The Nature Conservancy, federal, state and local agencies, as well as a private landowner are collaborating on a forest restoration project designed to reduce the risk of catastrophic fires, protect onsite and neighboring structures, protect water supplies for people and enhance wildlife habitat near Carson City.

The restoration work will include thinning trees on at least 800 acres in the upper Clear Creek watershed.

“By thinning the trees in this area, there will be more plant and wildlife diversity and fire behavior will change dramatically,” says Ryan Shane, Nevada Division of Forestry’s community protection program coordinator, said in a statement. “For example, flames can reach up to eight feet high and climb into the tree crowns, making an uncontrollable crown fire in an overgrown forest, versus a reaching only a foot high in an area that has been thinned properly.”