Calif. Forestry Officials Start Prescribed Burns
Source The Record, Stockton, Calif.
March 02--WEST POINT -- Residents of West Point and surrounding communities should expect to see and smell smoke in coming months as a variety of agencies team up to burn brush piles and forest undergrowth.
The California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection may begin as soon as this week to burn brush, grass and other low growth near Winton, Schaads Reservoir, and the Lily Valley area east of West Point. Staff from the private logging firm Sierra Pacific Industries will assist.
That project will happen in 20- to 30-acre pieces and could last until June.
In addition, burning of forest thinning brush piles on federal Bureau of Land Management land in the area will begin March 13. BLM officials said their burn project will include areas near West Point, Skull Flat and Glencoe.
That project will also continue through the spring as weather permits.
The forest understory was thinned last year to help protect homes in the area through the project that was carried out in coordination with the Amador-Calaveras Consensus Group. Crews from the Mother Lode Field Office and the California Forestry department's Tuolumne Calaveras Unit will burn the piles created by the thinning project.
For more information on burning, call (916) 941-3155.
Copyright 2012 - The Record, Stockton, Calif.
