A firefighting helicopter conducts a bucket drop over the Caldor Fire just south of Highway 88 near Carson Spur in September 2021.
Photo by Kurt Hildebrand.
With spring precipitation greening up vegetation in the Valley and snow melting in the Sierra, officials are preparing for a potentially dangerous fire season.
A community wildfire safety meeting is 6-8 p.m. April 9 at the Genoa Town Hall.
East Fork Fire volunteers are preparing to conduct defensible space assessments for 240 homes in and around Genoa as part of a hazardous fuels grant.
Sheridan Volunteer Fire Chief Chris Lang said Wednesday’s meeting in Nevada’s oldest town will have an opportunity for people to sign up for assessments.
“We’ll put together a small army of volunteers to do those assessments,” he told East Fork Fire Protection District trustees.
Sponsored by the Fire Adapted Nevada and East Fork Fire Protection District, the session will talk about how residents can protect their property from fires.
This will be the second season work is conducted under fuels grants from the Nevada Division of Forestry.
On Friday, the U.S. Forest Service Lake Tahoe Basin Management Unit said it is seeking public feedback on the draft proposal for the Caldor Fire Restoration Project. Public comments will be accepted for 30 days after the legal notice is published in the Tahoe Daily Tribune on Friday.
The 2021 Caldor Fire prompted the first mandatory fire evacuation in Douglas County history, though it never made it over the state line.
The project aims to restore watershed health, forest resilience, and wildlife habitat in about 11,700 acres of national forest lands in and around the Caldor Fire area. The proposed activities can reduce impacts from future wildfires and improve post-fire scenic characteristics in the landscape. Without intervention, the area could take 30 years or more to recover.
“We want to hear from community members how they want the area affected by the Caldor Fire to look in the future,” said Forest Supervisor Erick Walker. “We will consider options for replanting trees, reconstructing stream channels, restoring meadow and streambank vegetation, reducing fuels and improving recreation access in this popular area.”
Proposed restoration activities include:
• Removing fire-killed and damaged trees
• Removing live trees with active insect and/or disease infestations
• Preparing areas to plant native seedlings
• Thinning surviving tree stands and nearby unburned trees
• Potential use of approved herbicides to support reforestation
• Implementing prescribed fire
The draft action can be reviewed at www.fs.usda.gov/project/ltbmu/?project=65228 along with how to submit comments. All comments must be submitted through the comment form on the project webpage or through the U.S. Postal Service.
For more information on this project or how to comment, contact Robert Lorens at robert.lorens@usda.gov.