USFS thinning projects to resume this month
The U.S. Forest Service Lake Tahoe Basin Management Unit will resume work on the Carnelian, Incline and South Shore Hazardous Fuels Reduction and Healthy Forest Restoration projects this month. These projects authorize thinning of trees and brush on National Forest System lands in the Lake Tahoe Basin to reduce the risk of severe wildfire and create healthier forests.
On the South Shore, hand thinning will take place near Angora Ridge, Twin Peaks, Fountain Place, Lower Echo Lake, Christmas Valley and Luther Pass. Mechanical cut-to-length thinning will take place near Pope Beach, 15th Street, Sawmill Pond, Spring Creek Tract and Christmas Valley. Mechanical whole tree removal will take place along Fallen Leaf Lake Road.
On the North Shore, hand thinning will take place near Kings Beach, north of Speckled Avenue and off Highway 431 near the Tyrolian Village in Incline Village. Mechanical cut-to-length thinning will take place on the east side of Highway 267 at the end of Beaver Street above Kings Beach. Whole tree removal will take place in Cedar Flat, near Forest Road 74 (Old County Road) and on the north side of Highway 267, near Forest Road 16N52 (Gasline Road).
The Forest Service will post closure orders for mechanical work online.
In addition to short-term impacts to recreational access, major impacts from fuels reduction projects include changes to the appearance of basin forests. Treated areas look disturbed at first, but recover visually within a few years.
We can expect more ugly devastation which will be apparent for generations. Lower Echo Lake–what’s there to thin? Maybe some nice big old growth that will “make the thing worthwhile”. We’re all sick of it.
Blue Jeans, the devastation caused by the clear cutting of much of the Tahoe Basin in the 1800’s (the root cause of the problem that has to be rectified today by thinning) probably wasn’t noticeable after one generation or so. So what makes you think these thinning projects you call “ugly devastation” that actually leave healthy trees will be noticeable for multiple generations? I bet to most it will be unnoticeable after 2 to 4 years.
But without that thinning, a fire raging through the basin might be noticeable to at least one whole generation.
So what do you see as more acceptable, a couple of years to regrow to a normal state, or an actual generation to regrow to some kind of normal state?
If you cut down the forest you remove the fire danger. For those that think they don’t take large healthy trees in their ‘thinning’ operations really need to get out more.
They devastated the look and feel of the small forest at the back of Fallen Leaf campground on the edge of the lake. It won’t look or feel the same in my lifetime, or for generations to come. They did need to thin and clean the dead wood between the campground and Taylor creek but as usual they went far beyond what was needed and cut large healthy trees on the lake front.
Pope area doesn’t need thinning. A forest that you can see through isn’t a forest, it’s a park.
Leave us a little natural forest land.
Many large, old Jeffries are coming down along Fallen Leaf Lake. Sometimes this happens when a lot of thinning has been done. A forest protects itself in some ways from wind, heat and other conditions but when drastic thinning takes place, this natural method of protection fails. This is also apparent at the edges of clear cuts previously “protected” trees dry out and fail.
Whip you’re mistaken. That Pope Beach area is in dire need of thinning. A forest you can’t see through with trees all the same size here in the Sierras is far from being a healthy forest. It creates a fight for resources to keep those trees alive that makes them all fall into the unhealthy category ripe for beetles and disease. You have to remember our forest isn’t a rain forest, but an arid climate forest.
I agree with whip, whereas they go far beyond what is needed. Part of the problem is the sub contractors who really aren’t qualified, in my opinion. When the USFS decided to thin the bijou-wildwood watershed area, I went to see what they were doing. My first indication, when I saw the healthy trees coming down, was they didn’t have a clue about what to cut down. He took down the few healthy fir and cedar trees. But the one thing that stuck with me was this so called professional had no safety chaps, and his extra gas and oil strapped to his belt. I called the forest service and it was their contractor. I think the forest service needs to supervise the trees coming down, but then they’d have to leave the building and actually care. This guy was just cutting down any tree that seemed to be the right size regardless of health or type of tree.
Bigger, There is no danger in the Pope beach area for an out of control wild fire. Not with the marsh area, road, clearing that has already been ‘overdone’ on the other side of the road, and the campground. You appear to have a problem with old growth trees. They get that old because they’re healthy. Funny how they wiped out nearly all the understory and young trees moving their equipment around to take the older, healthy trees out at the end of Fallen Leaf.
If you want every forest in the basin to look like a park, great! But that’s not what I moved here for, I actually enjoy a deep, thick, natural, forest.
Bigfishy–I have noticed similar things with the subcontractors. On Tahoe Mountain in very hot, dry, breezy conditions I noticed that one of the cutters had a little propane cook stove sitting on the duff with a package of tortillas next to it. Also limbs overhead. Knowing this is the sort of thing that can easily start a fire, I called it in to the FS. No one cared.
When they were thinning out by Big Meadows, we coincidentally were walking out to the trail head at the end of the day right along with the crew. A couple of us attempted to chat a bit with the cutters. Not one of them seemed to speak a word of English. Some of us kind of wondered if they were even legal workers.
Wonder if anything interesting would turn up if someone “followed the money” on this huge thinning project.
It’s logging, with the big trees being sold to the highest bidder.Call it any name you want to throw out there. “Thinning the trees for a more healthy forest”, “Reducing the fuel load to prevent wildfires” or creating “Diversivication” for a more healthy forest after its all been logged and doing “prescribed burns” so the trees don’t catch on fire… by burning them down, logging and using heavy equipment on enviourmentaly sensitive lands.
I know I’ll be criticsized for my view on this but that’s okay with me because that’s just how I see it.
Save the trees! To each his own.
Take care, Old Long Skiis
Right On. OLS