Virtual Meeting To Highlight Big Project In Stanislaus National Forest
Sonora, CA — Forest Service officials will detail an effort to improve the ecological health of a large swath of the Stanislaus National Forest.
The Social and Ecological Resilience Across the Landscape (SERAL) project is currently going through an initial scoping period which will end on August 15.
The Forest Service reports, “The SERAL project area spans approximately 117,000 acres located within the Yosemite Stanislaus Solutions’ collaborative area, south and east of the North Fork Stanislaus River and north and west of Highway 108, with portions located on the Calaveras, Mi-Wok, and Summit Ranger districts. The SERAL proposal was developed with the objective of designing vegetation treatments that benefit the environment, the economy, and the community. The proposal includes the use of prescribed fire, hand thinning conifers, mastication, mechanical forest thinning treatments, non-native invasive weed control and limited salvage operations.”
Forest Supervisor Jason Kuiken, and members of the SERAL team, will lead a presentation about the project and field questions during a virtual open house on August 5 from 5-7pm. You can find a link here.
The Forest Service adds that once the comment period ends Aug. 15, the SERAL team will review all public comments, identify significant issues, make any needed modifications to the proposed action and possibly develop additional alternatives. Another public comment period will occur when the draft Environmental Impact Statement is released, scheduled for March 2021.
