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You can see Hwy 49 from the side road now. Photo YubaNet NEVADA CITY, Calif. June 28, 2019 – Nevada County, in collaboration with CAL FIRE’s Washington Ridge crews has started clearing brush and removing excess fuels on 20 acres along the 49 corridor near the Juvenile Hall Facility. The sound of chainsaws, weed trimmers, the thud of branches and small trees hitting the ground are drowning out the passing cars on Hwy 49.
The project is set to take 2-3 months, depending on the availability of the Washington Ridge crews. These crews are dispatched to wildfires frequently, with those assignments taking precedence over vegetation management projects.
Captain Christopher Sauer was supervising Washington Ridge Crew 3 this morning. He pointed to the piles of Scotch Broom cut by the inmate crew, “We’re piling this now and then come back later in the fall/early winter and burn them.”
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These piles will be burned once winter rains set in. Photo: YubaNet Sauer, a Nevada City resident, explained the crews have been busy doing projects for Nevada County Facilities, Public Works, the City of Nevada City and others. “We’ve been working on Champion Mine, Old Downieville Highway and along Hwy 49. All the work make county properties and everyone in the area safer.” The crews completed a fuel break along North Bloomfield Road and around the Rood Center earlier this year.

“The County Facilities team has been working hard to make sure County buildings have ample defensible space. We recently completed a project in front of the Eric Rood Administrative Center as well as Hirschman’s Pond. The work around the Juvenile Hall and Highway 49 is a continuation of this important fuels reduction effort,” says Justin Drinkwater, Director of Facilities Management.