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[00:00.44] In 2014, California's King Fire blackened 400 square kilometers of forest, massive erosion followed.

[00:07.88] One of Placer County's two reservoirs filled with sediment and had to be dredged, says county water chief Andy Fecko.

[00:14.78] Every time we do that, it's a five to seven million dollar cost that you incur.

[00:20.36] And you're out of business during the whole time when you're trying to clear those facilities out. And so we incurred those costs several years in a row.

[00:29.39] And he worried about the county's other reservoir, French Meadows, just a few kilometers away.

[00:36.56] So it was one of these watersheds that was very much under threat of a high-intensity wildfire.

[00:42.67] These devastating wildfires are on the rise in the west, experts say, as climate change dries out the forests.

[00:47.99] And a century of misguided management has left them overgrown and extra flammable.

[00:53.03] Across the west, the unintended consequences threaten reservoirs and their drinking water and hydropower, says Angel Hertslet of the Nature Conservancy.

[01:02.06] There's a growing understanding from water utilities in particular that their water quality, their water quantity is very much impacted by what's happening in the headwaters.

[01:12.16] Thinning out the forest lowers the fire risk. The forest around the French Meadows Reservoir belongs to the US Forest Service.

[01:19.33] But the agency has millions of hectares across the west that need thinning, says district ranger Michael Woodbridge.

[01:25.44] We're always doing as much as we can with the capacity we have, but French Meadows is kind of above and beyond what that capacity would have been.

[01:37.39] So an unusual partnership formed. The water agency, the Nature Conservancy, state and local governments and others all pitched in to do the planning, raise the money and get the work done.

[01:48.02] And we said fantastic if you guys can do that with us, then we can get this work done in this area.

[01:56.25] The partners say they're going faster and doing more than any group could have done on its own.

[02:01.56] But it will still take years with millions of hectares across the west at risk of fire and climate change turning up the heat.

[02:08.47] Water agency manager Fecko says Placer County's reservoirs are a cautionary tale.

[02:13.25] I want them to learn from our experience and start taking really aggressive steps in managing their own watersheds.

[02:22.02] So they don't end up in the same boat that we're in currently.