NEWS RELEASE

For Release: November 10, 2003
Contact: Walter Herzog (530) 224-2100 or Jeff Fontana (530) 252-5332
CA-N-04-11

BLM PLANS PILE BURNING PROJECTS

Crews from the U. S. Bureau of Land Management will soon be burning piles of brush and limbs created during construction of fuel breaks in Shasta and Trinity counties.

The projects will be carried out on BLM-managed land at Phillips Timber Ridge, Weaverville; at Cline Gulch, near French Gulch; and along Mountain View Drive near Lewiston. Depending on weather, fuel moisture and air quality conditions, the piles will be burned on favorable burning days in November and December, according to BLM Fire Management Officer Walter Herzog.

The brush piles were left after BLM and partner agencies built the fuel breaks along selected roads and ridgelines to improve fire protection. The fuel breaks are usually 60 to 200 feet wide areas cleared of small trees and brush. Some trees are left in these fuel breaks to provide shade that limits vegetation regrowth.

Herzog said the fuel breaks slow the spread of wildfires and provide defensible space for firefighters.

Each year the BLM Redding Field Office works with other agencies, resource conservation districts, fire safe councils and landowners to create at least three miles of new fuel breaks.

Additional information on the upcoming burning projects and the fuel break program is available from the BLM in Redding, 224-2100.

Redding Field Office - 355 Hemsted Drive - Redding, CA 96002