Welcome to the California Reforestation Toolshed
Discover Resources for Your Reforestation Projector
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Wednesday February 18, 2026
Shelley Villalobos
💥Now Accepting Applications!  Manager - Northern CA Reforestation at American Forests 👀
Friday February 13, 2026
ReforestationToolshed
New Resource created: Reforestation Manual for California Conifers
Resource Type: Frameworks and Manuals
Thursday January 29, 2026
Shelley Villalobos
🌱 Re-posting from channel #C087XG4G5Q8 for visibility. Please help spread the word!
Peer-Reviewed Publications
A horizon scan to inform research priorities on post-wildfire forest restoration and recovery in the western United States
This peer-reviewed publication used a standardized expert-elicitation process to identify key topics for post-fire forest restoration and recovery in the near future. The study identified 12 topics as the most urgent and with the greatest potential impact.
Peer-Reviewed Publications
A post-fire reforestation assessment and prioritization tool for the Western United States
This paper discusses how Regenmapper, a decision support tool, can assist in assessing and prioritizing post-fire reforestation efforts, particularly in response to challenges such as drought, climate change, and wildfires.
Frameworks and Manuals
Adaptation Strategies and Approaches for California Forest Ecosystems
This workbook offers land managers a menu of adaptation strategies, offering flexible, yet tangible, options for considering climate change when managing California's forests. It reflects the context of the state's forests and is informed by a synthesis of California forest adaptation literature. It is intended to be used within the Adaptation Workbook, which presents a five-step framework to incorporate effects of climate change on forests into planning, decision-making, and implementation.
Programs
California Emergency Forest Restoration Teams
In response to the 2021 Dixie, Tamarack, and Caldor fires, three emergency forest restoration teams (EFRTs) were formed to rapidly assist private landowners in restoring their forests' health. Today, 15 EFRT programs work across the state to provide no-cost post-disturbance technical assistance to landowners, including mechanical site preparation, reforestation, and post-planting maintenance.
Programs
California Forest Improvement Program
The CA Forest Improvement Program provides technical and cost-share assistance forest landowners who want to improve the health of their land and resources. Assistance is available to public and privately owned parcels from 20 - 5,000 acres in size, for reforestation and stand improvement activities.
Decision-Support Tools
California Seed Bank Assessment of Need App
This app provides users with a spatial summary of cone bushels needed in each seed zone to meet the state of California's reforestation goals. Statistics for each seed zone reflect collection priority, recent disturbances, and the need or surplus for each speciees.
Peer-Reviewed Publications
Challenges to the Reforestation Pipeline in the United States
This peer-reviewed publication imagines a scenario where by 2040, 26 million hectares of natural and agricultural lands are reforested with 30 billion trees at a cost of $33 billion USD. Through this example, the authors evaluate the ecological and operational challenges today that would stand in the way of acheiving that imagined future.
Frameworks and Manuals
Climate Change and Forests of the Future: Managing in the Face of Uncertainty
Climate change threatens the health of forests, but land managers must make decisions today without knowing exactly what the future will look like. This framework helps land managers make the best decisions possible in the face of uncertainty, detailing a varierty of climate adaptation and mitigation strategies that managers could take and emphasizing the importance of reversible and incremental actions.
Decision-Support Tools
Climate-Adapted Seed Tool (CAST)
Trees are experiencing higher mortality and lower growth rates as climate change affects their native ranges. Many land managers are interested in assisted migration as a solution. This decision-support tool helps land managers identify potential seed sources by comparing the current climate of a tree's natural range to the projected future climate (under RCP 8.5) of the user's desired planting site. Users can view data on the potential productivity of six conifer species from now until 2080.
Peer-Reviewed Publications
Comparison of Organic and Chemical Soil Amendments Used in the Reforestation of a Harsh Sierra Nevada Site
This peer-reviewed publication compares the effects of three soil amendments—an organic amendment, a chemical fertilizer, and a mycorrhizal inoculation—on the establishment of barefoot Jeffrey pine seedlings. The chemical fertilizer increased seedling growth by 78% compared to control conditions, while the mycorrhizal inoculation had no effect on growth. The organic amendment decreased growth compared to control conditions, likely due to impaired water relations.
Frameworks and Manuals
Cone Hunting 101
Online course to learn the basics of how to identify common native California conifers, how cones are made, how to cone survey, cone monitor, and support cone collections.
Peer-Reviewed Publications
Effects of Post-Fire Timber Harvest and Mastication on Shrub Regrowth in the Sierra Nevada Mountains: A Lake Tahoe Case Study
This case study evaluates the effectiveness of an experimental site preparation practice implemented in South Lake Tahoe, CA: the mastication and spreading of unmerchantable biomass on over 1,000 hectacres of postfire forested land. The practice proved to be effective at preventing erosion, reducing drought stress, and controlling understory shrub regrowth.
Programs
El Dorado Resource Conservation District Seedling Program
The El Dorado Resource Conservation District's Seedling Program fulfills conifer seedling orders for land managers across the state. The program was established through a partnership with the USDA Forest Service's Placerville Nursery, which is able to produce several million seedlings each year with seven available species: Douglas Fir, Incense Cedar, Jeffrey Pine, Ponderosa Pine, Sierra Redwood, Sugar Pine, and White Fir. Land managers can place orders for the following year by December 31st.
Frameworks and Manuals
Forest Adaptation Resources: Climate Change Tools and Approaches
This compilation of resources, created by the USDA Forest Service, helps forest managers to make adapt their lands to climate change. Resources include: a framework for responding to climate change, a guide to performing climate change vulnerability assessments, adaptation strategies for both forested lands and urban forests, and an adaptation workbook.
Programs
Forest Health Grants
The CALFIRE Forest Health grant program is available to large, landscape-scale (>800 acres) forest restoration and reforestation projects. Grants can support fuels management, use of beneficial fire, and restoration of degraded areas.