Above June Lake in the Sierra headwaters, decades of fire suppression left the forests surrounding Rush Creek and Grant Lake unnaturally dense and stressed — conditions that turned deadly when an extended drought and a bark beetle infestation swept through in the 2010s, killing off whitebark pines, a keystone species that can live over a thousand years and whose seeds feed wildlife throughout the Sierra. The buildup of dead and dying trees left the watershed primed for the kind of high-intensity wildfire that has already produced 15 of California's 20 largest fires since 2000 — and a severe burn here wouldn't stop at the treeline. It would threaten June Lake's water resources and send sediment and debris cascading into Rush Creek and Grant Lake, degrading the wild trout waters and drinking water supplies people in the region depend on.

CalTrout partnered with Inyo National Forest, Mammoth Mountain Ski Area, the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation, CDFW, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, and Stillwater Sciences to get ahead of that risk through mechanical thinning that mimics the natural fire regimes the ecosystem evolved with, removing dead and beetle-killed trees to create healthier, multi-aged forest stands. Work began in 2017 with an initial 110-acre phase that removed roughly 145 decaying trees, and the project has since expanded across multiple phases, with strategic thinning now covering 356 acres of an original 518-acre planning area and a feasibility study underway for turning the removed biomass into a productive use rather than waste. The result is a forest better able to withstand fire, a watershed better protected for the trout that spawn there, and a safer, more resilient landscape for the June Lake community and the visitors who fish, ski, and recreate there year-round.