Fea

The Sloat deer herd ranges north to Moonlight Valley, west to Meadow Valley and south to Graeagle. Key wintering areas are in American, Genesee and Indian valleys as well as the Middle Fork Feather River.Photo courtesy Plumas National Forest

ther Publishing

  If weather and fuel conditions are just right, Forest Service firefighters will use fire to improve the brush, grasses and other vegetation used for food by deer and other wildlife in the Mount Hough State Game Refuge on the Plumas National Forest.

  “Fire gets rid of the dense, tough older vegetation and causes plants to sprout, providing access and tender, more nutritious food for the animals in the area,” said Mount Hough District Ranger Mike Donald. In addition, the area will be more “fire safe” should a wildfire start below or within the treated area.

    The California Deer Association, Mule Deer Foundation and California Department of Fish and Wildlife are partners in the project.

    The planned burn will be very visible in the Quincy area (American Valley), although smoke will likely be visible for longer distances. An information booth is planned for the Safeway parking lot area.

    According to Donald, the project may take place within the next two months if conditions are right. “The weather needs to be very stable and the ground fuels need to be dry enough to thoroughly burn or the project will be delayed until the fall of 2013 or beyond,” he said, noting “wetter ground and patchy snow increases our safety margin.”

    Firefighters will circle the burn area with control lines using existing roads and building lines where needed. They will burn brush by hand along the edges of the project area starting from the top and working down. A helicopter with a suspended helitorch will then be used to ignite the remainder of the area within the control lines.

    Air quality is a significant consideration in the timing of this project. Personnel will carefully monitor local weather conditions and work closely with the local air district and forecasters to prevent serious smoke impacts, although minor impacts may be observed in Quincy and Indian Valley in the morning or evening hours due to local air inversions.

    For more information, contact Colin Dillingham, district wildlife biologist, or Steve Causemaker, district fuels officer, at 283-0555.

Comments  

 

-1#1RE: Forest Service plans deer habitat improvement burn — Susan2013-02-14 08:11

Awesome. We had to deal with horrible fires all summer and now we get to deal with fire in the winter....You have got to be kidding me!!! Are these the same geniuses that allowed a 200 acre fire to grow to 70,000??

Quote| Report to administrator

 

 

+4#2RE: Forest Service plans deer habitat improvement burn — Me2013-02-14 11:30

Prescribed fires such as this one do more good than harm by reducing the fuel loading on the ground which could take a small fire to a very LARGE fire in no time with the right conditions. Living with the threat of fire is REAL due to the environmentalists trying to stop the thinning of forests!

Quote| Report to administrator

 

 

0#3RE: Forest Service plans deer habitat improvement burn — Me2013-02-14 11:31

And if you don't like it, then move to the city!

Quote| Report to administrator

 

 

-1#4RE: Forest Service plans deer habitat improvement burn — Art Vandalay2013-02-14 11:38

It's sad that in the eye's of most locals the Forest Service is wrong no matter what they do. They are not a perfect agency, and do make mistakes just like everyone else, you included Susan.

Quote| Report to administrator

 

 

+2#5Mr. — Sven Ostrom2013-02-14 12:02

I live in Sierra City and wish they would burn the south side of the Sierra Buttes. The manzanita is so thick and old that it provides little nutrition for any wildlife...not to mention the fire hazard. It hasn't burned since 1954.

Quote| Report to administrator

 

 

+1#6RE: Forest Service plans deer habitat improvement burn — Me2013-02-14 12:20

[quote name="Sven Ostrom"Take your concerns to the district ranger there and talk to a person in the Fuels department of the ranger district there...

Quote| Report to administrator

 

Refresh comments list
RSS feed for comments to this post

Add comment

Feather Publishing encourages civil discussion on news stories that are important to our community. We do ask that commenters follow certain rules of conduct. Keep your comments on the topic at hand. Threats, insults, lies, and inappropriate language are prohibited. Just as with our letters to the editor we want you to be accountable for your comments so we ask that you use your full real name. We reserve the right to delete any comments that do not comply with these rules of conduct. Commenters who repeatedly do not comply will be prohibited from posting further comments.
Comments are limited to 300 characters. If you would like to post a longer message, please submit a letter to the editor. Submit a letter to the editor. Letters to the editor are limited to a maximum of 300 words. Deadline for submittal is noon on Thursdays.

Name (required)

E-mail (required, but will not display)

Title

Notify me of follow-up comments

Send

Cancel

JComments