By Lynsey Paulo
With summer near, Cal Fire is urging homeowners to protect against wildfires by clearing defensible space around their homes. And, on a larger scale, Cal Fire is working through public-private partnerships to make communities more fire safe.
Cal Fire recently conducted a controlled burn project on PG&E-owned land as part of the Doaks Vegetation Management Project. The project is a cooperative effort between Cal Fire, PG&E and Sierra Pacific Industries for fuel reduction work that provides benefits to Amador County in the event of a wildfire.
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Some 2,100 acres were burned in Amador County as part of the controlled burn. (Photos by Matt Waverly.)
The project, in its sixth year, includes mastication, hand crews and burning operations to reduce fuel in the area of Doaks Ridge.
“It gives us an area that allows access for fire suppression,” said Cal Fire Chief Tom Tinsley.
The fuel reduction involved more than 2,100 acres in Amador County. This year, Cal Fire has conducted two controlled burns of brush and timber slash on the project covering 33 acres of both PG&E and Sierra Pacific Industries land, and one on 19 acres of PG&E-owned land.
Landowners, through right of entry agreements, allow Cal Fire personnel to access their property to work cooperatively with them to do fuels modification work.
“In the case of a wildfire, it’s an area we know has been treated, fuels have been reduced and modified,” Tinsley said. “This provides us access, a foothold to do continued fuels modification work, and provides us an area that we are familiar with which is advantageous to us in slowing or stopping a wildfire.”
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The projects help protect PG&E's facilities while maintaining healthy forest land.
PG&E land consultant Matt Waverly said the project goes a long way toward protecting the company’s facilities while maintaining healthy forest land.
“But the best part is the benefit of protecting the communities where we live and work in the event of a wildfire,” he said. “The work that is being done by PG&E and Cal Fire is invaluable in respect to when the next wildfire comes to our community.”
Cal Fire has a number of similar projects in Amador and El Dorado counties with the cooperation of others, including PG&E. The partners share in the cost of the fuel reduction projects, which can include fuel modification and treatment like strengthening bulldozer lines and creating fuel breaks, and also patrols of after-controlled burns.
The projects go through an environmental review under the California Environmental Quality Act to identify any significant environmental impacts and to avoid or mitigate those impacts, if feasible.
“Given four years of drought and bark beetled infestations leading to tree mortality, it makes the fuel breaks that much more important,” said Tinsley. “And given the predicted fire season, it makes it that much more important, and potentially gives us a leg up in a fire fight.”
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