Yreka Community-BLM Protection Fuels Reduction

Yreka Community-BLM Protection Fuels Reduction

CAL FIRE will implement and maintain up to 173 acres of linear fuel breaks on Bureau of Land Management (BLM) lands near Yreka and Hawkinsville in Siskiyou County, consistent with the NEPA decision listed below. The project is intended to reduce wildfire risk to firefighters, residents, and natural resources by creating defensible space along roads and nearby homes. Fuel breaks will be constructed up to 200 feet in width from roadsides and property boundaries. Implementation methods will include the use of wheeled or tracked mastication equipment, hand cutting using power saws, piling using equipment or hand crews, chipping of cut material on-site, and burning of piles on-site. Vegetation to be removed or modified will be standing or fallen dead vegetation, selective thinning of live shrubs and trees less than 8 inches diameter at breast height (DBH) and mowing or weed-eating ground fuels. Fuel breaks will generally be designed to achieve approximately 30-foot stem spacing, subject to site-specific conditions. Treatment width, configuration, and methods may vary based on slope, access constraints, riparian buffer requirements, cultural resource avoidance areas, and other site-specific considerations. Access to the project sites would use established roads and trails; no new permanent construction would be allowed. Under 16 UCS 2113a, the Good Neighbor Authority (GNA) enables CAL FIRE to use its standard procedures, policies, and contracting mechanisms to accomplish authorized restoration work on federal lands and adjacent private lands included in the associated NEPA analysis. For this project, work will be consistent with the “Good Neighbor Authority Agreement; Statewide Framework” signed 6/15/2023.

Siskiyou

Northern California