Posted by: thepinetree on 01/20/2009 02:21 PM
Updated by: thepinetree on 01/20/2009 02:59 PM
Expires: 01/01/2014 12:00 AM
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Sierra Pacific Industries Plans Fire Break ~ By John Hamiton
Avery, CA...Sierra Pacific Industries put it's best foot forward last week at a community meeting held at the Avery Middle School. They are proposing to remove undergrowth and log an 1,100 acre parcel in a manner consistent with a fire break. The meeting was informational meeting planned by property owners in the Love Creek/Moran Creek Watershed areas but the subject of the meeting has the potential to affect much of the greater Avery and Arnold Area....
SPI's Tim Tate Talks about the proposed Fire Break. Video Enclosed...
SPI's Tim Tate was the moderator and the parcel in question runs along a ridge from Avery until almost Big Trees State Park.
Attendees were generally very positive of SPI's plans and to say that relations between SPI and many organizations in the area such as Ebbetts Pass Forest have been strained in the past is putting it mildly. Local landowner Warren Alford said "The SPI laid out good plans for this parcel. It remains to be seen what the actual prescription will look like"
Tim Tate laid out how SPI intends to treat the property. Their plan is to place a 300 - 1,100 ft wide Fire Break along the entire ridge line. In their estimation this would slow a fire that might come out of the Stanislaus River Canyon and threaten the Arnold area like the Darby Fire did a few years ago. This parcel borders the Lover Creek Area on one side and Blue Lake Springs, Pine Brook and more on the other side.
Their definition of Fire Break density is to thin the standing trees in such a manner as to leave 20 - 30 trees over 20" in diameter per acre. It is not a clear cut but it still will allow for a moving fire to drop to the ground instead of moving from "Crown to Crown" across the tree tops.
The entire meeting is below. This is a good meeting to watch for those of you in the Greater Arnold area and also for those of you who are following SPI.
