Stanislaus Ranger Districts To Ignite Burn Piles
Stanislaus National Forest, CA — Stressing that fire officials will be monitoring the conditions closely, a series of prescribed pile burns are scheduled to begin at various locations throughout the Calaveras, Summit, Mi-Wok, and Groveland ranger districts. Smoke may be visible from highways 4, 108, or 120 and surrounding communities. The prescribed pile burns are at various locations including administrative sites, areas adjacent to roads, along forest boundaries, within the Rim Fire footprint, and along transmission and distribution lines.
The prescribed burn piles are both hand and machine made piles that may be ignited as early as late December 2020 and continue through the winter and spring, or for as long as conditions allow. The number of piles ignited daily will vary based on environmental conditions and smoke production. Burning is contingent on weather, fuel moisture, and air quality. Officials emphasize that all of the burning is monitored and conducted in accordance with state and county air quality guidelines and is closely coordinated with local county air quality control districts.
Daily burn areas will vary based on environmental conditions and smoke production and burn size may vary with weather and fuel moisture conditions.
Officials stress that the goal of the pile burns is to enhance public and firefighter safety by reducing the build-up of dead and down fuels and to reduce the threat of high-intensity wildfire while protecting watershed values and wildlife habitat. Among the public benefits of these projects are the reduction of flammable forest fuels in an effective, cost-efficient way; improvement of firefighting capabilities; and reduction of large, uncontrolled damaging wildland fire impacts.
