Opportunity to Comment on the Lake Tahoe Basin Ecosystem Underburn Project

Published on May 8, 2008 - 7:53:44 AM

By: USDA Forest Service, Lake Tahoe Basin Management Unit

South Lake Tahoe Calif. May 7, 2008 -- The US Forest Service Lake Tahoe Basin Management Unit (LTBMU) invites the public to comment on a proposal to conduct prescribed fire underburn activities in the Tahoe Basin. These underburns will mimic historic low intensity fire behaviors, and will be conducted for ecosystem restoration purposes.

The project would use prescribed fire to treat 3,500 acres of National Forest System lands spread across the 5 counties in the Lake Tahoe Basin. The project is designed to reduce and maintain the desired amounts of forest fuels following initial thinning treatment and removal of hazardous amounts of fuels. Low intensity underburns re-introduce fire into a fire adapted ecosystem to promote healthy and sustainable plant and wildlife habitat. The project would be conducted in numerous stages over several seasons.

A predecisional memo detailing the proposal is available for review at the Lake Tahoe Basin Management Unit, 35 College Drive, South Lake Tahoe, CA 96150. The phone number is (530) 543-2600. Additional information regarding this proposal can be obtained from Duncan Leao, or John Washington through the number above.

This comment period is intended to provide those interested in or affected by this proposal an opportunity to make their concerns known prior to a decision being made. This comment period is being provided pursuant to the July 2, 2005, order issued by the U. S. District Court for the Eastern District of California in Case No. CIV F-03-6386JKS. Those who provide timely and substantive comments will be eligible to appeal the decision pursuant to 36 CFR part 215 regulations.

Written comments mus tbe submitted to: Terri Marceron, Forest Supervisor, 35 College Drive,South Lake Tahoe, CA 96150. The office business hours for thosesubmitting hand-delivered comments are: 8:00 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. Mondaythrough Friday, excluding holidays. Oral comments must be provided at the Forest Supervisor's Office during normal business hours, by telephone (530) 543-2600 or in person.

Comments may also be submitted by email to: comments-pacificsouthwest-ltbmu@fs.fed.us using Subject: Lake Tahoe Basin Ecosystem Underburn Project.

The LTBMU has made an assessment that the Lake Tahoe Basin Ecosystem Underburn Project falls within a category of actions listed in the Forest Service National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) Handbook (FSH) that are excluded from documentation in an Environmental Assessment (EA) or Environmental Impact Statement (EIS). There are no extraordinary circumstances that would preclude use of category 6 (FSH 1909.15, Chapter 31.2). Category 6 includes Timber Stand and Wildlife Habitat Improvement activities which do not include the use of herbicides or do not require more than one mile of low standard road construction (Service level D, FSH 7709.56).

Prescribed fire has two basic forms

1. Pile burning

The fastest and most efficient means of eliminating heavy amounts of forest fuels is through pile burns. These burns eliminate the fuels, rather than changing their shape as when chipping and spreading is used. Chip and spread is an option that is commonly used, but it is more time consuming and expensive. Additionally, many areas of the Tahoe basin are not accessible to the chipping equipment. Pile burns are conducted when weather forecasts call for unsettled moving air. This air helps lift the smoke up and out of the Tahoe Basin.

2. Understory or "underburns."

Underburns are conducted to promote healthier and more sustainable conditions and are only possible after hand or mechanical forest thinning treatments have been conducted, eliminating dangerous levels of fuels.

The lower elevation regions of the Tahoe Basin were originally highly fire adapted forests. Between 8,000 and 10,000 acres burned annually before settlement began in the 19th century. These low intensity slow-moving fires crept along the forest floor burning away the "duff" material on the surface. Duff is mainly decomposing pine needles, barrk chips, cones and small branches.

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