BLM Redding Field Office plans prescribed burning in fall and winter months
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REDDING, Calif. – The Bureau of Land Management is planning prescribed burning projects for the fall and winter months on public lands in Shasta, Butte, Tehama and Trinity counties. Crews will ignite the pile burns and broadcast burns only when weather and fuel conditions allow for safe and successful burning and smoke dispersion. Smoke may be visible from nearby communities during the projects.
“All of these projects are part of our commitment to sustaining public lands important to our communities,” said BLM Redding Field Manager Jennifer Mata. “The projects are part of our work to improve landscape health and to reduce the risk of catastrophic wildfire.”
An 81-acre project in the Weaverville Community Forest is scheduled for this fall. Crews will use a broadcast burn to remove small branches and brush left over from forest thinning projects. The carefully managed, low-intensity fire will reduce wildfire danger and improve forest health. Crews will follow up by burning 20 acres of brush piles along Little Brown’s Creek Road.
The BLM and Trinity County Resource Conservation District manage the community forest in a partnership to maintain open recreational space and to provide forest products, including lumber and firewood.
Also, crews will continue fuels reduction work and pile burning in the Reading Indian Creek project area of Trinity County. This oak woodland restoration project will also improve community evacuation routes, access for emergency responders, and benefit forage for local wildlife.
Crews also plan to complete the Big Creek prescribed fire at Ewing Reservoir near the community of Hayfork. The fire will improve oak woodland wildlife habitat and expand existing fuel breaks that help protect the community against wildfires.
The Butte Thin prescribed fire project in Butte County will include a 110-acre understory burn north of DeSalba within a 131-acre forest thinning project completed several years ago. Crews will also continue pile burning in the same area to improve access and emergency response. The project is designed to reduce wildfire risk by creating shaded fuel breaks along Garland Road and Doe Mill Road.
The BLM also plans burning projects in the Upper Ridge Nature Preserve near the community of Magalia in Butte County, where crews will implement five acres of pile burning. The burns will clean up woody debris from the Camp Fire.
In Tehama County, BLM crews plan to burn slash piles along Ponderosa Way in the Campbellville area. The piles were created during earlier forest thinning projects.
BLM teams will also work on pile burning projects to reduce hazardous fuels along recreational trail corridors in Shasta County. Project areas include the Chappie-Shasta OHV Area north of French Gulch, the Sacramento River Rail Trail, Swasey Recreation Area and other areas of public lands in the communities west and north of Redding. Workers will remove fire and storm-damaged brush and small trees along the trails, and make burn piles of brush and small trees removed during the work.
Additional information is available from the BLM Redding Field Office at 530-224-2100.
The BLM manages more than 245 million acres of public land located primarily in 12 western states, including Alaska, on behalf of the American people. The BLM also administers 700 million acres of sub-surface mineral estate throughout the nation. Our mission is to sustain the health, diversity, and productivity of America’s public lands for the use and enjoyment of present and future generations.