LAKE ARROWHEAD – (INT) – Calfire is awarding multi-million dollar grants to local groups that will help reduce greenhouse gas emissions and sequester carbon.

Among the recipients is the Arrowhead Ridge Protection Project. Its goal is to permanently secure a 78-acre site containing a prime healthy forest stand in a conservation easement.

The land is already subdivided for a high-density housing tract, and the former owner/developer continues to make buy-back offers. Foresters recognize the site as the best example of a Sierra-type montane forest in the San Bernardino Mountains.

The site was public land until 1988 when the US Forest Service traded it away. In 2007, large earth moving machines began construction on the site, removing trees, paving roads and building concrete embankments. The site was rescued by the San Bernardino Mountains Land Trust in 2011.

The million dollar grant will enable the purchase of conservation easements protecting the land from being used in ways that would increase greenhouse gas emissions – such as urban or agricultural development – and harness the ability of trees to “sink” or sequester carbon from the atmosphere.

Story Date: August 23, 2017