Tamarack Fire
The Tamarack Fire exploded July 16, 2022 and burned for 3 days across eastern Alpine County. Three homes were lost. The community continues to rebuild, planning and implementing restoration and reforestation projects across the landscape.
In June of 2022, Alpine County hosted a Community Meeting to outline the restoration activities related to the Tamarack Fire. All the partners associated with the restorations efforts were on hand to go over their projects and how they fit into the restoration landscape.
See the full public meeting and presentation here...
See a map of the restoration projects...
Tamarack Fire Restoration
To help the community to recovery from the Tamarack Fire, Alpine County has formed the Tamarack Emergency Fire Restoration Team (EFRT) with a grant from the USDA to; 1. coordinate restoration activities across the landscape regardless of jurisdiction and, 2. provide funding for private landowners to treat the landscape and replant or reforest barren ground.
Alpine County is currently accepting applications for this program. Fill out this application of interest to be contacted by the team. If you would like a hardcopy form, click here for a PDF version of the application.
The federal government, acting though the US Forest Service, awarded a restoration grant to Alpine County. This grant provides for the identification, assessment, design, implementation, and monitoring of wildfire restoration activities on State, County, and Private lands impacted by the Tamarack Fire.
The Tamarack fire impacted approximately 8,000 acres of private lands in Alpine County, some of which have already begun restoration activities. It is possible that restoration support can be provided to land already under restoration, however the first effort of Alpine County is to identify those landowners that are not otherwise enrolled in a state of federal program. Over the next several months the Tamarack Emergency Forest Restoration Team (Tamarack EFRT) will identify interested landowners and discuss appropriate restoration support for those properties, in the context of the landowners objectives and the overall landscape restoration process on surrounding public and private lands.
The Alpine County Board of Supervisors has selected a team of consultants to assist with the implementation of the program and has allocated funding to conduct program work through June 2025. It is the intent of Alpine County to sponsor the identification, design, regulatory permitting, and implementation of restoration activities on private lands impacted by the 2021 Tamarack Fire. Allowable activities under this grant funding include:
- Biomass Removal: (removal of burned trees or brush)
- Mulching/Mastication:
- Reseeding (live seedings – Trees):
- Replanting (grasses, forbs, shrubs):
- Erosion control/repair:
- Watercourse repair: