A Ten-Year Plan for Marin's Forests: The One Tam Regional Forest Health Strategy

Forests and woodlands cover more than a third of Marin County, California. They matter culturally, and they provide clean air, drinking water, places for recreation and habitat for a wide range of species. They also face threats: climate change, the absence of beneficial fire, invasive plants and disease — and increasingly unpredictable fire seasons have made the need for healthy, resilient forests plain.

Who made the plan

The One Tam partners — Marin County Parks, Marin Water, California State Parks, the National Park Service and the Golden Gate National Parks Conservancy — published the Marin Regional Forest Health Strategy in 2023, as a new model for caring for forests together at a scale that matters. They worked with the Federated Indians of Graton Rancheria, fire agencies, scientists and consultants to assess the forests' condition, the threats to them, and where joint action should come first.

What it does

• Describes the current condition of Marin's key forest communities, and how to deal with the threats they face.
• Pinpoints — using the best available data, local knowledge and expert analysis — how and where agencies can make a difference, alone and across jurisdictional lines.
• Sets a baseline for measuring future change, with important new datasets and methods to build on.
• Lays out a ten-year path of projects and programs to protect and improve forest health and resilience in Marin, including a set of projects ready to carry out.

How it was paid for

The strategy is a Regional Priority Plan, funded by a grant from the California State Coastal Conservancy through the Department of Conservation's Regional Forest and Fire Capacity Program, in support of California's Wildfire and Forest Resilience Action Plan. That program draws on California Climate Investments, which puts billions of dollars from the state's cap-and-trade program toward cutting greenhouse gas emissions, strengthening the economy and improving public health and the environment, especially in disadvantaged communities.

The strategy, and two data tools behind it, are available from One Tam.

Sources

Based on "One Tam Partners Release 10-year Forest Health Strategy for Marin," by Michela Gentile and Danny Franco of the Golden Gate National Parks Conservancy, November 2023, from the Bay Area Nature and Science Blog, National Park Service. Photographs credited to the Golden Gate National Parks Conservancy, and an image of the report's cover, are left out; rewritten in hubnx's own words.