Now that spring is in the air, fire officials on the Lassen National Forest are making plans to implement prescribed burning projects.
These projects will be accomplished as 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 catastrophic 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
Area residents and visitors can expect to see fire equipment and smoke activity associated with the following projects on the three districts of the Lassen.
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 890 acres of understory burning will occur in the following locations on the Eagle Lake District:
- Crater Mountain area: 110 acres
- Pegleg Mountain area: 220 acres
- Bidwell Springs area: 135 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 is planning on implementing two prescribed fire underburn projects this spring, weather permitting.
- Cold Springs project: 35 acres, located in Eastern Tehama County twelve miles north/northeast of the community of Cohasset, five miles west of Butte Meadows, and 15 miles due north of Forest Ranch. It is planned for an area along the H-Line Fuel Break, which was constructed cooperatively with Sierra Pacific Industries and the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection. The portion of the fuel break where the prescribed burn will be implemented is a second entry thin-by-fire prescription, and this is one stage of moving these units toward a desired fuel loading condition and maintenance for the fuel break. Implementation of the Cold Springs underburn project will occur in April or May. Smoke from this project will likely be visible from the Valley (Chico, etc.).
- West Dusty project: Approximately 100 acres of underburning in Northern Plumas County. 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 the town of Chester. Because of air quality concerns, this burn could take up to five days of ignition to complete. Implementation will begin in May or June and will be dependent on conditions being favorable for meeting objectives and lifting the smoke up and out of the Almanor Basin.
The Hat Creek Ranger District (HCRD) has plans for spring prescribed burning as follows.
- Eastside project: 1200 possible acres; the three possible areas of the project include Mountain Home along the 18 road, Ladder Butte, and Blacks Ridge. Smoke may be visible in the Fall River Valley, Hat Creek Valley, and Little Valley. Burning could take place at any time, as conditions permit.
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 Asst. Eric Kronner, 530-258-2141
- Hat Creek Ranger District: Fuels Officer Dale Newby, 530-336-5521
