Some newsletter readers will remember that roughly a decade ago, CSERC joined with a wide diversity of other local interests to start a collaborative organization that became known as the Yosemite Stanislaus Solutions (YSS) stakeholder group. Working to find areas of consensus agreement, the timber industry, sportsmen, business interests, local environmental groups, and a diversity of state and local political representatives began working together to find ways to get extra dollars for needed projects in the Stanislaus National Forest.
Last year a new Forest Service agreement process was unveiled, and Tuolumne County officials stepped forward to partner with YSS to develop a Master Stewardship Agreement. The MSA enables the County and YSS to apply for grants and to be involved in directing where actual projects will take place on the local national forest if grant dollars are awarded.
In January, Tuolumne County and YSS joined with local tribal representatives and Fire Safe Council leaders to submit roughly $10,000,000 in proposed projects for state funding. Most of the thinning logging, prescribed burning, and fuel treatment work would be done on Stanislaus Forest lands, but funding would also result in fuel breaks and fire resiliency projects on tribal and private lands.
While consensus-based collaborative processes can often be a challenging dance of give and take, over the years the YSS group has consistently held to areas of common agreement rather than polarizing projects that could divide participants. How YSS moves forward in its expanding role of partnering with Tuolumne County with MSA project planning may be a test of whether millions of dollars in grant awards can bring interests together or potentially create new challenges for stakeholder partnerships.
