State of emergency in the Yuba canyon – post your questions here

1. Can signs be posted along trails that state “Area Patrolled”..”Campfires strictly prohibited, Maximum fines under penalty of law” …etc

   Even though we do not have patrols, heavy signage could discourage non-locals.

   Are there any criminal statutes in the TNF for firestarters? Any in Nevada County?

   1. Good questions. I like your wording for the signs, and agree heavy signage could discourage non-locals.

2. Please encourage the USFS to shut down campfires in their campgrounds!

3. Why are warming fires 4 ft in diameter allowed on private property during these dry drought conditions? Who has the authority and is willing to make it illegal. If it is illegal to burn, it should be illegal to have warming fires. The danger is sparks coming onto other people’s property. Why do we have to worry about irresponsible neighbors that have these fires and say it’s legal so I can do it. How do we know when we see smoke that is an actual fire or just a warming fire. Please somebody with authority ban warming fires during the dry summer months.
   Thank you

4. Please be clear about the ‘state of emergency’ that this event will address- three or four bullet points would do. Given the past drought years why is this year escalating?
   Then our questions will have context.
   Thanks

   1. Fire and parking

5. How frequently are cigarettes believed to be the cause of fires in the canyon?

6. People I’ve met who camp at the Yuba tell me that they often see illegal fires yet they don’t see any enforcement further than a couple hundred yards in, it’s too far to walk. Could we not have horseback patrols? Also I couldn’t agree more about needing more signage, there’s little indication to unaware visitors about the extreme fire danger.

7. We live approx 2 miles from Purdon’s on the Nevada City side. On MANY summer mornings, our neighbors living both up stream and downstream overlooking the Canyon can see wisps of campfire smoke. It is well known there are homeless living upstream there year round; and visitors that don’t care. I counted nearly three hundred vehicles heading down towards the River in a four hour period a few Saturdays ago. Can’t the Sheriff’s office ticket AND TOW on a daily basis? How can we get more State Park Patrols; it seems sporadic at best. Thank you for organizing this meeting.

8. Would be nice to see more 2600 gallon tanks on properties for fire water instead of just a hose.

9. How about the use of electronic sign boards on the main roads, on the weekends and holidays, where parking causes a problem. Wording such as “Block the road, expect to be towed.”

10. Has any of the state fire fee been spent on Nevada County fuel elimination and fire prevention? How can volunteers help with fuel abatement: i.e. drop and limb dead trees?

11. Can photography be used as part of the patrol? or the citation process? Would it be appropriate for foot patrol to have body cameras?

    Has anyone explored the use of a shuttle ?

12. Interesting that the focus of using additional resources is on expensive high tech solutions like drones. However, for a minor amount of additional money you could pay people to man the observation towers run by Cal Fire – currently this is all volunteer. Observation towers are still useful for early spotting of fires in areas that do not have good cell phone coverage – like the Yuba canyon!

    1. You are not paying attention, either that or you are just being intentionally selective. The subject of drones came up to monitor campfire activity at night. Towers are not operated at night…nor do they see into the canyon. The idea is to stop fires from happening BEFORE the towers can see them. EXPENSIVE!? seriously? do you have any idea what it costs to put a tanker in the air or a dozer on the fire line? Get real.

13. What I see is that most folks from out of town stop at a local market for items they forgot.
    Could we have a brochure about safe camping at SPD? Bonanza? Harmony Market?

14. How about a fly over and if you see any fire you dump water on their entire campsite!

15. Eliminate parking at Purdon and Edwards. Set up a shuttle service for $1/person that runs 4 days a week from Nevada City.

16. Would it be possible to put emergency land line phones along the Yuba like they have on some freeways?

17. The best thing to do is cut back the fuel load along all the roads in the area and create fire breaks with access for fire fighting service. A well managed forest is a fire safe forest. Allow timber harvest as part of the fuel removal process.The heavy brush will have to be cleared with brush killer and after the brush has died will have to be manually removed. Replant areas with low growing ground cover. and replant trees at safe distance from each other, some thing the tree replanting process was negligent in the past from doing, by planting trees to close to each other, creating a greater fire hazard. The forest service knows how to do this.

18. Many of you have great ideas and I applaud all of you for participating. The one thing I don’t like is the negative attitude a couple of the comments had. Come on people be polite. This is serious business here and there is no need to belittle someone’s comments or ideas. One idea can spark another, it’s called communication. Negative belittling comments may stop a shy person from posting what might be an incredibly simple inexpensive idea. Thank you

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