Area residents and visitors may soon see smoke, fire equipment, and activity associated with prescribed burning on the three districts of the Lassen National Forest.
Now that spring is in the air, Forest fire officials are making plans to implement burning projects when weather conditions allow for safe and effective burning – that is to say when air temperature, relative humidity, wind speed and direction, and fuel moisture are in the desired range. These are some of the parameters identified and used in the Prescribed Fire Plans, also known as ‘prescriptions.’
Objectives of prescribed burning are to:
• reduce the accumulation of hazardous fuels – dead and fallen trees, dead branches, and brush – that can feed wildfires.
• restore fire-resilient forests by reintroducing fire into the ecosystem, and thereby help to return the landscape to a more natural state.
• improve ecological conditions, via the nutrients released back into the soil from consumed fuels, which leads to greater understory productivity and more forage for wildlife.
The combination of thinning and burning done during prescribed treatments also offers benefits to surrounding communities.
According to Debbie Mayer, District Fire Management Officer on the Hat Creek Ranger District, treated areas are used to help defend communities against fire. “In several instances on the Lassen National Forest, for example the 2008 Peterson and 2009 Butte fires, treated areas also aided in reducing fire size and lowering suppression costs,” said Mayer.
Research has also shown that both fire intensity and tree mortality are reduced in stands that are both thinned and prescribe-burned when compared to adjacent untreated stands. The Cone fire, within the Blacks Mountain Experimental Forest on the Eagle Lake Ranger District, is one such example.
Precautions will be taken to minimize the amount of smoke in the air during the spring prescribed burning campaign. Burning will only take place on permissible burn days. Additionally, the Forest will coordinate with other public agencies and industry landowners in the areas surrounding the burn locations to help limit the smoke present in the air at any one time.
Projects
The Eagle Lake Ranger District is preparing to implement its spring prescribed fire program. Prescribed burning will occur when weather conditions allow for safe and efficient burning, which could be as early as April and continuing through July.
Approximately 755 acres of understory burning could occur in the following locations on the ELRD:
• Crater Mountain area: 110 acres
• Pegleg Mountain area: 220 acres
• Logan Mountain area: 125 acres
• Dow Butte: 300 acres; Dow Butte is the only project area located within 10 miles of a community (approximately six miles north of Spaulding).
Depending on weather conditions during the prescribed burning, smoke could be visible from Susanville, the Eagle Lake basin, and while traveling on highways 44 and 139, and county roads A1 and A21.
The Almanor Ranger District (ALRD) is planning on implementing two prescribed burns this spring, conditions permitting.
• Bobcat prescribed burn: 92 acres of jackpot broadcast burning; in northern Plumas County, two miles southwest of Prattville. Prescribed fire is to be implemented in units that were burned during the 2012 Chips fire and helicopter salvaged during the spring of 2014. The remaining snags have been felled, creating concentrations of fuel scattered throughout the units. The purpose of this burn is to consume remaining woody material to open up areas for tree planting, which is scheduled for fall 2015. Implementation is planned for May or June and will be dependent on conditions being favorable for meeting objectives and lifting smoke up and out of the Almanor Basin. This burn will be highly visible to the Almanor Basin.
• West Dusty project: Approximately 50 acres of underburning; in northern Plumas County, this project is scheduled for continued implementation this spring. Prescribed fire will be implemented in previously harvested timber units with the purpose of maintaining a Defensible Fuels Profile Zone. The project area is ten miles northwest of Chester. Implementation will likely begin in May or June, and will be dependent on conditions being favorable for meeting both resource and air quality objectives.
Because of air quality concerns, these burns on the ALRD could each take multiple days of ignition to complete.
The Hat Creek Ranger District (HCRD) has plans for spring prescribed burning as follows.
• Eastside project: Approximately 1,500 acres; possible areas for burning include Grassy Lake, and around Ballard/Bootleg and Halls Flat. Burning could take place at any time this spring, as conditions allow. Smoke may be visible in the Fall River Valley, Hat Creek Valley, and Little Valley areas.
For more information regarding prescribed burning on the Lassen National Forest, please contact the following:
Eagle Lake Ranger District – Fuels Officer Chuck Lewis, 530-257-4188
Almanor Ranger District – Fuels Officer Jeff St. Clair, 530-258-2141
Hat Creek Ranger District – Fuels Officer Dale Newby, 530-336-5521
