On Saturday, September 13, 2014 a fire started in El Dorado County. By the next afternoon, the King Fire was roaring through the scenic hills and valleys that draw residents and visitors to the area.

By the time it was contained almost a month later, it had burned nearly 98-thousand acres of the Sierra Nevada, burned a dozen homes, and reduced to ashes millions of pine, fir, sequoia and oak trees.

Replanting and restoration are underway a few thousand acres at a time, and the California Climate Investment program is helping bring the King Fire area back to life. $1.9 million from the State’s Cap-and-Trade auctions is being put to work on CAL FIRE’s King Fire Rehabilitation and Reforestation Project.

El Dorado County resident Dave Doidge and family returned home to a devastated dream, but he says the project is being run the way he’d hoped.

“The restoration will be as close to the pre-fire conditions as humanly possible,” Doidge says. “We’re terribly grateful for all the assistance. This has been awfully emotional for us because this property has been in my family for more than 50 years, and it’s like Shangri-La to us.”

The King Fire Watershed Rehabilitation and Reforestation Project will plant approximately 390,000 trees and sequester nearly 170,000 tons of GHGs over the next 60 years.

And it will do a lot more. CAL FIRE says the project will remove accumulated debris and dead trees, identify measures that may be required to protect water quality, and provide an educational opportunity for informing others about community response to wildfire.

Click here for more information pm the Wetlands and Watershed Restoration Program.