A century of fire suppression in the region has resulted in the accumulation of large amounts of ladder fuels, creating a severe hazard of high-intensity wildfire; high-intensity fire in the Ashland watershed threatens homes as well as the Ashland municipal water supply, as nearly all of the sediment from the upstream portion of the watershed is deposited into Reeder reservoir, thereby reducing water storage capacity. In response to this threat, the United States Forest Service and the City of Ashland have developed the Ashland Forest Resiliency Project; this effort focuses on reducing fire hazard levels by reducing fuel loads within the Ashland watershed.