation Project<\/a> supporting bridge replacement work along Shirtail Creek.<\/p>\n

Related Stories from Sacramento Bee<\/p>\n


\n \"Profile
\n <\/a><\/p>\n

Nicole Buss<\/a><\/p>\n

The Sacramento Bee<\/p>\n

Nicole Buss is The Sacramento Bee\u2019s Roseville\/Placer County watchdog reporter. She previously covered Placer County at Gold Country Media. Buss grew up in Lincoln and is a graduate of Sierra College and Arizona State University.\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Connor Ellison and Jasper Hodgson climb a hill as they leave Oxbow Reservoir while cycling on French Meadows…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":219692,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[32],"tags":[100612,100615,100613,100611,121,123,122,100614],"class_list":["post-219691","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-sacramento","tag-french-meadows-ecological-restoration-project","tag-placer-county-forest-health","tag-placer-county-forest-thinning","tag-placer-county-wildfire-prevention","tag-sacramento","tag-sacramento-headlines","tag-sacramento-news","tag-sierra-nevada-wildfire-fuel-reduction"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/219691","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=219691"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/219691\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/219692"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=219691"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=219691"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=219691"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}