Companies increasingly seek to identify and support scalable, collective-impact water stewardship projects that will catalyze large-scale water supply and resilience outcomes with statewide benefit. Blue Forest, World Resources Institute, and BEF have identified this project as a unique opportunity to deliver sought-after benefits to companies while scaling a prioritized water stewardship need across the state.

Forested headwaters in California provide critical source water (more than ~60%) that serves as an economic driver for the entire state. However, California’s forests (and associated water supply) remain at risk from catastrophic fire. Any large-scale solution to California water issues must catalyze and scale up efforts to maintain long-term, predictable water supply from Sierra Nevada headwaters. To accomplish this, this project delivers a transformational strategy that:

• Increases stream flows to benefit rivers, hydro-electric production and water supply in key water source areas (Sacramento River basin)
• Applies innovative financing to leverage significant public and private sector funds to expand impact and bolster climate resilience
• Scales up forest management and fuels treatments to directly increase water yield, improve forest health, and reduce fire risk across key California source watersheds
• Provides a pathway for multiple companies to demonstrate collective impact with water supply, carbon, energy benefits
• Applies satellite-based monitoring to track progress
• Improves tree/forest survival and habitat in the face of increasingly arid conditions
• Delivers volumetric benefits for corporate sustainability reporting

This project will treat and protect 35,000+ acres of critical source water areas to reduce wildfire risk, enhance water delivery and supply, and promote ecosystem health.