USFS to embark on 3,000+ acre N. Shore fuels project
The U.S. Forest Service Lake Tahoe Basin Management Unit will begin the Carnelian Hazardous Fuels Reduction and Healthy Forest Restoration Project next week.
The project will thin trees and brush on National Forest lands on the North Shore to reduce the risk of severe wildfire, improve forest health, and provide defensible space to neighboring communities.
The project area includes approximately 3,297 acres adjacent to Kings Beach, Tahoe Vista, Carnelian Bay, Cedar Flat, Lake Forest and Tahoe City.
Thinning methods include hand thinning, which is done by crews with chain saws and involves piling the material for burning at a later time; cut-to-length thinning, which cuts the tree down, cuts the tree into sections in the cutting area and then removes the tree and as much material as possible; and whole tree removal, in which the whole tree is cut and moved to the landing for processing.
The first units scheduled for treatment are located on the east side of Brockway Summit near Kings Beach, north of Speckled Avenue. Approximately 310 acres will be thinned in these areas using CTL equipment.
Work may take approximately three months to complete. Work will not occur on Memorial Day Weekend.
My friends on North Shore! Get ready, the chainsaws are headed your way! The logging, er, excuse me, “thinning for a healthy forest and fuel reduction” starts next week.
Now granted, we are going into a scary fire prone summer so that will be the justification, but isn’t it a bit of a strange coincidence that large developments are being planned for both ends of the lake where the logging will take place?
The USFS has already signed off on 10,000 acres of logging on So. Shore and now 3,297 acres on No. Shore.
Tahoe is going to look a WHOLE lot different in a very short time. A developed Meyers, an unecssaray 4 lane loop road at Pioneer trail displacing hundreds of people and hurting local businesses, a hotel built along the lakes shore at Edgewood, a housing developement on the ridge at No.Shore…and so much more!!!
Whats next? Start developing the area between Incline and Zephyr Cove would be my guess. After that they will start on the meadows and any open land that’s left. Enjoy it while you can, cause it won’t last long. OLS
It would be nice to have a Costco in Myers ,Then a Tarket,then a Walmart, If Lake Tahoe is going to be cutting down the trees, Lets just make it a city like L,A,Good bye Lake Tahoe, We will miss you without all those beautiful trees,
This rape of the forests is taking place during nesting season so many birds and mammals will die in the process. Walk up to Angora Fire Lookout and see what they will be logging up there(thanks OLS) I mean thinning.
You can photo and GPS some of your favorite trees so that you will know if they adhered to their pathetic “prescription”. We have done this at Angora.
Hikerlady I am glad you care, so you might be interested in reading more about how fuels thinning increases biodiversity, especially after fires. A few studies have been done in the Basin, so it is all very relevant.
If you aren’t interested in reading the research, knock off the hyperbolic rape imagery. It isn’t warranted at all.
Habitat trees are marked, some downed logs are left. And in the long run everything is better. I hope you aren’t one of those people who pulls out tree tags, flags and tape.
“Placer County has signed an agreement for Phoenix Energy to build and operate the biomass gasification plant between Tahoe City and Truckee.”
So what do you think we will be feeding this monster? The “thinning” will take place around the lake more and more. Now they will have a solid reason to strip, truck then burn our forest. I’m sure this won’t raise the C02… Can’t wait to drive Emerald Bay with and over abundance of logging trucks.
The FS project flies in the face of current forest science and you know it.