Local Prescribed Burns Given Go-ahead,

Fuels treatment work to resume after 90-day national pause

The Inyo National Forest will resume its prescribed burning program after a 90-day pause ordered by the Chief of the Forest Service and, due to the fact there is now snow on the ground in much of the Eastern Sierra.

The pause, called after some high profile, recent, escaped prescribed fires that led to damage of private property this summer, was enacted by Chief Randy Moore on May 12, then conditionally lifted on Sept. 8 after a thorough national program review.

The several feet of snow that feel during the storm last week allows Eastern Sierra fire managers to now resume burning the brush and logs piled up over the past few years of forest and landscape thinning, the Inyo National Forest said.

That said, this ‘pile burning’ will only occur when all safety measures and policies are taken, the Inyo said.

“Prior to burning, units on all National Forest System lands must implement a series of recommendations to ensure the safety and success of the prescribed burn,” they said. “The Inyo National Forest has successfully implemented these recommendations and will implement prescribed burns as conditions allow.

The following is a list of prescribed burn projects with their acreage targets planned on the Inyo National Forest. The list will not always reflect the order in which they are burned. That will depend on fuels and weather conditions and whether the units are determined to be in or out of prescription. Piles are more likely to be burned this winter, while larger burns of underbrush and the understory of over-crowded forested areas, called ‘broadcast burns,’ will most likely be next

spring, the forest said.

Piles:

• June Lake Loop (200 acres)

• Reds Meadow (100 acres)

• Lakes Basin (200 acres)

• Bishop Creek near Aspendell (5 acres)

• Dry Creek, just north of Mammoth Lakes and Scenic Loop

Road (100 acres)

• Sherwin Creek Road (100 acres)

Broadcast:

• Reds Meadow (300 acres)

• Dry Creek, just north of Mammoth Lakes and Scenic Loop

Road (100 acres)

• Antelope Units, northeast of Mammoth Lakes, south of

Owens River Road (660 acres)

• Bowl Units, near June Lake Junction east of Highway 395

(300 acres)

• Pit Units, southeast of Mammoth Lakes, near Sherwin Creek Campground (90 acres)

• Smoke Units, east of Mammoth/highway 395, north of

geothermal complex (320 acres)

• Hartley Units, between Hartley Campground and Highway 395 (300 acres)

Crews begin work on burning extra brush and branches and logs that have been thinned from local forests.

IF YOU WANT TO KNOW MORE

For more information go to www.fs.usda.gov/alerts/inyo/ alerts-notices.