Fresno County Wildfire Defense Accelerator: Operational Fuel Break Project (SNC1839)
Summary
SCH Number
2026030286
Public Agency
Sierra Nevada Conservancy
Document Title
Fresno County Wildfire Defense Accelerator: Operational Fuel Break Project (SNC1839)
Document Type
NOE - Notice of Exemption
Received
Posted
3/6/2026
Document Description
Sierra Nevada Conservancy (SNC) would provide funding to Sierra Resource Conservation District to partner with Sierra National Forest to complete construction on strategic fuel breaks through pile burning and prescribed fire on a minimum of 1,000 acres, and a maximum of 5,000 acres. The project is located entirely on the Sierra National Forest, High Sierra Ranger District. There are five critical fuel breaks on which vegetation treatments have occurred to construct the fuel breaks, but there are now fuel piles left to be burned – the last activity needed to complete the fuel breaks. Sierra National Forest Fuels and Fire Management staff, as well as the Sierra Resource Conservation District Alignment Strategies Group Fire Crew, will conduct burn activities consistent with all National Environmental Protection Act (NEPA) requirements and state and local regulations. The project will start working in the highest priority fuel breaks of Vincent and Swanson, and then proceed into the second priority fuel breaks as conditions allow. The communities that will directly benefit from the project’s pile burning and prescribed fire accomplishments include Shaver Lake and the greater area subdivisions, Cressman’s, Peterson Road, Huntington Lake, Tamarack Ridge, Big Creek, Camp Sierra, Dinkey and 13 Firewise Communities of Shaver West, Shaver East, Ockenden, Sierra Cedars, Quartz Mountain, Bretz Mill, Peterson Road/Shaver Springs, Pineridge, Bald Mountain, Dinkey Creek, Courtright, Huntington Lake, and Camp Sierra.
Contact Information
Name
Mary Akens
Agency Name
Sierra Nevada Conservancy
Job Title
General Counsel
Contact Types
Lead/Public Agency
Phone
Name
Kelly Kucharski
Agency Name
Sierra Resource Conservation District
Job Title
District Manager
Contact Types
Project Applicant / Parties Undertaking Project
Address
Phone
Email
Location
Cities
near Huntington Lake, Shaver Lake and Tollhouse
Counties
Fresno
Regions
Southern California
Other Location Info
Five existing fuel breaks within Sierra National Forest, High Sierra Ranger District. 1) Mushroom Rock fuel break spanning between Mushroom Rock and Black Point Road, approximately 0.6 miles directly west of Huntington Lake, south of Black Point Peak. Center at approximately -119.256, 37.231 degrees. 2)Tamarack fuel break, approximately two miles south of Huntington Lake and three miles northeast of Shaver Lake in the vicinity of Tollhouse Road. Center at approximately -119.211, 37.167 degrees. 3) Swanson fuel break along Pine Ridge, approximately 0.8 miles south of Shaver Lake and 0.75 miles east of Old Bretz Mill, south of Swanson Meadow in the vicinity of Dinky Creek and Swanee roads. Center at approximately -119.271, 37.077 degrees. 4) Exchequer fuel break, approximately seven miles southeast of Shaver Lake and eight miles west of Courtright Reservoir, immediately west of Cabin Meadow, bounded on the north by Exchequer Meadow Road and on the west and south by McKinley Grove Road. Center at approximately -119.135, 37.062 degrees. 5) Vincent fuel break, approximately 3.6 miles east of Tollhouse, bounded on the west by North Fork Sycamore Creek in the vicinity of Peterson Road in the north and Cripe Road and Vincent Fire Road in the south. Center at approximately -119.326, 37.032 degrees.
Notice of Exemption
Exempt Status
Statutory Exemption
Type, Section or Code
Pub. Resources Code, section 4799.05, subd. (d)(1)
Reasons for Exemption
Public Resources Code, section 4799.05 statutorily exempts from CEQA projects for prescribed fire, reforestation, habitat restoration, thinning, or fuel-reduction projects, or to related activities included in the project description, undertaken, in whole or in part, on federal lands to reduce the risk of high-severity wildfire that have been reviewed under the NEPA if the primary role of a state or local agency is providing funding or staffing for those projects. The SNC has authorized/approved the use of the funding for the Sierra Resource Conservation District to partner with Sierra National Forest to conduct fuels-reduction treatments on National Forest lands. The project includes final treatments on five existing fuel breaks. Activities on each fuel break were reviewed in their entirety as documented in Sierra National Forest NEPA documents specific to each fuel break: the Exchequer Restoration Project Final Environmental Impact Statement and Record of Decision for the Exchequer Restoration Project signed on March 4, 2019; the Decision Memo for the Huntington Recovery Project signed on May 4, 2022; the Creek Fire Ecological Restoration Project Environmental Assessment and Finding of No Significant Impact and Creek Fire Ecological Restoration Project Decision Notice signed on June 23, 2023; the High Sierra Fuelbreak Maintenance Project Environmental Assessment and Decision Notice and Finding of No Significant Impact for High Sierra Fuelbreak Maintenance Project signed on September 9, 2011; and the Bald Mountain Project Environmental Assessment with Decision Notice for the Bald Mountain Project signed on October 8, 2014.
County Clerk
Fresno
Attachments
Notice of Exemption
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