Forest Service press release
The Mammoth and Mono Lake Ranger Districts of the Inyo National Forest are planning to implement several prescribed fire projects for habitat improvement and hazardous fuels reduction in the upcoming fall and winter months.
Prescribed fires will be conducted when weather and fuel moisture conditions are within prescription to safely accomplish the project objectives. By prescribing the fire under optimum weather conditions, managers simulate the natural role of fire. This reduces forest competition, opens gaps in the forest canopy for sunlight to shine through, and recycles nutrients to the soil for re-growth.
Smoke may be visible at times from Highways 395, 158, 167, 120 and 203, as well as the communities of Bridgeport, Mono City, Lee Vining, June Lake, Mammoth Lakes and Crowley Lake. All prescribed fire activities will be coordinated with Great Basin Unified Air Pollution Control District in accordance with air resource objectives.
Understory burning in the Jeffrey pine forest is expected to begin in late October or early November:
- East of Highway 395 on National Forest lands near Bald Mountain.
- West of the Oh Ridge Gun Range near June Lake.
Following the accumulation of snow from fall storms, pile burning will be conducted, and is expected to continue into early winter.
Pile burning is planned on National Forest lands in the Mammoth District in the Reds Meadow Valley, north of Panorama Dome, west of Mammoth Lakes, east and west of Highway 395 near Smokey Bear Flat, around Mammoth Lakes Pack Outfit, west of the Crestview Rest Stop on Highway 395, west of Highway 395 along Deadman Creek Road north to Wilson Butte, southeast of the Town of Mammoth Lakes along Mammoth and Sherwin Creek Roads.
In the June Lake area pile burning is planned on National Forest Lands on Reversed Peak and in the Down Canyon and Peterson Tract areas, and east of Highway 395 at the June Lake Junction.
In the Lee Vining area, pile burning is planned on National Forest lands at the Lee Vining Ranger Station on Tioga Pass Road and on BLM lands west of Highway 395 at Green Creek Road (south of Bridgeport).
For further information, please call Deb Schweizer at (760) 873-2427.
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One of the main reasons fires burn so much ground is that fire has been suppressed for so many years that the natural “pruning” of intermittent lightning fires has been diminished and there is no mosaic of smaller fires to keep the monsters in check. Here’s an article by some who explains it a heck of a lot better then I do.
http://www.circleofblue.org/waternews/2015/world/lighting-small-fires-as-cure-to-catastrophic-blazes-in-california/
Unreal Forests
The Forest Service cuts down and burns the forest to preserve the forest from being cut down and burned. And without their management they will tell you, the forests would be cut down and burned up and would no longer exist? So then before the Forest Service was managing the forests there were no forests, or at best very unhealthy and out of control forests, right?
Has anyone else driven out to Shady rest and thought the forest looked really strange. The trees have been thinned down and seemed perfectly spaced with the ground swept clean. And the same on 395 between Mammoth and June. Forests are meant to be wild, aren’t they? They look terribly fake to me. =
Yes forests are meant to be wild. Unfortunately, 100 (or so) years of fire suppression has significantly altered the norm. Now catastrophic fires are more common due to excessive fuel build up. And we can’t just let all fires burn as nature intended. Life and property has to be protected. So some form of forest management makes sense under the circumstances.
I completely agree MJA. I will add the mindset of “fire fighters will save us” allows people to think it’s safe to live in a tinder box.
It’s peoples lack of preparation and living in that tinder box that makes hero’s out of fire fighters.
Just wait till they light those 150 piles right in town by the community center and the knolls… and they are going to add 200 more burn piles on up town and down town. Sorry but I no longer support our local forest service and those lame decisions they are making. I hope they enjoy getting sued when they light those piles next time my house in the knolls.
I do not support any of this. Seriously we them to put out fires, then we pay them to have controlled burns?
Almost as much job security as the war on drugs