Tahoe National Forest's Sierraville Ranger District plans to pileburn up to 177 acres east of Independence Lake starting today, Feb. 14 through Feb. 16. Smoke may be visible from the HWY 89 corridor between Little Truckee and Sagehen Summit. 

Tahoe National Forest's Yuba River Ranger District plans to pileburn up to 53 acres on the San Juan Ridge. The unit is  bordered by Longpoint Rd  to the north. Smoke may be visible in the area.

Tahoe National Forest's American River Ranger District will be burning 1.2 acres of grapple piles on the Foresthill Divide Rd., Feb. 13, 2024. Smoke will be visible, but impacts will be minimal

2/12/24 - The Cleveland National Forest (CNF) Palomar Ranger District (PRD) is set to initiate prescribed fire preparation on the following projects:

Prescribed Fire Preparation:

North Ramona Fuel break (map 1) Urban Corp crews continue working on North Ramona West cut/pile work in the crosshatch, area as weather permits.

Fry Creek (map 2) – Crews may be working on handline improvements and/or snagging.

Jeff Valley (maps 3-5) – Crews may be working on handlines and various burn prep activities.

Palomar Fuel breaks (map 6) – Crews may be working on various preparations for burning.

*Morgan Hill (map 7) – the machine piles on Morgan Hill have come up in recent discussions. Our staff will be evaluating if this is a project that we can begin putting energy towards in the coming weeks - the nature of this project (number of piles/burn-down time, remote/accessibility, potential commitment of resources) has the potential to take up a lot of staff time so it must be carefully considered. With all the other pile burn projects we have, and conditions being what they are, Morgan Hill is currently the lowest priority project for burn implementation. A map has been included below to refresh awareness of the project area.

Prescribed Fire: If we burn, it will take place in the latter half of the week on various projects (no specific plans yet). Weather, fuels, and access conditions are being monitored in the early part of the week to determine RX viability. The intent would be to try and get another RX entry in somewhere before the next potential round of moisture expected this weekend. Depending on developing plans, we may request off district (off unit) resources to assist with burning if we determine there’s a need to augment staffing.

North Ramona Fuelbreak – prescribed burning may occur in all sections of N. Ramona FB (map 1) with available burn windows. Priority burn area is the west section of the fuel break (Pamo Rd. to Weekend Villa).

Crews may initiate pile burning on various portions of the fuel Break, depending on weather, resources availability, and access.

Total acres burned on North Ramona FB to date: 163 acres.

 Palomar Mt. Piles – prescribed burning may occur in Jeff Valley & Fry Creek, with available burn windows.

Burning could go multiple days with the right conditions.

Our priority burn area in Jeff Valley (140 acres) will be in piles adjacent to Conifer Rd. (Units 11-including machine piles, 12, 9, 4, 6, and 18).

Our priority burn area in Fry Creek is Units 8a/b & 2a/b. We will likely burn in Jeff Valley as the priority over Fry Creek, but it is possible that we could burn piles in Fry Creek with snow on the ground.

Acres burned in Jeff Valley to date: 30 acres.

 Palomar Fuel breaks – prescribed burning may occur with available burn windows.

A broadcast burn attempt (Aguanga Unit 1, 61 ac.) was made on Jan 31, but was cancelled due to being out of RX with high winds (ahead of the storms). Further attempts will be made once fuel and road conditions are favorable.

Admin/Station Piles – pile burning could occur anytime conditions are favorable.

Prescribed Fire is part of Confronting the Wildfire Crisis: https://fs.usda.gov/managing-land/wildfire-crisis. Prescribed fire plays an important role in forest health and in reducing extreme wildfires and their negative impact. These fires also help reduce heavy fuel loads while simultaneously opening the conifer forest structure and maintaining the health of meadow habitats. Fire is also used to enhance native plant communities and cultural landscapes and improve wildlife habitats. Another goal is to provide defensible space for communities and developed areas within and surrounding the CNF. With all fire comes smoke, and the U.S. Forest Service works to mitigate smoke impacts from prescribed fires on the communities in the area. 

Tahoe National Forest's Yuba River Ranger District will prescribed burn 8 acres just past the town of Alleghany. Smoke impacts will be minimal, visible from Alleghany, Pike, Forest City, Camptonville and surrounding areas.

Tahoe National Forest's American River Ranger District will burn up to 22 acres of machine piles on Foresthill Divide Road, today, Feb. 7, 2024. Smoke may be visible in the area, with minimal impacts to the community. 

Today, firefighters on the BLM Grandview project burned 148 acres of piles. Grandview project is located on BLM land southeast of downtown Durango, CO. This completes all the pile burning in the Grandview project area. 

Expect some visible smoke in the area, then becoming lighter as vegetation in the interior continue to smolder and go out. Forecasted rain and snow tonight and through the week will help to reduce the smoke in the air. 

For more information on smoke, visit https://www.colorado.gov/pacific/cdphe/wood-smoke-and-health

For information on prescribed burns, visit the Southwest District BLM Prescribed Fire InciWeb page https://inciweb.nwcg.gov/incident/7852/ or follow us on Twitter https://twitter.com/SWD_Fire and Facebook http://www.facebook.com/BLMMontroseFireUnit

Yuba River Ranger District resources are continuing prescribed fire operations on the Trapper project through Feb. 7, 2024. Smoke will be visible from Pike, Forest City, Camptonville and surrounding areas. Smoke impacts should be minimal.

Weather conditions are looking good for firefighters to resume pile burning at Grandview on February 6th and 7th. Grandview is located southeast of downtown Durango, CO on BLM managed lands. Smoke will be visible from Durango and Highways 160/550. If weather and clearing index are within the smoke permit parameters, then firefighters will initiate burning. Piles are composed of Pinyon and Juniper slash from a big game habitat improvement project and a hazardous fuels reduction project.

The project area has a detailed burn plan for prescribed burning that contains specific criteria regarding weather conditions and air quality that must be met to ensure control of the burn, as well as minimizing the potential smoke impact to local communities. 

Expect visible smoke in the area on burn days, and lighter amounts for several days as vegetation in the interior continue to smolder. Rain and snow are forecasted this week. 

For more information on smoke, visit https://www.colorado.gov/pacific/cdphe/wood-smoke-and-health

For information on prescribed burns, visit the Southwest District BLM Prescribed Fire InciWeb page https://inciweb.nwcg.gov/incident/7852/ or follow us on Twitter https://twitter.com/SWD_Fire and Facebook http://www.facebook.com/BLMMontroseFireUnit

2/5/24 - CNF Descanso Ranger District fuel crews are burning piles off Deer Park Rd at Pine Creek Rd today as weather and environmental conditions allow. Residents and visitors may see smoke from Sunrise Hwy, the 79 and surrounding communities. PLEASE DO NOT REPORT.

Prescribed Fires such as pile burns are part of Confronting the Wildfire Crisis: https://fs.usda.gov/managing-land/wildfire-crisis. Prescribed fire plays an important role in forest health and in reducing extreme wildfires and their negative impact. These fires also help reduce heavy fuel loads while simultaneously opening the conifer forest structure and maintaining the health of meadow habitats. Fire is also used to enhance native plant communities and cultural landscapes and improve wildlife habitats. Another goal is to provide defensible space for communities and developed areas within and surrounding the CNF. With all fire comes smoke, and the U.S. Forest Service works to mitigate smoke impacts from prescribed fires on the communities in the area. 

Pine Valley Fuel Break - Descanso Ranger District - Map

Mon, 02/05/2024 - 14:51

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Pine Valley Fuel Break - Descanso Ranger District - Map

Map showing where the prescribed fire is burning.