RFFCP Regions/WIP Geographies

RFFCP Regions also known as WIP Geographies of the Watershed Improvement Program (WIP) Capacity Assessments. About these boundaries Originally developed by the Sierra Nevada Conservancy (SNC) to help focus regional investments by multiple agencies participating in the Sierra Nevada Strategic Investment Program (SNSIP). These geographic areas are also used by the conservancy for its WIP Capacity Assessment (currently Regional Forest and Fire Capacity Program) reporting. The original description presented to SNSIP partners: How these geographies were developed. The SNSIP geographies were developed with the following process: The 25 million acre Sierra Nevada region was broken down into seven actionable geographic areas, based on SNC’s experience with the Tahoe-Central Sierra Initiative (TCSI) and similar in size to TCSI. Boundaries are based on watershed boundaries, grouped by biogeography and where water flows. Boundaries are based on the boundaries of existing collaboratives mapped as part of current and previous SNC efforts, to build on already successful and productive on-the-ground efforts. Additional provenance detail: The SNSIP / RFFCP / WIP Capacity geographies are groups of Watershed Improvement Program (WIP) watersheds. And hence build on that program. The groupings of the watersheds were chosen based on institutional factors, e.g. current and past forest collaboratives and downstream water stakeholders, as well as similar ecosystems. These variables were balanced as best possible without fracturing WIP watersheds. There was an additional desire to have the geographies of similar in size to the TCSI, as that was the expected model. To again maintain the integrity of WIP watersheds the TCSI PLUS was the combination of the original TCSI and the downstream parts of the American, Bear and Yuba watersheds. Compared to the WIP watersheds the geographies have been mapped at the HUC12 level detail found in the NHD. This was chosen based on the approach by Malcom North et.al to characterize the HUC12 watershed as an effective “fire shed.”