Smoky Skies In Strawberry Area For Prescribed Burn
Sonora, CA – Ignitions are underway this morning for a Strawberry Prescribed Burn in the Stanislaus National Forest near Pinecrest Lake producing smoky skies the next couple of days.
Forest officials are cautioning visitors to take appropriate precautions due to that smoke. Wildland fire crews will burn 181 acres over the next two days at the site in the area between Pinecrest and Cold Springs off Crabtree Road, south of the Tuolumne River.
“Opportunities for us to put good fire on the ground for maximum impact to the landscape are not as frequent as we would like,” said Stanislaus National Forest Supervisor Jason Kuiken. “With that, we must take advantage of those opportunities when weather and conditions align, enabling our fire crews to begin this critical work.”
This continued work is part of the U.S. Forest Service’s 10-year Wildfire Crisis Strategy, which has received additional funding and priority resource considerations to treat more than 305,000 acres along the Highway 108 corridor over the next ten years.
Smoke will be visible throughout the areas of Strawberry and Pinecrest and along Highway 108.
“It tends to settle in low-lying areas from the evenings to the mornings, so camping and recreation in this vicinity are not advised,” according to Supervisor Kuiken.
For more information on the prescribed, please contact the Beardsley Fire Public Information Officer, Melanie Banton, at melanie_banton@firenet.gov.
