MOKELUMNE WATERSHED AVOIDED COST ANALYSIS: Why Sierra Fuel Treatments Make Economic Sense
This study was prepared by The Nature Conservancy, Sierra Nevada Conservancy, and the US Forest Service. The Sierra Nevada provides more than 60 percent of the developed water supply for California.
High-severity wildfire places this water supply at risk. The upper Mokelumne River watershed in
the central Sierra Nevada supplies drinking water to 1.3 million residents of the San Francisco Bay
Area and provides valuable goods and services, including but not limited to forest and agricultural
products, hydropower energy, recreation, wildlife habitat and carbon sequestration. Like other
Sierra Nevada and western watersheds, much of the Mokelumne watershed is at very high risk of
wildfire.
