For Release: November 1, 2005
Contact: Andrea Carter (530) 224-2100
CA-N-06-11

BLM, CDF PLAN PRESCRIBED FIRE PROJECT IN WESTERN TEHAMA COUNTY

A prescribed fire project designed to improve the health and productivity of public and private lands will be conducted over the next several months in the foothills of western Tehama County.

The U. S. Bureau of Land Management, the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection and property owners who participate in the Sunflower Coordinated Resource Management Plan (CRMP) west of Red Bluff, will work together in the Sunflower Prescribed Burning Project on about 5,000 acres.

Andrea Carter, fuels management specialist for the BLM's Redding Field Office, said ground crews and a helicopter will be used to ignite the burns which could range from a few hundred acres to 5,000 acres of public and private lands. Burning, conducted by the CDF's Tehama-Glenn Unit, will occur only on days when weather conditions, fuel moistures and other conditions allow for safe and successful burning and smoke management.

Carter said the upcoming burns are part of a multi-year effort by the agencies and landowners to improve the diversity of plants and productivity of the ranch lands and brushy public lands along the Coast Range foothills. Mixed chaparral and chemise chaparral dominate some areas.

Over the years, the landowners and agencies have completed ridge-top fuel breaks and prescribed fires to provide wildfire protection, promote better wildlife habitat and range conditions, and to improve stream runoff.

"Prescribed fires are designed to mimic the natural fire-return interval," Carter said, "leaving areas of brush and grasses that would exist if fires had been allowed to burn freely."

For more information on the fire projects, contact the BLM's Redding Field Office, (530) 224-2100.

-BLM-

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Redding Field Office 355 Hemsted Drive Redding, CA 96002