Massive fuels reduction project to resume
The 10,000-plus acres South Shore Fuels Reduction and Healthy Forest Restoration Project will start again in early May.
The first area scheduled for treatment this season consist of 280 acres between Golden Bear Estate off Pioneer Trail and the Sierra Tract.
Those who mountain bike, run, hike and walk their dogs in this area will need to temporarily find another playground. The U.S. Forest Service will officially close the area due to the hazards posed by heavy equipment operation and falling trees. The work should take about two months to complete.
Heavy equipment is needed for the South Shore fuels reduction project. Photo/LTN file
Possible alternatives for recreational access include National Forest lands south of the Golden Bear subdivision and the reopened Railroad Grade Trail east of Pioneer Trail.
While the two treatment units are heavily crisscrossed with neighborhood trails, they have very few official roads and trails. After work is completed, the Forest Service will restore official trails. but will not restore user-created trails.
As the season progresses, mechanical thinning may occur in a number of other South Shore locations as conditions allow, including Christmas Valley, Fallen Leaf Lake, Meyers, the Highway 89 corridor, Gardner Mountain and the Pioneer Trail side of Trout Creek.
In addition to mechanical operations, the Forest Service also expects crews to complete at least 300 acres of hand thinning, which will include urban lots and areas near Hawley Grade in Meyers.
Early season work also will include removing log decks, slash and biomass from landings in units near Trout Creek and Fallen Leaf Campground and decommissioning them.
For local residents who’ve been wondering what will become of the very large deck of logs near Camp Richardson Resort, Forest Service staff expect to eventually remove the pile, potentially later this year.
The Forest Service will post closure orders for mechanical work online and provide periodic updates as work moves to new areas. For general information on the South Shore project, also go online.
With all the heavy equipment on these projects, I hope they will have water trucks available to provide dust-control in our neighborhoods! Every spring I wash my house & windows, and many times the dust-clouds from heavy equipment in & near the snow-dump leaves our neighborhood buried in dust & dirt. Please capture the dirt that we are all told cannot drift to our lake!
South Shore Fuels Reduction and Healthy Forest Restoration Project? Lets call it what it really is … logging!
Logging an area that is not overgrown nor in need of thinning. Heavy equipment tearing up the soil and destroying vegetation, cutting down trees in a 280 acre area all the while claiming “fuel reduction and healthy forest”.
I know the stock response,”it’s to prevent wildfires”,”Create a healthy enviorment for the trees”. I believe it’s about cutting down trees and selling them to the highest bidder.
I’m very familar with that piece of land, cross country skiing, walking the dog, mountain biking, stargazing or just goin’ for a walk. It’s a beautiful area and right in town.
USFS, I’ll offer an alternatve. Rather than having heavy equipment, tree cutters and assorted personel from an out of town contractor destroy this beautiful place, how about marking the trees, sell permits and allow the locals to cut some firewood for next winter. That way everybody wins, you get rid of those pesky trees that you don’t like and us folks get some firewood. A 1/2 ton pick up does a heck of alot less dammage than a 10 ton skidder, bulldozer, mechanical cutter and a parade of logging trucks going in and out.
While I’m at it, does the USFS have the authority to close this area to the public while it’s being hacked to pieces?
Maybe I’m barkin’ up the wrong tree (bad pun intended)but I feel this is an example of poor planning by the Forest Service, or maybe thats been their motivation all along…Sell the Forests ,(no matter what kind of name you put on it, just make it sound good to the public).
Want to do some real good reducing fire danger? Start cutting some trees in the many heavily forested neighborhoods around town. Old homes surrounded by pines where a single errant hot ash from a fireplace or woodstove could ignite an entire neighborhood. What about homes that haven’t been lived in for years with pine needles a foot deep in their yards? Contact the owner and tell them to clean it up or they’ll be fined. Expensive? Yes. Time consuming , yes. Worth the money and time? Yes.
I’m sure I’ll be criticized for my comments but thats okay, just had to get it out there.
Tiimmbberr!!! Old Long Skiis
Chris, call your local fire department. They will mark your trees and issue you a tree removal permit for them. Its free and easy.
“Trpa will not allow you to trim trees on your property.”
chris, you are a liar, or are ignorant.
Chris,
The reason I brought up letting the residents thin the forest was because that’s the way it was done for a looong time. It went like this in case you’ve never done it.
First you pay the USFS for a permit for two cords. Drive to the designated cutting area and a FS person at the entrance checks your permit and saw, it must have a spark arrester. Then go up the road and look for the marked trees.
After you drop a tree your next cut was to cut the stump as low to the ground as possibe, no higher than 6 inches from the ground , that was a FS requirment. I oughta know, I got busted for that once! As per FS rules you then limb the tree and pile your slash. Then you can start buckin’ the tree up into rounds and load into truck. Your checked on the way out by FS who marks off the amount your hauling on your permit. Worked then, why not now?
It just seems to be a much better way to thin the forest rather than bring in a bunch of heavy equipment, tear up the soil and then haul it out of town.
John, I was not aware you could get a cutting permit to fall trees on your own property from the Fire Dept. It used to the forest sevice that came to your property and marked them. Then TRPA was given that authority. Now it’s the Fire Dept.???
Let the Locals have the wood. Saves USFS money and provides heat for those that are up to the task of cutting there own firewood.
Old Long Skiis