March 18, 2021 – The Bureau of Land Management will conduct a controlled prescribed burn, as soon as next week, of piles of tree limbs and brush on roughly 300 acres in the ‘Inimim Forest, east of North Columbia in Nevada County. Timing of the pile burn will depend on weather conditions, air quality, resource availability and onsite observations.
Wildland fire crews will burn piles on the Shields Camp and Bear Tree parcels. The burn piles were created when the BLM had shaded fuel breaks cut, when crews carefully thinned dense hazardous tree cover and removed underlying brush in strategic locations. The piles consist of brush, chaparral, Douglas fir, ponderosa pine, black oak, madrone and manzanita tree limbs.
The BLM is committed to keeping public landscapes healthy and productive. This treatment is part of a multi-year effort to reduce the available fuels that can feed wildland fire, increase protection of the wildland-urban interface and help improve forest health.
Partnerships are vital to managing sustainable, working public lands. The prescribed burn is expected to take about a month and is being done as a joint effort of the BLM, CalFire and the Yuba Watershed Institute. The burn is being closely coordinated with the Northern Sierra Air Quality Management District.
The public is advised to use caution when driving on Lake City/Shields Camp Road and be prepared to stop for firefighters and emergency vehicles. Smoke may be visible in North Columbia, Lake City and North Bloomfield.
The ‘Inimim Forest is nearly 2,000 acres of BLM-managed public lands intermingled with private property on the San Juan Ridge, a 30-mile-long narrow ridge ranging from about 2,500 to 3,800 feet elevation between the South and Middle Yuba rivers.