News Release

For Release:  April 3, 2008       
Contact: Jeff Fontana (530) 252-5332, or  Tim Bradley (530) 224-2100
CA-N-08-38

Hwy 299 Fuel Reduction Plans to be Discussed in April 16 Public Meeting

BLM, Western Shasta RCD, Shasta West Fire Safe Council Cooperating on Projects

Plans to improve fire safety by thinning trees and brush on public and private lands between Redding and the Whiskeytown National Recreation Area will be presented in a public meeting Wednesday, April 16, at 7 p.m., at the Old Schoolhouse on French Alley in Old Shasta.
 
Representatives from the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) and the Western Shasta Resource Conservation District (RCD) will present plans for fuel reduction projects and listen to public comments.  Meeting participants also will hear recommendations for defensible space clearances around homes and information on other fuel reduction projects on public land in the area.
 
The RCD, in cooperation with the Shasta West Fire Safe Council, will be using federal fire safe council grant funds from the BLM and National Park Service to complete the projects on private lands along highway 299. The work will provide defensible space along the highway that would benefit crews battling wildfires.

The BLM is planning fuel reduction work on a 75-acre parcel within the community of Shasta.  The work is intended to create defensible space on public land, improving fire protection for homes on Victoria Drive, Swasey Drive and Old Stagecoach Road.  These homes are near the public lands where fuel reduction work will occur.
 
Tim Bradley, fire management officer for the BLM’s Redding Field Office, said crews will use heavy equipment in the fall project to thin stands of knob cone pine and remove Manzanita.  Trees and brush will be chipped for use in a local biomass power plant. 
 
"We will present a full description of the project, and want to hear concerns and ideas from the community about the best way to complete these fire safety improvements," Bradley said.  "We will use the information we receive to complete an environmental analysis."

-BLM-

Redding Field Office     355 Hemsted Drive     Redding, CA  96002