EL DORADO COUNTY, Calif. – The El Dorado Water Agency (EDWA) joined the Wildfire Solutions Coalition late last week, aiming to provide more advocacy, funding and preservation for the upper American River watershed. EDWA has supported partners in the Tahoe Basin and done research on the multimillion dollar impacts of the Caldor and Mosquito fires, showing the need for more wildfire prevention funding in rural and recreational communities.

EDWA provides county-wide water resource planning, with a birds-eye view spanning local, state and federal resources. “We want to ensure reliable and affordable water for everyone,” said EDWA general manager Rebecca Guo.

“Our watershed relies a lot on the forests,” said Guo, who highlighted the intertwined nature of forest management and watershed quality. Forests help with providing clean drinking water to residents and downstream communities because their soils and natural processes help to filter waste and contaminants.

According to the California Department of Water Resources, 75% of the rain and snow input into watersheds comes from regions north of Sacramento. But 80% of the demand for water comes from the southern two-thirds of the state.

In addition to these water demands, while the devastating fires in Los Angeles were a major tipping point for wildfire action earlier this year, Guo says that some of the fires in northern California have been equally or more devastating in terms of their impacts on the watershed, air quality and other infrastructural losses.

EDWA recently conducted a study on the impacts of the Caldor and Mosquito fires on the region, which encompasses nearly 20% of the upper American River watershed. They found that the estimated total losses to the ecosystems and natural assets was $14.7 billion in damages.

Wildfires have left scars on the landscape, taking forests down to shrubland or grassland. This land cover has impacts on recreation and ecosystems, as well as the watershed, which no longer reaps the benefits that the forest provides. “Not only does the landscape change, but it’s not improving without human intervention,” said Guo. “We live so much in nature that we do have to help it, and it is not recovering quickly enough, and may not recover without help because of the impacts of climate change.”

But that recovery has its cost—one that the Wildfire Solutions Coalition and EDWA both acknowledge. “It is expensive to fund wildfire preparation and solutions,” said Guo. “For example, after a wildfire, there’s tree removal to be done. The trees can be left there or will have to chipped or hauled out. Then there’s work to prepare the soil, then plant and grow the trees. It represents a lot of human effort, and in difficult terrain like the Tahoe Basin, it represents a lot of manual labor as the work can’t be done with heavy machinery.”

Lawmakers and advocates in California have been pushing more and more for funding to find solutions and prevention methods for wildfires, especially as wildfire season has extended far beyond what it has in the past due to climate change. Agencies like EDWA can play a part in making sure those funds go to critical local projects.

“In joining the Wildfire Solutions Coalition, we want to make sure that El Dorado and the legislators here have a seat at the table in advocacy for our region,” said Guo.

Lisa Yarbrough, a media contact for EDWA, said, “Joining the coalition and EDWA’s higher-level perspective gives them the ability to elevate the rural community voice and the downstream impacts of this watershed.”

Guo says that EDWA is “probably one of the smaller players” in the Tahoe Basin, which has plenty of partners and agencies focused on wildfire prevention. Still, they provided grants for the 2025-2026 fiscal year to the South Tahoe Public Utility District (STPUD) and Tahoe City Public Utility District (TCPUD) to reduce the vulnerability of water infrastructure to wildfires.

STPUD received $43,500 to develop a plan to harden STPUD’s water infrastructure facilities against fire and position STPUD for future grant funding for improvements identified in the plant. TCPUD received $34,000 to provide reliable backup power for the recently acquired Glenridge Water System, which would enable continuous power that would ensure reliable water delivery.

This funding, which was a combination of the American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) funding to EDWA and their own budget, helps to address a key part of work that rarely gets grants: the planning stage.

Now, EDWA is positioned to continue advocating for funding and local projects that will preserve and protect the upper American River watershed. They frequently work with the U.S. Forest Service and resource conservation management, and along with the Wildfire Solutions Coalition, call for forest and vegetation management, community hardening and defensible space, workforce development and job creation, tribal-led cultural burning and stewardship and science-based planning and monitoring.

“The Tahoe Basin has a lot of folks doing great work,” said Guo. “We want to help these entities on the ground to improve water security and watershed preservation.”

Guo and EDWA will be holding their annual plenary in late October in Tahoe, which will help identify key challenges and issues in the region to consider for their implementation roadmap—which will be amplified through their work with the Wildfire Solutions Coalition.

Eli Ramos is a reporter for Tahoe Daily Tribune. They are part of the 2024–26 cohort of California Local News Fellows through UC Berkeley.