Core-Team members from FireScape Mendocino (FSM) along
with representatives from CALFIRE, Forest Service, the Resource Conservation
District (RCD) of Tehama County, and Crane Mills recently toured portions of
the 2020 August Complex Fire that burned over 1 million acres of private and
public lands in or near the Mendocino, Six Rivers, and Shasta Trinity National
Forests.
The field trip focused largely on reviewing burn severity
and the efficacy of several fuel projects funded by California’s Climate Change
Initiative (CCI) Grants and administered by the RCD of Tehama County in
partnership with the Forest Service, Crane Mills, and CALFIRE. The grant originally
was to treat over 5,000 acres of the Mendocino Forest and Crane Mills
land. The project completed treatment of
2500 acres before the August Complex started.
The tour was focused on effective implementation post fire.
The location of projects was also a topic of discussion
where participants compared/contrasted the effectiveness of mid-slope roadside
shaded fuel breaks vs. shaded fuel breaks sited on ridgetops.
Additionally, given that the treatment areas were just
masticated before the fire started, it was discovered that rearranging fuels
was not as effective as other sites that fared better, given the material was
allowed to decompose. The fuel load
left on the forest floor helped carry fire and potentially caused the roots of
the confers to cook. The project team
thought that this next winter will be critical to determining the fate of the
conifers that survived the fire.
It appeared to the group the fuel projects that
incorporated a biomass component into the prescription burned with less severity
and had a higher tree survival rate.
Based on field observations and group discussions, it appeared that
removing post-mastication woody debris was a critical factor to the success of
the project.
The group also discussed the logistical challenges of bio
massing and the needs for state/federal subsidizes to help offset the cost of
trucking the material to co-generation plants.
Additional challenges include the economic viability of co-generation
plants with numerous plant closers.
In order to increase pace and scale of project
development, the project teamed discussed the importance of continued
collaboration with state and federal agencies in an effort to help expedite the
critical project development process.
Also given the area’s infamous and unpredictable wind
patterns, it looked like mid-slope roadside fuel projects were not as
successful as those located on ridgetops.
The group felt there is a lot we can learn from studying the
burn severity in varying types of fuel projects tested by the August Complex
Fire. Given our limited resources
compared to the size of the fire, it is important that resource managers
consider biomass-centric fuel projects located near or on ridgetops.
Don Amador, Core-Team Lead for FSM, states, “My big takeaway from the field trip was the important role that biomass has in the success of future fuel projects and also the need for California to invest in locating biomass plants near the Forest to facilitate biomass removal that could create energy, wood products, and local jobs.”
“FSM believes we have a duty and responsibility to engage
with local communities and partners to help build our capacity to plan for and
implement future fuel reduction projects and post wildfire recovery/restoration
efforts,” Amador concludes.
Jon Barrett, Project Manager for the Resource
Conservation District of Tehama County, stressed the importance of continued
collaboration with stakeholders during project development in an effort to
address environmental concerns before they become wrapped up in the legal
process, stalling much needed project implementation in an effort to get in
front of the fuel loads in Forest.
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