Los Gatos Creek Watershed Collaboration
Forest Health Grant
Restoring resilient forests to protect water, store carbon, and defend communities from wildfire.
Forest Health Grants
CAL FIRE’s Forest Health Grant Program supports regionally based partners and collaborations working to restore and protect California’s forests. Through this program, CAL FIRE aims to expand fuels management, reintroduce beneficial fire, restore degraded areas, and conserve forestlands for future generations. The Los Gatos Creek Watershed Collaboration is an ongoing partnership between the Santa Clara County FireSafe Council, San Jose Water Company, Midpeninsula Regional Open Space District, Santa Clara County Parks, Lupin Lodge, Aldercroft Heights, and Nestledown Ranch.
The Santa Clara County FireSafe Council has been awarded two Forest Health Grants, known as the First Collaboration and the Second Collaboration.
- The First Collaboration grant provided $7.5 million to treat 992.4 acres, launched on August 29, 2021, and concluded March 31, 2025.
- The Second Collaboration grant provides $6.9 million to treat 910.3 acres, launched on September 24, 2023, and concluding September 30, 2027.
Forest Health Grant Goals
This collaborative, landscape-level effort connects treatment areas into an interwoven mosaic across the region. Through ecologically sensitive treatments, the project aims to:
- Establish healthy, resilient, fire-adapted ecosystems that protect and conserve natural resources
- Safeguard upper watersheds that supply vital regional water resources
- Store carbon and reduce the severity of catastrophic wildfires, strengthening protection for both communities and forest ecosystems
Vegetation Types and Treatments
The Forest Health Grant projects use a mix of mechanical and hand treatments to restore forest health and reduce wildfire risk.
Equipment Used:
- Excavators with masticating heads or remote control masticators operated by Burn Bot
- CAT 299 skid steers with masticating or disk mulching heads
- Tracked chippers capable of handling trees up to 16 inches in diameter
- Chainsaws
Photo credits Stephen Harrington
General Treatment Approach:
Treatment activities include mechanical mastication, chipping, and handwork with chainsaws to manage:
- Understory vegetation
- Select live trees less than 8 inches in diameter at breast height (DBH)
- Dead, dying, and diseased trees up to 12 inches DBH
Vegetation, brush, and shrubs beneath tree canopies are cut while leaving root systems intact to promote natural regrowth. Residual trees and understory vegetation are carefully protected from damage.
Crews also use chainsaws and hand tools to thin ladder fuels, clear access for equipment, and reduce oversized downed material to ground level.
Treatments are designed to create a mosaic of retained understory, supporting wildlife habitat while improving forest resilience and fire safety.
Before and after photos of treatment in First Collaboration. Photo credits Dave Manson.
Below are drone before-and-after photos and a video of a project site.
Before photo on Midpeninsula Regional Open Space District. Photo Credit: Jackson Drones
After photo on Midpeninsula Regional Open Space District. Photo Credit: Jackson Drones
Video of Midpeninsula Regional Open Space District. Video Credit: Burn Bot
The Los Gatos Creek Watershed Collaborative Forest Health Grant is a collaboration between these public and private entities and is a part of California Climate Investments, a statewide initiative that puts billions of Cap-and-Trade dollars to work reducing greenhouse gas emissions, strengthening the economy, and improving public health and the environment, particularly in disadvantaged communities. The Cap-and-Trade program also creates a financial incentive for industries to invest in clean technologies and develop innovative ways to reduce pollution.
California Climate Investments projects include affordable housing, renewable energy, public transportation, zero-emission vehicles, environmental restoration, more sustainable agriculture, recycling, and much more. At least 35 percent of these investments are located within and benefiting residents of disadvantaged communities, low-income communities, and low-income households across California. For more information, visit the California Climate Investments website at: www.caclimateinvestments.ca.gov.