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Posted by: Kim_Hamilton on 11/12/2008 11:18 AM
Updated by: Kim_Hamilton on 11/12/2008 12:34 PM
Expires: 01/01/2013 12:00 AM
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Fuel Reduction Project Public Meeting Announced
Sonora, CA…The Forest Service today announced that the Groveland Ranger District of the Stanislaus National Forest will hold a public meeting at 6:00 p.m. on Wednesday, December 3 at the Groveland Ranger Station, located at 24545 Highway 120 Groveland (near Buck Meadows), to discuss the proposed Soldier Creek Healthy Forest Fuel Reduction Project. The purpose of the meeting is to provide interested individuals, groups, and stakeholders an....
opportunity to interact with Forest Service resource specialists regarding planned fuel reduction treatments in the Soldier Creek area of the Groveland Ranger District.
The Stanislaus National Forest, Groveland Ranger District, is proposing to conduct vegetation treatments including mechanical and hand thinning, mastication, machine piling, prescribed fire, and road improvement activities for fuel reduction and forest health improvements and willow planting for watershed improvement in the general area of Soldier Creek. The 5,400 acre area to be analyzed for treatment is defined to the north by the South Fork of the Tuolumne River, to the east by Yosemite National Park, to the south by Hazel Green Ranch, and to the west by Hardin Flat and Crocker Ridge.
The project is needed to improve forest health, and reduce tree stand susceptibility to drought, insects, disease, and large, damaging fires.
Approximately two-thirds of the Groveland Ranger District has experienced unnaturally high intensity stand replacing wildfire over the last 30 years. The Soldier Creek project area is within a zone that has been threatened by stand replacing wildfire. Presently, fuel accumulations make this area extremely susceptible to a large stand replacing wildfire.
Benefits of the proposed Soldier Creek Healthy Forest Fuel Reduction Project include:
Reducing future wildfire intensity and risk to federal land and adjacent private land/structures.
Maintaining and enhance important wildlife habitat and general ecosystem values such as meadows, streams, and mature forest characteristics.
Enhancing the health of forested stands by reducing susceptibility to insect, diseases, and drought-related mortality by managing for increased soil moisture and an open forest condition.
Reducing soil erosion and sedimentation to streams from degraded, damaged roadways.
Improving access roads for firefighting and removing adjacent fuels to provide fuelbreaks.
The proposed project would also include improvement of approximately 17 miles of existing National Forest System Roads needed to safely and efficiently carry out the proposed mechanical thinning and fuel reduction activities. Most of the activities proposed would create or restore drainage features on existing roads making the road system less prone to erosion damage and improve access for management as well as recreation and potential fire suppression activities.
Following mechanical fuel reduction treatments, prescribed fire would be used 2 to 7 years after completion of mechanical treatments to reduce residual fuels and to re-introduce fire into the fire-dependent ecosystems.
For additional information on the proposed action, contact Jason Jimenez (209) 962-7825 extension 542 or jjimenez@fs.fed.us at the Groveland Ranger District; 24545 Highway 120; Groveland, CA 95321.
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