The Small Forest Landowner Assistance Program (SFLAP) is a Butte County RCD program that was established in 2023 to offer low- to no-cost fire recovery treatments for small non-industrial private forest landowners in Butte County. In 2023 and 2024, 35 landowners in Berry Creek and Feather Falls received restoration treatments like tree and brush thinning, pruning, fuels reduction, and hazard tree removal.

Landowners interested in the program were selected using pre-established criteria such as income and commitment to post-assistance maintenance. Through two years of SFLAP, 224 acres were treated within the Bear Fire (2020) footprint. SFLAP also provided all landowners with a forest management plan (FMP) that can be used as a guideline for future work and aid in landowner applications to additional funding such as CFIP and/or EQIP.

Past rounds of this program has been funded by the USDA Forest Service (USFS) 2021 Post-Fire Disaster Recovery Grant via the California Association of Resource Conservation Districts and by a Regional Fire and Forests Capacity Program subgrant from the Sierra Nevada Conservancy. The BCRCD is currently in the process of looking for and securing more funding to continue the SFLAP program for Butte County landowners.

For landowners currently looking for assistance: 

The RCD is currently in the process of looking for more funding to continue the SFLAP program. In the meantime, landowners that were impacted by the 2024 Park Fire or other fires in Butte County can fill out the questionnaire below to either set up a site visit or get their name on a waiting list. If the RCD is able to secure more funding for SFLAP, interested landonwers will be contacted. 

Site visits will be conducted by either a member of the RCD forestry staff or a registered professional forester (RPF) that is working with the RCD. Site visits will be informational in nature until more funding for implementation is secured. 

Fill out the interested landowner questionnaire here!